What does career of a skater look like?

[gkelly]

Former elite skaters can become a judge or technical specialist relatively quickly compared to non-elite skaters or non-skaters. Those are generally volunteer positions.

Former skaters of any level can also work in paid sports management positions, including at federation headquarters, if they have appropriate management/administrative skills and usually a relevant degree. A background in the same sport would always be a plus for such jobs.

Some former skaters develop small businesses editing skating music or making skating costumes or providing other products or services of interest to skaters -- and beyond if they want to serve a larger clientele.

Sports medicine or physical therapy-type careers seem to be of interest to many skaters who go into the medical field.

 

[concorde]

The former national level skater turned lawyer is a technical specialist.

She said that ice skating taught her to manage her time so well, she was able the complete her undergrad degrees in 3 years. That was one of the reasons she was able to go onto law school.

US Colleges tend to like ice skaters. Many high level skaters go on to top colleges. You hear a lot about top skaters going to Harvard and Stanford.

 

[VegMom]

US Colleges tend to like ice skaters. Many high level skaters go on to top colleges. You hear a lot about top skaters going to Harvard and Stanford.

Don’t you think that is just another class related issue? I mean, in the US any kid who has the means to seriously figure skate for many years is also in the economic class that’s most likely to go to top tier universities.

 

[concorde]

On the flip side, I have known (not quite) elite level skaters who have opted to not to graduate from high school. When their skating career does not advance as desired, they apply to skate on cruise ships. But cruise ships reject them due to lack of a high school diploma. So then them go get a GED to get the desired job.

Both examples I provide reflect an individual's personal choices. Please do not make this into a class issue when it is more about personal choices and how one chooses to push themselves.

Also, just because a parent can afford a certain school does not mean the selected school has to take the student.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Don’t you think that is just another class related issue? I mean, in the US any kid who has the means to seriously figure skate for many years is also in the economic class that’s most likely to go to top tier universities.

No. Not all skaters are top economic class, many are from working class families that can barely make it, but know they have a talented kid and want them to succeed.

Also, even if you are in a top economic class, it doesn't mean you're the brightest crayon in the box so to speak.

 

[chiyung]

Top-tier U.S. universities evaluate each kid’s academic and extra-curricular activities in the admission process. Many elite universities in the U.S. are "need blind" so they don’t know what the financial status of the students are before they accept the student. These universities have sufficient endowment money to provide need-base funding for students from working-class families. I was fortunate enough to attend an elite university in the U.S. and getting some financed by student loans and most paid for by need-base grants from the school.

Figure skating stands out as an extra-curricular activity on college applications. I know my daughter will never be an elite figure skater. However, I’m hoping that her passing most or all of her International ice dance tests by the time she graduates from high school will be an indication to the college admission folks of how hard she has worked and has tried to reach her full potential as a skater.

 

[karne]

AKA if they want to continue to compete at Junior World events they can't take the Senior FS test yet.)

Surprised no-one else has picked this up yet, but this is incorrect. There are plenty of skaters who've passed their Senior tests at Junior Worlds, including a lot of skaters who even compete Seniors at their Nationals. This is especially prevalent in the little countries but also happens in the big ones. Katia and Harley have been skating a mix of Junior/Senior in the last two seasons, and Joshua and Jason were skating Nationals as Seniors at 16, but were international Juniors until 18.

 

[Arwen17]

Surprised no-one else has picked this up yet, but this is incorrect. There are plenty of skaters who've passed their Senior tests at Junior Worlds, including a lot of skaters who even compete Seniors at their Nationals. This is especially prevalent in the little countries but also happens in the big ones. Katia and Harley have been skating a mix of Junior/Senior in the last two seasons, and Joshua and Jason were skating Nationals as Seniors at 16, but were international Juniors until 18.

The way I understood it is your FS test level determines what level of competition you are allowed to compete in. Why is Junior Worlds an exception? In reverse, can someone who hasn't passed their Senior FS skate go to Senior Worlds?
Didn't Michelle Kwan pass her Senior FS test behind her coach's back so she could jump up to Senior level competition? Doesn't that imply Junior-testers compete at Junior events? I was not aware you were allowed to compete at a lower level than your FS test.

