Top figure skaters, coaches at Santa Fe SkateFest detail the work behind beauty of performance
May 22—When your surname can be simultaneously used as your lifelong title, it's easy to spot true talent when it comes along.
Standing just a few paces from the ice rink at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center during this weekend's Santa Fe SkateFest, renowned figure skating coach Janet Champion talked about spotting talent in little kids and molding it into a work of art on the ice.
"The gifted ones present themselves early," Champion said during a break in Friday's competition. "You see the potential in the younger kids, but there are many, many cases of skaters who have the talent but can't match it with the effort or the motivation. But, you know, if you've come this far, it shows something."
This point happened to be the SkateFest, a three-day event that wraps up Sunday with a huge program designed to bring together the state's top talent. Roughly three dozen skaters traveled here from outside the state, including all of those taking part in the senior women's short program.
Getting this far took years of sacrifice for the competitors and their families, said coach Damon Allen. Along with Champion, he's an instructor for the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs. That team had two skaters in the short program, one of whom was Maryn Pierce.
A psychology student at the University of Denver, she said she understands the need for a strong connection between a skater and their coach. It's why when she's done doing her thing at events like SkateFest, she wants to move into coaching and craft the next generation.
"It's one of the reasons I'm studying psychology," she said. "Skating can be like a job. It is a job for a lot of us, and a lot of times it begins when you're just 4 or 5 years old. The relationship you have with your coaches is so important."
That connection has allowed a local entity like the Santa Fe Skating Club to develop a strong and consistent connection with kids just breaking into the sport. The club gives them an alternative to team sports with a non-traditional discipline that seems almost out of place in the arid high desert.
That connection has also pushed skaters like Tara Prasad to the brink of a lifelong dream. An Indian-American, she has her sights on becoming the first skater from India to compete in the Winter Olympics. She fell short of that goal prior to the recent games in Beijing but has come back more determined than ever.
It's why she was in Santa Fe this weekend, perfecting her routine and focusing on the goals she has for herself down the road. The SkateFest is the first of many regional events in the summer circuit. Some of the true standouts will climb the national rankings and eventually make a run at the Olympics.
Prasad is certainly one of them. She began skating a decade ago, doing most of her training in the United States. When she warmed up for this weekend's short program, she wore a white jacket with her native country's name across the back.
"I'm here to develop my technique and keep improving because the dream is something I will carry until I reach the Olympics," she said. "There are things I'll need to work on, but that's the reason I am out here. I can always get better."
It's that drive that Champion looks for. She's seen it dozens of times in her career, one that dates back to her time as a 5-year-old in the Ice Follies. As she watched one skater after another take the ice during the various short programs, she spoke about what it takes to find (and become) the diamond in the rough and climb the ladder of figure skating fame.
If anyone knows the formula, it's Champion. She parlayed her early fame into a coaching career that has spanned decades. She has coached — and certainly influenced — throngs of next-level talent over the years.
"It's not easy, but the hard work you see so many skaters put in shows up out here," she said. "There's a certain type of skater who improves and makes this a passion that goes on for years. It's more than just being a good skater. It's about the passion you bring to it."
Pierce said a skater truly moves to the next level when the talent merges with the passion, then opens a skater's eyes to holding moves just a fraction longer and allowing the viewer to savor the program more than they savor the moves the skater shows.
"If you let the judges and fans enjoy what you're doing, you've got something," she said.
For three days, more than 100 skaters at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center gave those sitting in the stands plenty to fall in love with.
Most of this weekend's skaters were in their teens, a good deal of whom are still in the earlier stages of grade school. Michelle Lee was a high school senior until just recently. Now gearing up for her time in college, her summer training session got off to a solid start when she was named the winner of the women's short program.
As elegant and flawless as her performance was, the constant computing that goes on in her mind before and during her time on the ice flies in contrast to the program she skates so well.
"There are so many things I'm thinking about that I don't really notice anything around me," she said. "I get nervous before I go out there but getting that focus and not noticing anything except the things I need to work on — I like that about skating."
