1. How early in life did you start figure skating? I started learn to skate when I was three years old, but I started competitively skating when I was eight.
2. What is your favorite part of the sport? My favorite part of figure skating is the challenge. It is not a sport you can just pick up and do. My coach calls it the world's longest race. Every single day you are building and preparing for the next skill. You will have super hard days, but if you come back determined the next day can be great. It like a rainbow after a storm. I also love the theatrical part of skating. This pushes you as an athlete, you have to do incredibly difficult elements and still look graceful and stay in character.
3. What is the most difficult part of this sport? Skating is a mental sport. Since each element is building you are physically capable of land the jumps. You develop muscle memory really fast, but it is not something your body naturally does. This means you have to spend months trying to get out of your head. Naturally your mind does not want to jump in the air, rotate three times, and land on a single blade. It seems dangerous so your body fights you the whole way. Also after you learn a jump and can successfully land it, you might lose it because of a mental hang up, whether that is being nervous or scared, and these mental blocks can last years. There is a jump in skating called an axle, and it is the first hard jump you learn. Most kids land it within a month, but then they lose it and get stuck with a mental hang up. On my axle it took me 4 months to get over this hang up, and it took my sister almost a year. Skating is a mental sport.
4. What did you need to do to qualify for the regional competition? You don’t need anything to qualify for Regionals, but to compete at a high level you need to pass a series of tests. I compete at the Intermediate level. This means I have passed 5 tests and have 3 more to go before I reach the highest level.
5. What was the best moment of regionals? The best moment of Regionals was after the final round. During the qualifying round I did not skate my best, I fell on easy element because I was so nervous. So during the final round I stepped to the ice with something to prove to myself. I was not going to have another bad skate. Although I did not have a perfect program I did a lot better and redeemed myself. The best part of the whole thing was after I asked I sat down to watch my competitors, my friend’s mom leaned over and whispered, “You did it honey, you redeemed yourself.” I felt so proud of myself. Placing was just icing on the cake.
6. What is your next step or next competition? Sadly there is not another level for me. At my level it is non-qualifying which means I don’t move on to sectional or nationals. However, I am competing as individual, on a high school team and on a synchronized skating team this year.