Go figure --'it beats the treadmill'

A lone adult sticks out among the young figure skaters as they spin and dance to the rhythm of the James Bond theme song during free skate time at Stoneham Arena.

Their coach? Hardly.

Meet Nathan Meyers, a 48-year-old software developer from Medford and one of a growing number of adults new to the sport and those tricky axel, loop, and lutz jumps.

''I'm on the cusp of my lutz," the bespectacled Meyers says with a grin and a shrug. ''Some days I have it. Skills don't just appear overnight."

Adult skating is the most rapidly growing segment of the sport, says Carlyene Prince-Erickson, president of the Stoneham Figure Skating Club.

''It beats the treadmill," she says.

More baby boomers have been showing up among the young, would-be Sasha Cohens and Johnny Weirs at ice rinks for more than a decade, according to skating organizations. But the interest in axels, spirals, choctaws, and the daring triple salchow gets a particular boost with every Winter Olympics, Prince-Erickson says. It doesn't hurt that the figure skating gets prime-time television coverage.

The sport is also receiving a media splash with the Fox network's ''Skating with Celebrities" show, in which Stoneham's own former Olympian, Nancy Kerrigan, competed. The Olympics' closing ceremonies are today; the season finale of ''Skating with Celebrities" is tomorrow.

The Bay State loves its ice sports, from hockey to figure skating. US Figure Skating lists 108 clubs in Massachusetts, compared with 18 in New Hampshire, and three in Maine.

Figure skating ranks have swelled since membership in the United States surpassed 64,000 in 1989. The national association estimates it has 173,000 skaters today, with more than half of that number at the basic skills level.

Prince-Erickson has registered 247 people in Stoneham's basic skills program this year, with more than a dozen adults. Last year, she signed up just four adults.

Other local clubs have catered to older athletes. The North Shore Skating Club at the Burbank Ice Arena in Reading launched an Adult Edge program about a year ago and has a new program this year.

To some, it is a social club as much as an athletic activity, according to Prince-Erickson, who started skating as an adult rather than sit in the cold stands and watch her two children have all the fun. Many rinks market family skate nights as well. Stoneham's adult skater classes, usually Saturday mornings at 10, cater to those 18 and older and from beginners to advanced skaters.

Meyers, who eagerly watched the Olympics and the skating celebrities, recalls that he was always interested in skating, but never had time to lace up the skates. When he found himself out of work five years ago in Portland, Ore., he gave a beginners' class a whirl and was immediately hooked.

Some older skaters have returned to the sport after a lengthy hiatus. When they are out on a rink, their camaraderie with others in their age group is obvious.

Beneath the large blue words on the arena wall that boast, ''The Home of Olympian Nancy Kerrigan," Lori Sinagoga and Christine Keane practice spirals over and over, quicker with each revolution, their arms out like wings. As they chat between moves, a sprite of a young girl, all of about 4 feet tall, spins by as the sound system belts out ''Greased Lightning."

Sinagoga, 43, used to skate regularly in her youth. Her family even had a backyard rink where she would perform waltz and salchow jumps as a recreational skater. She just recently returned to the ice -- still using the white Riedell skates her father bought her when she was 18.

''I just love skating," says Sinagoga. ''I wanted to start up where I left off." She used to do the salchow with ease; now it takes a little extra practice and patience. But the goal is more entertainment than exercise.

''You are a little bit sore after, but I wouldn't call it exhausting," says Sinagoga, an assistant preschool teacher in Stoneham. ''It's more relaxing."

Keane, 37, a nursing home executive director from Somerville, used to be a recreational skater as well. She returned to the ice when her daughter began to skate. She said the skating is good exercise and an even greater stress reliever.

''You're in a different world," she says.