 

[moonvine]

It does vary, but I'd guess that as a whole, it is getting faster in terms of getting jumps than what you have listed, particularly for a senior-world-level skater in a powerhouse country. I've seen a bunch of youtube videos of 6 year olds with single axels and double salchows. There's one of Emily Hughes and Nicole Bobek when Emily is 6 and she does a great single axel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeSDFjOhvQ8

.

Thank you for that! She was adorable. Hard to believe she's now a college graduate, married and with a great job.

 

[gkelly]

The way I understood it is your FS test level determines what level of competition you are allowed to compete in. Why is Junior Worlds an exception? In reverse, can someone who hasn't passed their Senior FS skate go to Senior Worlds?

The US uses a testing system. (As do some but not all other national federations.)

Within the US qualifying system, you need to have passed the USFS tests for the level you want to compete at and you can't go back and compete at a lower level. These rules apply to domestic US competitions only.

The ISU does not have a testing system. In international competition, eligibility for senior vs. junior vs. novice is determined by age only with some overlaps. (Juniors need to be at least 13 and not yet 19 as of the previous July 1; Seniors need to be at least 15.)

Federations can send any age-eligible skater they like to international junior and "senior B" events. (The senior Grand Prix is by invitation of the host federations, with some rules about who gets chosen first.)

For ISU championships (Worlds, Junior Worlds, Europeans, Four Continents), in addition to age eligibility, skaters also need to have met minimum technical scores at previous competitions at the same level.

That's the closest that the ISU comes to anything resembling a test requirement. They don't care or keep track of each and every federation's test structure or domestic competition structure. That's up to the individual federations. Some use tests, some do not. Some have age cutoffs that match the ISU age limits, some do not.

Some federations allow skaters to compete at more than one competition level in the same discipline in the same season. I don't personally keep up with the details of other countries' federations so my information might be out of date, but at least at some points Russia had a separate junior championship to determine Junior World assignments that included some of the same skaters who also competed at their senior nationals. Japan used to (and maybe still does?) invite top finishers from their novice nationals to compete in the national junior championships, and top finishers in junior to compete at the senior championships.

E.g., "Mao Asada...won the Japanese novice national championships in the 2002–03 season, and earned an invitation to compete at the junior championships, where she placed 4th. She also competed in the senior national championships and placed 7th. In the 2003–04 season, Asada repeated the same placements at the novice and junior level and placed 8th at the senior nationals."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Asada

Those examples are only possible if the championships for different levels are held at different times.

The US does not do that.

Didn't Michelle Kwan pass her Senior FS test behind her coach's back so she could jump up to Senior level competition?

Yes, domestically, in 1992-93.
She competed at 1993 US Nationals as a senior. And then she was sent to 1994 Junior Worlds (held in December 1993), which she won.

To reiterate: US rules and international rules for junior vs. senior eligibility are very different, and other countries may do things differently than both.

 

[concorde]

The way I understood it is your FS test level determines what level of competition you are allowed to compete in. Why is Junior Worlds an exception? In reverse, can someone who hasn't passed their Senior FS skate go to Senior Worlds?
Didn't Michelle Kwan pass her Senior FS test behind her coach's back so she could jump up to Senior level competition? Doesn't that imply Junior-testers compete at Junior events? I was not aware you were allowed to compete at a lower level than your FS test.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Under the USFS structure, the FS level determines the test level.

At the international level, age determines Junior vs Senior. For the ladies, Juniors are between 13 and 18 (or is it 19). Seniors are 15 and older. Years ago, the age cut-off was different. Tara will always be the youngest World champion since she was grandfathered in when the ISU changed its age rules.

Having said that, a USA 14 year old will be a Junior internationally but assuming they passed the Senior FS test, will skate in the US as a Senior.

Age is determined as of July 1, which is the start of the skating season.