Cara Levinson has loved skating since she was barely past her toddler years, but in the past few weeks she has found a new pleasure on the ice.

In early November, the 16-year-old from Fanwood passed her senior freestyle test, winning her second gold medal from the United States Figure Skating Association and qualifying to compete at the highest level of national competition.

For now, she says, she is reveling in skating just for the fun of it, and — even if it makes an Olympic career unlikely — leading a normal life. Cara has gotten as far as she has while also being an honor student at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School and an active member of United Synagogue Youth, the youth organization of the Conservative Movement.

And she plans to carry on that way, probably skating competitively at college while studying human resource management and keeping up her involvement with Judaism.

"This has been a very deliberate choice by Cara," said her mother, Joan Levinson. "We've always just supported what she wants to do."

Cara has connected her skating to social service. For her bat mitzva project, she taught a boy with special needs how to skate (she is now a certified figure skating instructor), and on Sundays she volunteers at the Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange, again working with special needs youngsters. (She also coaches professionally once a week at the Union Sports Arena.)

"I love teaching," Cara said, talking on a rare afternoon when she was home studying instead of practicing at the rink, because of a physics paper she had to complete.

Three or four days a week, no matter how heavy her study load, she spends at least one hour on the ice, working with Janet Hausberg, her coach since her earliest days as a skater.

"Skating is just so much fun," she said. "I'm a junior this year, and school is really hard, and the skating gives me a break from the stress. It helps me get through."

Her mother said that most of the kids who make it to the top are home-schooled. "They study for about three hours a day, and the rest of the time they practice. In the summers they train for six hours a day, six days a week, preparing for major competitions. Cara, very intentionally, didn't give up any part of her life. And she has been to sleep-away camp every summer until this year, when she spent four weeks in Washington, DC, at a PANIM [The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values] program."

That stint in Washington meant five weeks without training. But then Cara turned up the heat, training for seven days solid to prepare for the 2007 States Games of America in Colorado Springs, Co., in August. As one of three junior figure skaters representing New Jersey, competing with 1,100 from around the country, she didn't make it to the final tier, but she did do reasonably well.

The time off, if anything, actually helped. "I came back refreshed, with a new motivation," she said.

Skating has been a family matter for Joan and Les Levinson. It began with their elder daughter, Dana, who is now a student at McGill University in Montreal. Les took her to the rink as a fun father-daughter activity, and they both took some lessons. Cara saw what her big sister was doing, and nagged until they let her try it too, though she was only three. Cara insists that there was no competitiveness between the sisters, that they each have their particular passion, but Dana says her little sister has more natural talent.

Les Levinson, always a keen athlete, still skates. Joan said she tried, but realized very quickly that it would take more effort than she was willing to put in. "I decided it was my role to support, to drive, and to enjoy watching," she said.

Every summer, she and Les have taken their girls on an August vacation to special ice skating venues. They belong to the Morris County skating club, where they sponsored a contest prize in honor of Les' late mother, who adored coming to see her granddaughters skate.

When the girls are both away at college, Joan says, she anticipates being able to put in more hours as an education consultant and as a community volunteer. A past president of the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey, Joan is also active with Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, where earlier this year she was cochair of the Women's Campaign Main Event. But despite all her other activities, she doesn't see herself or her husband dropping out of the skating world. "It's given us fun and excitement and a wonderful circle of friends," she said.

For her college application essay, Dana explained what this sport has meant to her. Skating, she wrote, teaches you to strive for your personal best, and to pick yourself up when you fall down. Cara says she feels the same way, figuratively and quite literally. Though she has suffered two broken arms and a bad knee injury and takes for granted the tumbles that come with each new maneuver, she is still thrilled by the sensation of getting her body to do those leaps and spins and swoops.

Joan witnessed such a moment at a recent practice. With no one but her coach and her mother watching, Cara executed a perfect jump. She was so thrilled she hugged Hausberg and beamed. Joan said, "I called my husband and said, ‘Seeing that look on your kid's face —that look of absolute delight — is worth every hour and all the money we've ever spent on this.'"