Academically excellent top skaters

[Mrs. P]

Rachel is at (or will be at) University of North Carolina getting a PH.D. in clinical psychology. She was doing the pre-med thing, but she got passionate about tackling mental health issues, especially in association with eating disorders.

https://medium.com/stanford-magazin...ete-mental-health-and-body-image-4925ab34ae45

 

[lyndichee]

I'm not sure what Rachael Flatt is up to but I believe she was straight A student at Stanford.

She's doing her PhD in clinical psychology. She loves research and a lot of her post-retirement work was around mental health.

Also for all the people trying to discount the achievements of these athletes and dismiss them, you should read these interesting "Day in the Life of" segments on Olympics athletes.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/day-life-nathan-chen

He has a rigorous training schedule that was at least 4-5 hours a day and he needs 10 hours of sleep each night.

Other athletes based on the profile are similar:

Adam - 8-9 hours
Karen - 8 hours
Shibutanis - 7 hours
Mirai - 7 hours
Vincent - 8-9 hours
Alexa and Chris - 8-9 hours
Evan and Madison - 8-9 hours
Madison Hubbell - 8 hours

Shibutanis train from 7am till 2pm-5pm depending on what time of the year so comparatively they have even longer hours.

To fit in schoolwork is already a daunting task and it is normal to put it off as you only have a small window in your life to be able to compete physically while your cognitive abilities will last you significantly longer (unless you have a history of concussions as talked about by Rachael Flatt and Ashley Wagner).

There's all this speculation about Nathan's GPA but his SAT scores are already top tier and he was able to pull it off with such a rigorous schedule. If you're not impressed by that and you weren't an Olympic athletes/had a similar time commitments, then are all of you famous for your academic achievements? Seems pretty outrageous to criticize them so much.

I went to one of the top programs in my country for my field of study. I had 15 hours of class a week and was told for each hour of class, I should be spending 3 hours outside of class preparing and studying for it. I also had a part-time job and extra-curricular activities and I felt at many times I would burn out. I would often sleep 6 hours or less on weekdays. For these people to train for dreams and go to school at the same time takes a lot of discipline. Lots of people get accepted, and some may not finish, but that experience does not come without compromise, hardships and dedication.

 

[louisa05]

IMHO I am in the group of people who didn't like to discriminate against any course in university due to my own experience. Just because it's a physical education does not mean it is any less easy to handle studies just because they are athlete and that is their field compared to say engineering or medic. Some engineering student actually said to a mutual friend of ours who was visiting me that they should run along because "their engineering homework required more focus right now, they are fine as they JUST have to draw something" (I'm an architecture grad) So I pick up my model-making knife and ask her to make the design model for me

Point is I thought regardless any course, anyone who is enrolled in university no matter what type of course should be respected for their effort because you never know what type of classes they are taking or what type of load work they have to do and in this case I respected these athletes who still enroll themselves in their university and some of them even a very good student despite their other life schedule.

I couldn't say with any authority about a physical education program in Korea, but in the U.S it would require anatomy and physiology coursework which is not easy.

I also don't like the notion that only certain coursework proves academic excellence or intelligence. People have different talents and abilities academically. A student may be brilliant at higher math and unable to comprehend literature, analyze historical events or handle hands on labs in science. And a brilliant historian may understand world events in context but be tone deaf and would fail as a music major. The emphasis on STEM is not only obliterating the humanities and arts in our schools (which will eventually have dire cultural consequences), it is leading students whose natural inclinations and abilities don't tend towards those subject areas to believe they are unintelligent and second rate.

 

[moriel]

IMHO I am in the group of people who didn't like to discriminate against any course in university due to my own experience. Just because it's a physical education does not mean it is any less easy to handle studies just because they are athlete and that is their field compared to say engineering or medic. Some engineering student actually said to a mutual friend of ours who was visiting me that they should run along because "their engineering homework required more focus right now, they are fine as they JUST have to draw something" (I'm an architecture grad) So I pick up my model-making knife and ask her to make the design model for me

Point is I thought regardless any course, anyone who is enrolled in university no matter what type of course should be respected for their effort because you never know what type of classes they are taking or what type of load work they have to do and in this case I respected these athletes who still enroll themselves in their university and some of them even a very good student despite their other life schedule.

Depends on country.
In Russia, physical education for athletes is a sort of a "guaranteed" uni thing, where you will very likely enter based on your athletic achievements, and professors will be very forgiving, based on same.

 

[blue_ice]

Sarah Hughes just graduated from law school, so she’s more than a university graduate.

