What was your first exposure to figure skating?

[lovestiger oak]

first exposure to skating.

I'm curious how different posters here were first introduced to the sport.

*Skating at a rink
*Skating on natural ice
*Watching on TV
*Watching online
*In a movie
*Live competition
*Live show
*Print news media
*Book
*Other

I don't know that I can make a poll here, so please reply in the thread.

Feel free to elaborate on your experience, including sharing when and where your first encounter with the sport took place if you feel comfortable doing so.

First exposure to skating:

As a kid, skated on the Delaware Cana[/B]l a couple of times. The first skating that I can remember watching on TV was 1968 Olympics - Peggy Fleming. I remember even in college making the effort to go to dorm social hall to watch Dorothy Hamill skate as I did not have a TV in my room and dew did in those days.

in 1997 I was going to Connecticut for other reasons and detoured to the Old Sayre skating rink where Victor Petrinko's mother in law coached. I got to see Scott Davis practice with her and he fell in that year Olympic's in the same place that he had problems at the practice. I also got to see a japanese skater practice.

First live competition was Worlds 2001 in Vancouver. I was living in the state of Washington being treated for an aggressive form of breast cancer where I had less than 1 in 2 chances of making it 5 years, and I interrupted my radiation to go to the Thursday - Sunday events with my sister. I was enthralled and liked watching the practices most of all. So, I started at the top for live competitions. About 6 months later, I bought tickets for Skate America to be held in Spokane in the fall of the 2003. Again, buying the tickets was a life affirming act because I truly did not believe that I would be alive to attend the competition.

Since Skate America of 2003, I go to 1 or 2 live competitions a year. I have been to 5-6 Skate America, 3-4 Skate Canadas,, 5-6 National, 4 worlds and 1 Grand Prix Final. Usually, I go with my sister but last 2 years, I have also taken my granddaughter who skates. This year I had tickets to Worlds and looking forward to seeing Hanyu, Chen and Jason Brown. This year I got to see Hanyu at Skate Canada and last year Chen at Skate America and Grand Prix Final but have gotten to see then skate against each other. I was looking for Jason Brown as I had not seen him since last Nationals in San Jose. I do have tickets to 2021 Nationals already.

First move was Ice Castle, I think - the move where the skater goes blind, learns to skate again, skates but does not disclose the blindness and it comes out at the end that she is blind because of everything thrown on the ice - a real tear jerk.

I read Scott Hamilton's cancer book during my first chemo treatments in 2000. IN 2019, when I was diagnosed with a second different breast cancer, I again read the book. My adult children paid for a personalized recorded message from Scott Hamilton which they gave me on the day of the second mastectomy.

I am hoping that the Grand Prix events will occur in the fall.

 

[turbov21]

Probably the 1984 Winter Olympics.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

First exposure to skating:

As a kid, skated on the Delaware Cana[/B]l a couple of times. The first skating that I can remember watching on TV was 1968 Olympics - Peggy Fleming. I remember even in college making the effort to go to dorm social hall to watch Dorothy Hamill skate as I did not have a TV in my room and dew did in those days.

in 1997 I was going to Connecticut for other reasons and detoured to the Old Sayre skating rink where Victor Petrinko's mother in law coached. I got to see Scott Davis practice with her and he fell in that year Olympic's in the same place that he had problems at the practice. I also got to see a japanese skater practice.

That Japanese skater was Takeshi Honda.

 

[Jaana]

Trying to at least stand on skates at an outside rink, around 1952.

 

[KOBOT37]

https://youtu.be/Y73OP_Nbb0k

this right here

 

[Sofia]

The very first exposure was watching Winter Olympic news on TV, but seriously speaking it was the TV broadcasts of 2009 Worlds and 2010 Olympics that attracted me to figure skating and gave me basic knowledge of competition format, rules, top competitors, etc.. I have done all of the listed options except skating on natural ice, but I can say figure skating was first introduced to me as a type of competitive sport, and TV played the definitive role in arousing real interest.

