Before the start of the 94/95 season, Nicole made one of the best decisions of her life. She decided to turn to the coaching of Richard Callaghan. Unfortunately, their short time spent together did little for her early season competitions. She could barely even land a triple jump at the Goodwill Games and at Skate America, so when nationals came around, some didn't even think that Nicole would medal at all. However, the entire skating world was shocked when, at that National Championship on February 11th, 1995, Nicole had a convincing victory over the enormous favorite, Michelle Kwan. In fact, Nicole landed five of those infamous triple jumps that had escaped her just months before. Unfortunately, Nicole's good luck ran out when she became the center of the media's attention. In November of 1994, Nicole was wrongfully accused of entering another skater's home and stealing money when she had been given the code to the security system in the first place. Still, Nicole had been sentenced two-year probation, but when the media devoured the story, the case was dismissed due to breach of confidentiality. Despite the negative media attention, Nicole continued to train more so than ever before for the upcoming World Championship in England. Nicole entered the country and immediately received everyone's attention with her stellar practices that included combinations such as a triple lutz-triple toe combination. She continued to dominate the competition as she took first place during the first portion of the competition, the short program. But her nerves could not carry her into the second portion of the competition, the free skate. Even though she landed her highly anticipated triple lutz- triple toe combination, she fell on two other triple jumps and only completed four in total. Still, she ended up on the podium (third place) and was the highest ranked American woman at the competition. Yet Nicole's roller coaster cart of a life was bound for a major drop.