Surprising & Fun Facts About Skaters

[BlissfulSynergy]

Mervin Tran competed in provincial track and field growing up in Canada (high jump and 100 meter hurdles).

As most Johnny Weir fans know, he was an accomplished equestrian as a youngster. At the age of 11 or 12, he had to choose between figure skating vs continuing his competitive equestrian career. Of course, he chose figure skating, and won the Junior World championships at the age of 16. I recently saw on Johnny's Instagram that in his off-time, he has been learning acrobatic horseback riding. He posted some clips, and he looks really good. I wonder if it will remain just a hobby in his off-time, or if he will take this fun exploration further.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Jeremy Abbott has competed in 3 disciplines of figure skating.
When not on the ice, he knows how to ride a unicycle.

 

[ladyjane]

Jeremy Abbott has competed in 3 disciplines of figure skating.
When not on the ice, he knows how to ride a unicycle.

Wow! That's pretty difficult (I've tried it out a few times, not very succesfully, and eventually stuck with the bicycle as all us Dutchies tend to do).

 

[mrrice]

Nathan Chen trivia:

1. His Chinese first name was originally 微, meaning tiny, presumably because he's the youngest of five Chen kids. It was changed to 巍, which has the same pronunciation as 微 but means the magnificence and grandeur of mountains.

2. He trained all the way up to Level 9 in gymnastics. He also won boys' AA at 2008 Utah State Gymnastics Championships.

3. He passed USFS silver dance in 2011, meaning that he could do patterns like tango and foxtrot.

4. In addition to figure skating, hockey, piano, ballet, and gymnastics, violin was once also part of his extracurricular regimen. He was so bad at it that his mom begged him to put the mute on

ETA: 5. He went to the same high school as Michelle Kwan: Rim of the World High School, before switching to online education.

I had no idea that Michelle went to Rim Of The World. Their Band and Color Guard used to come to USA Camps where I worked. They often talked about skating as many of them were amateur skaters who wanted to skate for Disney. This was during the 80's so Michelle wouldn't have been there yet but, it makes me wonder if there were skaters that I never knew were there.

 

[moonvine]

Mitchell Friess is an accomplished pianist and he has a degree in Biomechanical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry. He is a fractal enthusiast and likes turtles.

Spotlight on Mitchell Friess, Senior Men’s competitor debuting at 2021 U.S. Nationals

On the outside, always looking in / Will I ever be more than I’ve always been? / ‘Cause I’m tap, tap, tapping on the glass / I’m waving through a window / I try to speak, bu…

unseenskaters.wordpress.com

 

[taikwan]

Nathan Chen trivia:

1. His Chinese first name was originally 微, meaning tiny, presumably because he's the youngest of five Chen kids. It was changed to 巍, which has the same pronunciation as 微 but means the magnificence and grandeur of mountains.

2. He trained all the way up to Level 9 in gymnastics. He also won boys' AA at 2008 Utah State Gymnastics Championships.

3. He passed USFS silver dance in 2011, meaning that he could do patterns like tango and foxtrot.

4. In addition to figure skating, hockey, piano, ballet, and gymnastics, violin was once also part of his extracurricular regimen. He was so bad at it that his mom begged him to put the mute on

ETA: 5. He went to the same high school as Michelle Kwan: Rim of the World High School, before switching to online education.

Level 9 gymnastics is just rung below some of the gymnasts who get accepted with partial scholarships to college. So he was quite good there, probably performing double twisting (but not triples) but also tuck/piked or layouts - as somersaults. Obviously in order to do single/double or triple twisting aerials, you have to be able to perform those in a layout position while somersaulting. Just sayin'

 

[moonvine]

Level 9 gymnastics is just rung below some of the gymnasts who get accepted with partial scholarships to college. So he was quite good there, probably performing double twisting (but not triples) but also tuck/piked or layouts - as somersaults. Obviously in order to do single/double or triple twisting aerials, you have to be able to perform those in a layout position while somersaulting. Just sayin'

But that was in 2008. If my math is correct he was 8 years old then. Plenty of time to master skills before college. And unlike WAG, MAG college teams are a direct feeder to the Olympics.

 

[moonvine]

Little known fact about Mirai Nagasku: when she was 4, she was a very good golfer. One day she was going to go golfing but it rained. Instead of golfing her mom took her figure skating and the rest is history.

 

[LutzDance]

Level 9 gymnastics is just rung below some of the gymnasts who get accepted with partial scholarships to college. So he was quite good there, probably performing double twisting (but not triples) but also tuck/piked or layouts - as somersaults. Obviously in order to do single/double or triple twisting aerials, you have to be able to perform those in a layout position while somersaulting. Just sayin'

I've been wondering about what his technical level was at when he stopped. I once tried looking up the elements typical for a Level 9 male gymnast, but could only find those for female gymnasts. His on ice backflips have a lot of height and a short prep, so I won't be surprised if he could pull off a double somersault on the floor during his peak as a gymnast.

But that was in 2008

2008 was when he won the AA at the Utah Championships; he continued training for a couple of years after that.

---

Just remembered some additional fun facts that I already take for granted but might be surprising to others:

-Nathan's sister Janice performed her PhD research in the lab of Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer of the gene editing tool CRISPR and the recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry. After her recent graduation, she co-founded a biotech start-up with her mentor to promote the commercial application of a technology she developed as grad student (& more).

-Nathan's childhood partner at Ballet West, Madison Young, won 2nd place at the Prix de Lausanne and is currently a soloist at Bayerisches Staatsballett.

-Both Meryl Davis and Charlie White competed as singles skaters. Meryl can still pull off decent sit spins and IIRC Charlie used to have all the triples except the Axel.

-Before there are Liu/O'Shea and Calalang/Johnson, there were Liu/Johnson (2014-18) and Calalang/O'Shea (2009-10).

 

[el henry]

Jason Brown played Conrad Birdie in his middle school production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Interview With Jason Brown

History of figure skating. A figure skating history blog covering Olympic figure skaters and the World Figure Skating Championships.

skateguard1.blogspot.com

And there is video proof.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Little known fact about Mirai Nagasku: when she was 4, she was a very good golfer. One day she was going to go golfing but it rained. Instead of golfing her mom took her figure skating and the rest is history.

The Advanced Novice skater I was talking about earlier in this thread, Stefania Yakovleva (CYP), is also a very good golfer. I've seen photos and videos on social media of her playing. But, because I suspect she is still under 13, I can't take a chance of linking to them on here.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[lappo]

Yuna Kim can sing pretty well and she had several collaborations with famous Kpop artists:
with IU: https: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fCksQtuVek&ab_channel=1theK(원더케이)
with Big Bang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duAu8wSKi7I&ab_channel=jstasimplesub2
with EXO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbP9z0r6mKw&ab_channel=ENSTARENT
with Taeyeon of SNSD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFY8fhN7q54&ab_channel=scooptonight

 

[Skater91]

Mervin Tran competed in provincial track and field growing up in Canada (high jump and 100 meter hurdles).

As most Johnny Weir fans know, he was an accomplished equestrian as a youngster. At the age of 11 or 12, he had to choose between figure skating vs continuing his competitive equestrian career. Of course, he chose figure skating, and won the Junior World championships at the age of 16. I recently saw on Johnny's Instagram that in his off-time, he has been learning acrobatic horseback riding. He posted some clips, and he looks really good. I wonder if it will remain just a hobby in his off-time, or if he will take this fun exploration further.

I think Johnny would had a good career in show jumping if he had chosen to remain at it I bet that was hard choice to make