PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Arriving at her high school with a police escort, 16-year-old Olympic gold medalist Megan Quann smiled at the crowd of students gathered to greet her on her first day back to school.

"Hi guys!" she said.

The teen-agers stared shyly at the champion swimmer for a few moments, and then the questions started:

How was it? Did you bring your medals? (Fun, and no.)

But enough about medals. One 16-year-old girl wanted to know more important things: "So, did you meet a lot of hot swimmer guys?"

Megan laughed. "No -- most of them were on our team."

"Wow!" The girl said, impressed. "Talk about team spirit!"

Boys, homecoming dances, math classes and homework -- it's back to normal high school life for Megan Quann after winning Olympic gold medals in the 100 meter breaststroke and 400 meter relay in Sydney.

But being just a normal kid will be a challenge for Puyallup's most famous daughter, who started her junior year at Emerald Ridge High School on Friday.

Classmate Rechelle Cox, 16, always knew Megan was a special athlete -- after all, this is the girl who beat all the boys in arm-wrestling in junior high.

"She's like a Michael Jordan now," Rechelle gushed, waiting in the cold morning air for Megan's arrival. "We're just all so proud of her."

Quann, dressed in fashionable rhinestone-studded jeans she bought in Sydney, displayed her usual charm and grace as she fielded questions at a news conference before her first class.

"The experience I've gained and the memories I have will last forever," she said. "But I'm still the same Megan Quann that left for Australia three months ago."

She is starting to adjust to fame, and enjoy it. The manager at TGI Friday's gave her and her grandmother a free lunch when he recognized her, and she's been sought out by autograph seekers at the local Rite Aid and Safeway.

While only one boy has asked her to homecoming, she has gotten a bunch of marriage proposals -- nothing she's interested in at the moment.

"Things are a little bit different," Megan admitted.

One thing that won't change is her dedication to swimming. She's taking a short break from training but finds it hard to stay out of the pool for longer than a few days. Next stop, the 2004 Olympics and the world record.

"There's only one more step -- break the world record and keep breaking it," she said with a confident smile.

Remembering the day she won her gold medal, Megan struggled to pick a favorite moment: "Just the experience of walking in and seeing so many seats you can't even see the top row ... walking out for your race and hearing more noise than I'd ever heard in my life ... and hearing the national anthem, seeing my parents -- that whole day is something I'll never forget."

Her classmates were appropriately impressed.

"She totally had the strength to do it. She did not fail, she kept going," said Michelle Osborne, 16. "She got what she wanted, and being 16, that is so hard, you know?"

Michelle said Megan is a good sport around the lunch room table, too. "Some people would be like, 'I'm going to the Olympics, I'm better than you.' She was not like that -- she is nice to everybody."

School started three weeks ago, but Megan did work this summer to make up for the classes she missed while in Australia.

Erin Quann, Megan's mom, sat with her daughter during the news conference. She admitted having some concern about her daughter's newfound fame but mostly is proud of her achievements.

"We do have concerns, but I think she's handled things pretty well," Quann said. "My hope has always been for her to be happy."

The school worked with Megan's family to arrange the news conference Friday, hoping to satisfy the media's appetite for stories about the young medalist. Principal Linda Quinn made it clear that after Friday, Megan will be studying American history and pre-calculus like the rest of the students.

"Starting next week, we're back to business as usual," Quinn said. "I want her to be a 16-year-old."