 

[martipellow2]

My first memory of skating was watching the 1980 Canadian Figure Skating Championships, when Tracey Wainman stole the show as a 12 year old and impressed the judges so much they elected to send her to the World Championships in Dortmund, Germany in March 1980 instead of the champion, Heather Kemkaren. It was such a great performance at the time CTV re-ran it a couple of times that week, in the age before most people had VCRs. I became a big Tracey fan then and there, and also a figure skating fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJBHhyt8Pzs&t=40s

It was a great era for skating. I then watched the 1980 Olympics and still vividly remember watching Robin Cousins win. I still think watching him is more exciting and beautiful than any World Champion today no matter how many quads they do. The stroking and the speed, the delayed axel, the musicality, the elegant line, the camel spins. I also remember Denise Biellman winning the long and everyone talking about her spin. Then the next big competition was the Worlds in Dortmund, Germany. Tracey again stole the show, but there were a lot of exciting youngsters coming up: Katarina Witt, Elaine Zayak. For the next eight years I was skating junkie. Other skaters I followed and revered from that era: Elaine Zayak, Rosalynn Sumners, Elizabeth Manley, Gary Beacom, Gordon Forbes, Brian Orser, Scott Hamilton. Norbert Schramm, Midori Ito, Jill Frost, early Katarina Witt, Caryn Kadavy, Kurt Browning was just starting out.
I know they can't bring back figures now but I feel something has been lost from the sport. The quads are a bit of a blur now, and long programs somehow feel less free. I am sure many will look back on the 1980s and say the skating was antiquated but I feel that that was when it was at its peak, a mix of technical and artistic. And the high TV viewing figures reflected it.

 

[beachmouse]

I grew up in Michigan USA- cold winter weather, Great Lakes, and a dozen natural ice skating ponds within a few miles of our house. As soon as the adults decided the ice was thick enough to be safe, the kids would be all over the ponds in skates for a couple of months. So many fun times, even if the jerk pick-up hockey players waited until after we shoveled snow from the pond for our skating and then tried to claim most of that ice for their game. The bigger parks that had ponds would also have sledding hills and little snack shops where you could buy a hot chocolate or tea if you got too cold. Good childhood times. I never skated 'inside' on artificial ice until I did a few open skates in my late twenties.

First tv awareness- 1980 Olympics- was Linda Fratianne going to take Olympic gold like Dorothy Hamill had the previous Olympics? Since I was a young girl who loved watching women's sports, I got sucked into that big time and watched every ABC Wide World of Sports broadcast of skating that I could find.

 

[Sk8harvest8]

Skating at a rink, when I was 5 years old. One of my earliest memories actually.

 

[jcskates]

So I grew up in a very tropical Asian country, ice rinks are scarce and expensive. My family cannot afford to skate leisurely all the time, so lessons are out of the question.

*Live Show: When we I was a kid we would see Disney on Ice every Christmas but I mostly remember the snowcones in those cool Disney mugs.

*Skating at a rink: My 12th birthday was coming up and I watched Ice Princess, right then I knew I want to learn figure skating so I told my dad I wanted to skate on my birthday. immediately I fell in love with the ice. It felt natural for me to skate forward but I can not stop so I crash to the boards all the time.

Fast forward, 7 years ago I moved to Canada and ice rinks are basically everywhere so I decided to give it a go. Due to work and other responsibilities, I only probably skate 3-4 times a year till March 2019. And I am so sick of falling all the time, not knowing how to stop and skate backwards. September 2019 (I'm already 25y/o) I finally signed up for lessons, My goal of stopping and backwards skating went out the window when I learned to do them by my second session. I wanted more, I wanted to do complicated footwork, spins, and jumps.

Since then I basically caught up with my skating knowledge. Watching old videos, reading articles, knowing the names of various moves, history, boots and blades, skaters (coaches too), competitions, and etc.