With the end of this year’s Olympics there’s a lot to reflect on. However, specifically with every Winter Olympics, the figure skating category, which garners the most attention, brings lots of drama and excitement. This only really gives the sport two weeks to shine, as most people don’t watch skating outside of the Olympics. Yet, when people do watch the performances, or maybe even try ice skating for fun while local ice rinks are open, they start to gain more appreciation for skaters.

As a fellow ice skater, most people have no idea how much work goes into skills and shows. From completing skill sets, to mastering choreography, getting an outfit and fitting training into your schedule is no easy task. The sport itself is a perfect combo of artistry and athleticism, you need to be flexible and expressive while also having strength and endurance. 

For these reasons, most figure skaters only have such a short career. A majority of figure skaters start skating when they are four or five years old. Learning basic stops and footwork. Then, they move to spirals and basic jumps and spins. Finally, they get to spin combos and more advanced jumps, like axels (the only jump entered from going forward), and adding revolutions. 

This is why American gold medalist Alysa Liu’s win is so exciting. She retired after her first Olympics in 2022 at only 16. After a couple years, she decided to return at her own accord and won it big. This comeback story is one of many examples that the skating community has. It’s also refreshing as sometimes the sport can have very toxic drama.

However, no matter what the incident is, doping, scoring or a dramatic fall, figure skating is a beautiful sport to watch. It has cool moves, art, music, dance aspects and unique costumes. Many fans hope that with the recent growth in media coverage over American skaters, like Liu, Amber Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Madison Chock and Evan Bates (who all won gold in the team event and did exceptionally well), that more people will get interested in the sport long term. 

So maybe now you’ll be inspired to go watch more routines or stay in the loop for all the figure skating coverage. Or maybe now you can appreciate just how much this win means for America and the entire figure skating community. Overall, figure skating is an incredible sport and no matter what people’s opinions within the sporting community are, all will agree that skaters deserve more recognition and hope the sport will continue to grow.