Ray Cortopassi/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - Pittsboro welcomed home a champion over the weekend. Bridget Sloan was the grand marshal of a parade to celebrate the silver medal she won in gymnastics at the Summer Olympics.
Monday morning it was her teammate's turn at Cathedral High School.
Sam Peszek packed more than a planner and textbooks in her bag. She brought something a little shinier to the fist day school: her silver medal.
"I always think about my hometown and my school and I want to make not only my country but my school proud as well," she said.
Her ankle recovering from a sprain in the preliminaries a half world away in Beijing, the 16-year-old from McCordsville is just trying to find her way to class.
"The thing I look forward to the most is just coming back to school and getting back into normal life and that's what I'm starting to do," she said.
Today was Samantha's first day as a junior at Cathedral. But it wasn't just another day. Her classmates had something special planned.
The whole student body - 1,400 students - packed the gym for a change to congratulate her for her silver medal gymnastics performance and a job well done.
With the excitement contained and students back in the classroom, Samantha will try to settle into a routine - one that's not on a mat - and become a high school student again, but one who has an eye on London in 2012.
