The Accidental International Figure Skater

The Accidental International Figure Skater

My friends and family know that 9 years ago, I got tired of just being a skating mom- and decided to lace up some skates and take some skating lessons.  I am a slow learner – and it only took me 8 years to get through all the basic skill levels, and then take the first US Figure Skating test – the “baby” test – Pre-Preliminary Moves.  (Don’t let that fool you – when you never skated as a kid – that test takes lots of time and preparation to conquer!)

My eldest daughter has been skating for 17 of her 20 years, and 3 years ago, joined the Senior team at Harmony Theatre Company out of the Ice House Skating Academy.  I’ve had the pleasure of watching her win the National Bronze medal twice in a row with her team, and be named to Team USA to skate at the Nation’s Cup in Logrono Spain – next weekend!

This fall, I decided to audition for the Adult team at Harmony.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve also watched them win the National Silver and Bronze medals.  They always looked like they were having so much fun, and I finally felt like I had enough skating skills to be a contributing member of the team.  Lucky for me, the coaches agreed, and I started training with the team to compete at Nationals this upcoming June!  At our practice between Christmas and New Year’s – we got the most amazing news!  A team from Chicago that was originally named to skate at the Nation’s Cup had backed out, and US Figure Skating had named a replacement team.  That team was MY TEAM!

So, my daughter and I are off on an adventure! We leave this Tuesday for Logrono, Spain, to represent the United States in international figure skating competition.  We return one week prior to exhibitor move-in for the GLMM!  Please be patient over the next week, as my wonderful husband, and IT guy, John – handles all consumer calls and emails…. he does have a full time job, in addition to covering this so that I can go off on this adventure!  Tara will be handling anything and everything John cannot.

Please wish us safe travels, great skates, and hopefully we’ll make the USA proud and bring home some hardware!

 – Kate Griswold
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