McKenzie's Blog

For the Love of the Sport

     My favorite memory is winning Skate Boston in 2021. That was the first big competition I attended after the pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, I uprooted my life and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to take my figure skating training to the next level. I was excited to boost my training environment. I also faced challenges outside of the ice.
     Leaving my parents and friends behind in Alabama, I felt isolated in Nashville. I struggled to find friends and to be happy in my new environment. When I first heard about COVID, I was a bit relieved because I was craving being home, so much so that I was excited to be able to go home.

     The homesick feeling wore off when I realized how much time I was missing on the ice. I took eight weeks off the ice during the pandemic, and I lost most of the skills I’ve worked so hard to achieve. When I finally got the opportunity to return to the ice, I was honestly apprehensive.
     I felt like I had never skated before; having to relearn basic skills was not something I enjoyed. I felt incredibly humbled to be a senior lady figure skater falling on jumps I mastered when I was 10.  It was challenging physically and mentally, not to beat myself up; some of the elements I struggled with were elements I’ve successfully done for years.   


     

     Skating once felt like walking to me, but it felt like I had never done it before.  Wobbling around, feeling every divot in the ice was an abnormal feeling that I wasn’t used to! It took me almost a month to feel normal again.

     Due to having taken so much time off, I had the opportunity to relearn all my skills with better techniques. Figure skating is all about technique and perfection. Relearning my jumps with stronger, perfect technique allowed me to have better jumps, grow my abilities, and get more challenging jumps.
     Before COVID, I only had one solid triple jump, the most challenging jump. Post-COVID, I obtained three solid triple jumps, which were light years better than before! Accomplishing these tricky jumps was rewarding, and I’ve never felt more proud of myself than I did in those moments.

     I felt strong and empowered to take on the season and found a love of skating that I had lost over the years. Figure skating is physically demanding, so having success, feeling empowered, and rediscovering the love of skating is truly unstoppable. When I returned to Nashville, my coaches were impressed that I had come back stronger from quarantine than before.
     I decided that, for my last year of high school, I would try out a new school to make friends and improve my social life. I realize how grateful I was to be in the position that I was in, and I could change how I felt and be more optimistic about moving to a new city. I made it my mission to skate like I loved skating for the first time in my career.
     Going to Boston, I was nervous as that rink is highly prestigious. I knew I had tough competition ahead of me, and I was suffering from some impostor syndrome. You have a six-minute warm-up before you’re allowed to do your routine, and I had a dreadful six-minute warm-up before I took my skate. The doubt I had felt coming into the competition regarding my new elements affected me. I was letting it shake me all up before my program music started.

    That, for some reason, immediately took the pressure off me, and I skated a perfect clean senior Long program. I got a personal best, which made me win the entire event out of 25 other competitors, while this wasn’t the US Nationals or the Olympics. This event was still a big deal to me and inspired me to keep going and skating. It’s crazy how such a small moment in people’s lives can genuinely shape them and be unforgettable