This I call "academically excellent TOP skaters". Not just skaters who finished high school or homeschool and didn't graduate from college or university. Many can enroll, but few actually can finish it.

 

[narcissa]

Unless that person is on the Harvard admissions committee why would they know anything about Nathan's GPA? Also if they are on the Harvard admissions committee why would they be discussing the GPA of a student they rejected?

Not that I know anything about Nathan's GPA, but

1. More than just the admissions committee has access to your GPA. Teachers, counselors, parents, letter writers, or just friends who've spoken to the student can know this easily...
2. I don't think people on the admissions committee take a Hippocratic oath of silence/privacy or anything

TBH, I, too, was surprised that Nathan wasn't a shoo-in for Harvard. His extracurriculars are above average, to say the least.

 

[oatmella]

Do we even really know if Nathan didn’t get into Harvard ?

Supposedly he was in an online group for admitted Harvard students.

 

[OniBan]

Yuna Kim graduated from Korea University (one of 3 biggest universities in South Korea) majoring in physical education and after Sochi Olympics she attended Korea University Graduate School, again majoring in physical education.

asking this out of curiousity, why do one need to attend Graduate School after graduating?

 

[karne]

Here are a couple of articles about our Magna Max balancing studies (IIRC his GPA was 3.8 something?) and training.

This one's my favourite: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/201...-enough-try-doing-that-while-earning-a-degree

This one had more detail: http://communique.uccs.edu/?p=28966

 

[mrrice]

Here are a couple of articles about our Magna Max balancing studies (IIRC his GPA was 3.8 something?) and training.

This one's my favourite: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/201...-enough-try-doing-that-while-earning-a-degree

This one had more detail: http://communique.uccs.edu/?p=28966

Karne, Thank you for keeping us up to date on Max. I loved his skating and his personality. I have a feeling he'll be wrapped in business and we might not see him tour. Does he have any plans to do any touring?

 

[flipsydoodle]

Last Olympic highlights several interesting facts about some of the skaters academic background. I am amazed to learn that most of these skaters other than being a brilliant and competitive athlete they also excel academically. I tried looking at some articles and forums and this is what I got.


******

Caroline Zhang
A national merit finalist, worked at a hospital shadowing a gastroenterologist, studied at Harvard University.

*******

There's some confusion here. Zhang evidently attended Harvard summer program, a come-one-come-all kind of thing, NOT a selective program.

 

[flipsydoodle]

I really dislike the whole "most European... high school (gymnasium, etc.) is much more rigorous than in the US." argument......

From my experience, this argument is VERY true, and not just about European schools. I went to 15 schools before high school. After the African school at age 10, I went into American 7th grade (and twiddled my thumbs for 2 years). At 11, my entrance exam for a British school had a Shakespeare question on the English paper, Algebra 2, French, and Latin. At the American 3rd grade I went to (a private Department of Defense school), the kids were still learning to read (in reading groups, even!!!!) and didn't yet know their multiplication tables.

The standard differential has been there for decades.

What I'm saying isn't about teacher pay or curriculum at all (American teachers were paid 10 times more than the African and English teachers I had). It's about what is demanded in terms of behavior in the classroom, expectations for homework, and just plain requiring students to do more sophisticated tasks.

 

[flipsydoodle]

Adding to the list of skaters who have really excelled:

Christina Gao
Paul Wylie
Emily Hughes
Debi Thomas
Dick Button
Tenley Allbright
Alissa Czisny (IIRC)
Michelle Kwan


My fave: Katherine Healy (child figure skating star of Six Weeks, principal ballerina with major companies, Princeton magna cum laude)

If you haven't had a chance to see Katherine Healy, try these at age 13:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV29vY3uBTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpOBdwCQ18

Age 14 (all that spin training morphed into virtuosic ballet turns)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg55b4WIbxo

Dick Button "called" the Jackson Ballet Competition when Healy was about 15 IIRC. After that, she was selected "baby ballerina", IIRC, at English National Ballet, Royal Ballet, or some company like that!

As a ballet star (not sure when):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2W_xONDmtc

 

[karne]

Karne, Thank you for keeping us up to date on Max. I loved his skating and his personality. I have a feeling he'll be wrapped in business and we might not see him tour. Does he have any plans to do any touring?

No, I don't think so. He mentioned not long after his retirement that he might still do some shows when asked, and indeed he has done two - Showtime on Ice in Denver and the Ice Den's anniversary show in Arizona. I don't think he would be asked to tour anyway. He was only asked to Stars on Ice once - to fill 8 shows that Jason wasn't doing in 2014 - and fans had plenty of complaints about that, so.

