“I’m very happy and fortunate to be back on the international stage. I mean, obviously this season isn’t what I wanted it to be, but after two years not competing, I really had to go back and relearn everything, even the small things. So every competition and every practice is just another stepping stone, figuring out how to be not exactly how I was, but to be ten times better.
Because in my mind, originally, I was kind of trying to recreate what I was, and that wasn’t working. So now I’m recreating my whole being to not be what it was, but what it can be, and make it even better. It’s a matter of mindset. I try not to put pressure on myself. I just go into every day being thankful that my doctors and my team were able to save my hip and make me stronger, because there was a very high chance that I wouldn’t have been able to recover and my career would have been over. So just the outlook on everything, every day I try to be super grateful.
On what helped her through the difficult period: “I mean, my whole support system. I work with Caroline Silby— she’s been a huge piece of this. My parents and my coaches have been such a huge support. All my friends back home… everything. They are all part of the bigger picture.”
She fully started training in September.
“I ran my first run-throughs in September with doubles, and then I was closer to triples by the end of September. So it’s been a very long but also very short time.”
On her free skate: “There are so many different meanings. At the end there’s a ticking clock. My outlook on it is just like… not everything is forever, so make it beautiful while it lasts before it dies. Like a flower is beautiful, but then when it dies it gets all wilted. So it’s just about finding the beauty in things and not taking it for granted before it’s gone.”
