During the Winter Olympics, figure skaters glide across the ice as if weightless. They jump with such ease that it looks like they have been skating their entire lives. Although true for Olympic hopefuls, sophomore Charlotte Jackson insists you don’t need Olympic aspirations in order to love figure skating.
“I thought it was something people started young and that normal people couldn’t do,” Jackson said. “But it turns out you could.”
Jackson, 15, has been skating since sixth grade. She started skating after her best friend picked up the sport.
“It just seemed like a fun and cool thing to do.” Jackson said.
During middle school, Jackson practiced four times a week with three different coaches. She required a primary coach to choreograph programs for competitions, a “moves in the field” coach to teach her step sequences and patterns to skate on the ice and a general coach to help put all of these components together.
This intense training came to an end when Jackson’s family moved to Atlanta, almost an hour away from her ice-skating rink.
“When we were moving, it hadn’t really sunk in that I wouldn’t get to skate as much,” Jackson said. “I was sick a lot the summer we moved, too, so I didn’t really notice that I was missing practice.”
Jackson eventually realized her time on the ice would be severely decreased. She went from practicing four days a week to two, and added a commute that could take up to two hours in traffic.
Jackson doesn’t have her driver’s license so she relies on various family members to take her to practice. Her drivers include her two older brothers, her mother and her father, who lives in Decatur. Ben Jackson, her oldest brother, takes the long drive with her about twice a month but enjoys spending time with his younger sister.
“I’ve had my license as long as Charlotte’s been involved in skating,” Ben Jackson said. “[Driving her] is not always the most convenient, but I don’t really mind because I get to see Charlotte.”
Although he doesn’t regularly attend his sister’s competitions or practices, he said he knows she loves it.
“She doesn’t really talk about why she does it,” he said. “But I think she simply really likes it. She’s been really consistent with it, and she has a good time with it.”
Charlotte Jackson said skating is fun, unique and something not a lot of people do. She said she doesn’t skate for the competition. She said it’s a sport that keeps her focused and motivated.
Jackson’s primary coach, Jenny Gee, agreed that Jackson is very consistent. Gee said Jackson’s dedication to the sport demonstrates how much she loves skating.
“She always has a smile on her face,” Gee said. “She’s intelligent, and she picks things up easily.”
Gee said the hardest thing to teach in skating is confidence.
“The hardest part about it is having confidence in yourself to learn,” Gee said. “You have to get back up when you fall and not be scared to make those jumps.”
Jackson, on the other hand, found something else even more difficult to learn.
“Skating backwards was really hard,” Jackson said. “It was a lot different from skating forwards, and I wasn’t used to it.”
Jackson also said skating is “backwards” because of the cost. She said money is such a big part of skating that she can’t skate nearly as much as she would like.
“It’s probably one of the most expensive sports,” Jackson said. “You have to pay for a Georgia Figure Skating Club membership, multiple lessons, ice time, skates and competition outfits.”
Jackson said she often gets lessons or skating equipment as gifts.
“All I want for Christmas is more skating lessons,” Jackson said.
