One of the fun parts of coming to Lake Placid is getting to visit the Olympic Center. Inside the Olympic Center is the skating rink built for the 1932 Olympics, which is still used as a practice facility for Olympic hopefuls. The space itself is a testament to a time before the Olympics meant hordes of people coming into town to watch the Olympics in person. There are only about 10 rows of seats in a horseshoe shape around the rink. The space feels small and intimate, with every seat having a great view of the skaters.
Yesterday, we saw people ranging in age from about 5 to 65 practicing their competitive moves in the rink. Most of the skaters were women and girls, but there were a couple of boys and at least one man skating. It was fun to see how the range of moves and difficulty increased as the skaters got older.
The youngest girl, who I would say was probably about 5, was mostly skating around in circles but moving her arms and and body in ways that demonstrated her balance on skates. The 7-10 year old set added some more complicated footwork and some simple turns. After that, the practice runs started looking a lot more like what would expect from competitive figure skating. There was even one woman who was practicing her part in a pair skating performance. Her coach would occasionally step in to the partner role for moves that obviously required two people.
The older woman was fascinating to watch as well. I have a friend who started competitively skating in her 50s, so I know there are leagues for those beyond the age of an Olympic hopeful. The older skater was not dressed in tight leggings or short skirts like her younger counterparts. And she was much more cautious in her practice, having lost the sense of invulnerability that comes with youth. But, I commend her for getting out there and being comfortable skating with people so much younger than she. I wish her nothing but the very best in her future competitions.
Periodically, music segments would be queued up and we would watch a skater do a trial run through a full routine. It became a game to spot the skater who’s routine it was. It wasn’t easy to spot who amongst the skaters was doing a full run-through as opposed to praticing the beginning of a routine. And there were enough skaters practicing their ending position and bows that it was hard to tell if we had chosen correctly. when the music ended.
I don’t know if I will ever be able to tell if one of the skaters I watched ever makes it to the Olympics. Nevertheless, I intend to cheer for all the figure skaters in 2014 for putting in the time, blood, sweat and tears it requires to get where they are.