Skating in Alaska

[snowflake]

As a big fan of Keegan I’ve been wondering about how popular figure skating is where he lives. You should think that Keegan with his life style and being such a skating star should have a lot of fans back home. And that at least some Alaskan kids would be inspired by him to start skating.

In the Texas Trophy thread @moonvine told she met a woman whose daughter used to train with Keegan. Meaning him as a coach or a training mate? Is Keegan coaching?

Whatever, I thought now is the time to ask what I’ve been wondering about for a long time:

Keegan’s first coach was Anne Durham. How did it happen that Ralph Burghart, an Austrian national champion, come to be Keegan’s coach? In 1999 when he was just 7 years old?

Does Keegan have connections to Austria?

Does Ralph live in Anchorage?

Does Ralph have other pupils? Or what does he do when he’s not with Keegan?

How many clubs are there in Alaska?

Have other skaters from Alaska competed outside of their state? In US qualifying series? In that case who? I understand that it’s costly for them to attend competitions outside of Alaska.

Is Keegan famous and appreciated in Alaska?

 

[Mathman]

OK, so I Googled, :Is Keagan Messing appreciated in Alaska? Here's what Google AI overview had to say:

"Yes, Keegan Messing is highly appreciatesd and considered a hero in Alaska,
where he was born, raised, and continues to live and train."

Followed by many links to Alaskan newspaper articles and posting by fans to social media.

 

[Mathman]

About Keegan's coach Ralph Burghart. according to Wikipedia when he retired from competition in 1992 he went on tour in the U.S. with Ice Capes, where he met and married U.S. professional skater Rory Flack, an Alaskan resident at that time, then settling down as a coach.

Love conquers all.

Thanks for the thread.

 

[NanaPat]

About Keegan's coach Ralph Burghart. according to Wikipedia when he retired from competition in 1992 he went on tour in the U.S. with Ice Capes, where he met and married U.S. professional skater Rory Flack, an Alaskan resident at that time, then settling down as a coach.

Love conquers all.

Thanks for the thread.

It's interesting that Burghart and Flack divorced and she moved away from Alaska, but he stayed. It takes a special person to live in Anchorage!

 

[snowflake]

About Keegan's coach Ralph Burghart. according to Wikipedia when he retired from competition in 1992 he went on tour in the U.S. with Ice Capes, where he met and married U.S. professional skater Rory Flack, an Alaskan resident at that time, then settling down as a coach.

Love conquers all.

Thanks for the thread.

Interesting, so his wife was from Alaska. Now I googled her haha a niece of Rorberta Flack and found that

Rory Flack (born April 28, 1969) is a professional figure skater and former competitor. She is the first African American woman to perform a back flip on the ice in 1991

I knew that Ralph had a son, Remigton, who competed in figure skating not that long ago.

 

[moonvine]

As a big fan of Keegan I’ve been wondering about how popular figure skating is where he lives. You should think that Keegan with his life style and being such a skating star should have a lot of fans back home. And that at least some Alaskan kids would be inspired by him to start skating.

In the Texas Trophy thread @moonvine told she met a woman whose daughter used to train with Keegan. Meaning him as a coach or a training mate? Is Keegan coaching?

Whatever, I thought now is the time to ask what I’ve been wondering about for a long time:

Keegan’s first coach was Anne Durham. How did it happen that Ralph Burghart, an Austrian national champion, come to be Keegan’s coach? In 1999 when he was just 7 years old?

Does Keegan have connections to Austria?

Does Ralph live in Anchorage?

Does Ralph have other pupils? Or what does he do when he’s not with Keegan?

How many clubs are there in Alaska?

Have other skaters from Alaska competed outside of their state? In US qualifying series? In that case who? I understand that it’s costly for them to attend competitions outside of Alaska.

Is Keegan famous and appreciated in Alaska?

Keegan is not coaching to my knowledge. She meant “train with Ralph at the same time Keegan was.” Ralph has many other students. He had several Intermediate Women competing when I was volunteering at Texas Trophy.

 

[NanaPat]

Rory Flack had amazing Russian splits.

Embed above doesn't seem to be working, for me, so here's a link

And here's a program that includes multiple splits.

 

[moonvine]

As a big fan of Keegan I’ve been wondering about how popular figure skating is where he lives. You should think that Keegan with his life style and being such a skating star should have a lot of fans back home. And that at least some Alaskan kids would be inspired by him to start skating.

In the Texas Trophy thread @moonvine told she met a woman whose daughter used to train with Keegan. Meaning him as a coach or a training mate? Is Keegan coaching?

Whatever, I thought now is the time to ask what I’ve been wondering about for a long time:

Keegan’s first coach was Anne Durham. How did it happen that Ralph Burghart, an Austrian national champion, come to be Keegan’s coach? In 1999 when he was just 7 years old?

Does Keegan have connections to Austria?

Does Ralph live in Anchorage?

Does Ralph have other pupils? Or what does he do when he’s not with Keegan?

How many clubs are there in Alaska?

Have other skaters from Alaska competed outside of their state? In US qualifying series? In that case who? I understand that it’s costly for them to attend competitions outside of Alaska.

Is Keegan famous and appreciated in Alaska?

Keegan is famous and appreciated in rural Missouri. He is my third favorite skater of all time after my Queen and my fiancé. I have a cat named in his honor. The first (and sadly probably only) time I saw him skate I swooned over his edges. They are incredible. Who cares about quads, give me those edges all day.

Other skaters have competed in US Qualifying Series. Keegan competed at Texas Trophy in the fall and of course Ralph was there. I was volunteering as Ice Monitor for Intermediate Women and there were several of his Intermediate Women competing. I don’t know about other categories as I was busy swooning over Keegan’s edges.

If they make it to Sectionals they compete in Pacific Coast. I try to keep up with Juniors and Seniors but anything else is too much.

 

[dorispulaski]

Keegan was not the first outstanding skater from Alaska that I heard about. That would be Sydne Vogel, the 1995 U.S. Junior Ladies champion and 1997 World Junior champion.

Sydne started skating as a hockey player -- and that's why there is figure skating in Alaska - lots of hockey rinks. And outdoor rinks freeze...

Home | Alaska Association O

The Alaska Association of Figure Skaters is a non profit dedicated to growing our community from beginners to senior level figure skaters. Register for classes today.

www.alaskafigureskaters.org

 

[iluvtodd]

Yes, I DO remember Sydne Vogel. Thanks for posting about her, Doris!

 

[dorispulaski]

Yes, in 1995 Tara Lipinski was supposed to be a shoo-in to win Junior Nationals in Providence, RI, but she was beaten by Sydne Vogel.

 

[Mathman]

Here is an article about Sydne Vogel from about 2018. She put herself through undergraduate by coaching figure skating, then went to medical school. Here she is just finishing up her residency in Emergency Medicine.

She says that one thing she had to relearn from her skating days was how to deal with stress. As a skater, when things weren't going well her response was to smile, smile, smile. Not so appropriate in the emergency room.

Skating Magazine Archive

skatingmagazine.usfigureskating.org

 

[dorispulaski]

Video

www.facebook.com

Keegan being appreciated in Alaska by an Alaskan friend and lots of others.

Dimond Mall is in Anchorage.