 

[alexaa]

Do we even really know if Nathan didn’t get into Harvard ?

Supposedly he was in an online group for admitted Harvard students.

Sadly, don’t know any kid from The Harvard group. It is said he is vey lowkey in the Yale admitted students group.

And speaking of confidentiality of student records, they are protected by federal law, FERPA. Counselors, teachers have access to students records, and can release to the school the students are applying or some occasions specified by the law. Having access to the records doesn’t mean you can casually disclose it without consent of the students or parents.

FERPA

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/web/97859.asp

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

Person writing recommendations letters doesn’t really need to know the grade if the student doesn’t want to provide them. Nathan attended online school for the last several years of high school, how many online friends he would have to be trustworthy enough for him to tell the grades if grade are not good? USually it is the other way around.

 

[sheetz]

Do we even really know if Nathan didn’t get into Harvard ?

Supposedly he was in an online group for admitted Harvard students.

It really sounds like an urban legend spread amongst Harvard students to explain why Nathan would choose to attend Yale. After all, he *obviously* would have chosen Harvard had he been accepted, right? But since his grades were SOOOOO low, he had to settle for Yale, whose standards are VASTLY inferior to Harvard's.

 

[ice coverage]

… He mentioned not long after his retirement that he might still do some shows when asked, and indeed he has done two - Showtime on Ice in Denver and the Ice Den's anniversary show in Arizona. ...

:agree: And I will add that Max and Mirai Nagasu (another example of a scholar-skater, BTW) will be special guests at Tom Z's seminar in NJ on Saturday.
(Mentioning it not for you, but for those who missed it previously in Max's fan thread.)

Although not a tour or show, it is an opportunity for Max to teach and inspire young skaters.

Throwing back to my favorite graduation photo of Magna Max: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcv-U37BNB3/?taken-by=peacelovefuzzy

And throwing back to my favorite classroom photo of Max and Mirai: https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGPamWAvpT/?taken-by=coachtomz

---

I know right! I barely hanging on with my BA and MA thank God I graduated safely... and that with me just attending university, I don't train for competition!

True~ I know there must be many other skaters but I'm already dizzy searching back the articles that I read this year, so I thought I leave it up to others to add in the skaters they know for their respective info.

I understand you don't worry! It's true that people said it's all about the personality. These athletes don't become high achievers just by practicing, the determination comes with it too, so it must have come in all aspect of their life.

Sorry that I neglected earlier to say Thank You for starting this thread.

Many of us are happy to celebrate skaters who also excel as students, and we enjoy chiming in with more names.

---

^ The question wasn’t whether they finished college, it were skaters who showed academic excellence. ...

:agree:

---

… 2012: … Christina Gao - scholastic life won over her Olympic dreams. Currently studies full time

...2008: … Alexander Johnson - dropped off University of Minnesota, went to community college, tried another University, didn't graduate. ...

I don't agree with your glass-half-empty negativity, but will limit myself to responding only in regard to two skaters.

IMO, scholastic life did not "win" over Christina Gao's Olympic dreams.

Christina took one semester off from Harvard to give her best shot to her Olympic dreams. (Or maybe it was two semesters, but IIRC, it was one.)
Good for her. She did not make the Sochi team, but there was/is no shame in going after her dreams.
She continued to compete for another year before deciding to retire.
As noted earlier in the thread, Christina graduated from Harvard in 2017, and has been working in New York at Credit Suisse.​

A couple of years ago, Alex Johnson returned to the University of Minnesota.

Although he has not graduated *yet*, he is working his tail off in order to juggle full-time studies with training/competing.
And it is super-exciting that he just received the first senior GP assignment of his career. Go, Alex. :yay:​

 

[Sabrina]

For me I find it unbelievable as I know how difficult is to become a doctor (time spent), still Valtter Virtanen is a medical doctor competing for Finland. I think this is nothing but amazing.

 

[withwings]

Yuko Kavguti?

 

[ranran]

There's some confusion here. Zhang evidently attended Harvard summer program, a come-one-come-all kind of thing, NOT a selective program.

I'm not very sure because I got this word by word from her wikipedia, but she did attend Harvard did she?

Sorry that I neglected earlier to say Thank You for starting this thread.

Many of us are happy to celebrate skaters who also excel as students, and we enjoy chiming in with more names.

My pleasure! I was hesitating to post about it at first because it's not exactly about skating but the number of skaters who are excellent in academic is too many to not address it together

I'm also amaze reading some of the additional listed by others.