Lisa Q. Mathews

ICED (Or: Why I Didn’t Write This Week)

As I write this, it’s 10:30 p.m. and the closing credits of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games from Pyeongchang are running in the background. And I won’t lie: I am now officially exhausted from two weeks of late-night TV coverage, post-show highlights, and the pressing need to replay clips of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Canadian gold medalists in Ice Dancing, on endless loop.

There was a lot going on in the figure skating arena during this Olympics. Two young Russian teens gave incredible performances in their battle for the gold in the Ladies competition. Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman in Olympic history to land a triple Axel. One poor French ice dancer lost her top at the beginning of her program, but ended with a silver. Everyone felt for Nathan Chen during his several unusual falls in the Men’s Short Program, and commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir kept us guessing on their next wardrobe and hairstyle choices.

But back to those Canadian ice dancers…

Okay. So anyway, a long time ago, in a galaxy very far away, I was a figure skater, too. When I was seven or so, my dad took up skating with his buddies on Saturday mornings and signed me up for group lessons. Things did not start well. I fell so many times trying to get out to the middle of the ice where the other kids were that I finally gave up and crawled toward the instructor. And because once I was actually moving I didn’t know how to stop, I had to crash into the boards to get off the ice.

Eventually, I did get my act together. I loved earning all the badges and buttons and ribbons for each proficiency test (soooo much easier than Brownies). Plus, my mom agreed to let me give up ballet, an activity for which I had less than zero affinity. By nine I was taking private lessons and joined the skating club. At eleven I bugged my coach to enter me in my first competition. He warned me I wasn’t ready but I was legit thrilled when I finished eleventh out of the thirteen skaters—so NOT last, woohoo!

determined

Soon I was at the ice rink almost every day (the same one as Dorothy Hamel, before she had her famous haircut). And then my whole life changed: My coach teamed me up with a partner. A boy.

At first, we were both shy, and even holding hands was awkward. We were the same age and well- matched physically—we easily passed for brother and sister—but we had different skating styles. He was also way gutsier than I was.  We were an ice dancing team, rather than a pairs team, so we didn’t do any jumps or scary throws (except occasionally, when our coach wasn’t there) but we took plenty of impressive tumbles. When we weren’t actually on the ice, we were thinking about it, running through our routines in parking lots, driveways, and swimming pools. Outside of school, we spent most of our waking hours together, either at a rink or traveling to another rink. Our moms drove and we did our homework, played heated games of War, or laced up our skates to save time in the back seat. We bickered endlessly, but we always had each other’s backs.

As we reached higher levels of competition, we also took ballroom dance lessons and (ugh) went back to the ballet barre. We worked with a choreographer, studied music, traveled to competitions, skated before school, after school (sometimes til midnight) and double-time in the summers. We also endured a lot of embarrassing costume fittings. Because I looked twelve by the time I was sixteen, and ice dancers had to appear “mature,” I wore tons of makeup, my hair up, and a padded bra for competitions. It was a crazy life, but I loved it.

Medals

Sadly, my partner and I never attained the heights of the sizzling Virtue and Moir. And trust me, we were never romantically involved, although he did take me to my junior prom. (Everyone always assumed we were a couple anyway.) We gave up competing when we went to separate colleges, but remain close to this day.

I still keep up with the skating world, although I haven’t actually been on the ice for ages. But for some reason, this particular Olympics was a real blast from the past for me. Maybe I should sharpen my blades and hit the rink—and maybe even now that I have this new burst of energy, the keyboard. It might behoove me to apply all that former discipline and diligence to finishing this new book.

 

 

 

Readers, do you have a special interest you used to pursue? Or one that you’d like to try? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 thoughts on “ICED (Or: Why I Didn’t Write This Week)”

  2. I loved Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir — all of their performances were perfection. Are you feeling the skating bug now that the 2018 Olympics are over? Thanks for the videos — they are worth watching again and again!

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  3. Lisa! I knew you had done some ice skating competitively when you were young, but I never knew you had done ice DANCING with a partner — that’s awesome! Forget Tessa and Scott, I want to see video of Lisa Q. and her junior prom date on skates!!

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    1. I’m still trying to find the pix of us when we were older. They’re somewhere, I know (along with some riveting training and competition videos). It used to be hard to take photos of skaters on the ice with a regular camera.

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  4. I’ve always wished I could ice skate, but growing up in North Texas, it wasn’t really an option (it was a long time ago!). There was one ice rink in Dallas and one in Fort Worth, both cities about 20 miles in different directions from where I live. Ice dancing
    Is my favorite…it looks so elegant. Maybe a cozy series about ice dancers who solve
    murders is what we need!

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    1. Me, too, Liz!. I can’t skate because of weak ankles — mainly from spraining the same ankle three different times. But then I mainly sprained the ankle because I was clumsy, so some graceful sport was probably never in my future anyway. 🙂

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  8. Lisa, this is sooooo cool!! I love the pix. I’m a total clod on the ice. My one physical talent was ballet. My teacher, a former Ballet Russe teacher, told my mother I had great potential. Alas, I also had undiagnosed ADD.

    My daughter did some figure skating and even came in first in a couple of competitions – where no one else entered. But at least she’s comfortable on the ice, something I’ll never be.

    I envy you!!

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  12. Wow! So when does this come into play in one of your mysteries? So interesting looking at this chapter from your past.

    And I thought the French team was better. Sorry. 🙂

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    1. Ha, I’ve been getting a lot of questions on that one, Mark! Do you think anyone would read a skating cozy? And I’m fine with the French team taking gold NEXT time.

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  13. How wonderful to be able to skate like that, Lisa! I was glued to the skating, too! My older daughter did figure skating when she was younger and ended up doing synchronized skating – very cool but skating takes a lot of time and she had to quit in hs. I have an almost pathological fear of falling but dream of skating on the frozen canals in Canada.

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    1. They didn’t have synchronized skating when I was competing…but we did have group numbers in our annual ice shows! Being second shortest, I always dreaded being the one who had to “catch” the girl who scrambled because she “missed” (on purpose) the end of the turning whip. That girl became a professional speed skater and I take full credit!

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