This may come as a surprise to many people, but professional figure skaters need to make a lot of sacrifices in their lives to make it to the professional level. They usually start when they are very young, and learning to skate is only the start of it. I tried skating when I was a kid but was never any good at it. This led me to stick with sports that didn’t involve ice.
I did have a friend who loved ice-skating. He joined a junior hockey league and became very good at it. He told me that one of his dreams was to play at the NHL. He went on to become a doctor and forgot about his childhood dream. He still plays for fun every week in a league some of his co-workers joined about 3 years ago, and is still very good at it.
I had seen a few figure skating competitions and became a fan once I noticed all the incredible jumps and movements they were able to do. The competitions that I enjoy the most watching are international ones. I always watch the competitions in preparation for the Olympics in the United States. But I have to say that my favorite ones are the Olympics.
The Winter Olympics bring you the very best of the best in the world. I have become more educated in the sport as I have watched many competitions. I also learned of everything that happens in a normal day for the competitors. They need to practice for very long hours until they can perform all their movements almost without even thinking about them.
They also put in a lot of work with their coaches and choreographers to come up with the best routine for them. It’s not only a matter of doing a bunch of turns and simple movements. All the movements they carry out must meet a certain criterion in order for them to be scored the highest by the judges. A normal day for them can start at around 4:30 am for their training.
Their diet is also strict. They cannot be over their recommended weight if they are to execute their routine as flawlessly as possible. Then, they sometimes have a meeting with the choreographer and their coach to fine tune the movements and discuss which ones to include and which ones they will need to leave out. In the end, all that arduous work and sacrifices amount to a victory in one of these competitions.
Just like in the following video. This ice-skating pair has decided to perform a choreography to the sounds of “Sound of Silence.” They have planned everything to perfection and it’s about to show in a performance for the ages. Their performance has sparked my interest in figure skating as well. I am sure it will do the same for yours!
https://youtu.be/xKkVETYgTfs