Angela-Fan
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Help Turn Cancer Upside Down™ while enjoying a Scott Hamilton & Friends Exhibition at Ford Ice Center, Bellevue on November 21, 2020 starting at 6:00pm. Local skaters fundraised for cancer research to perform in the show, with special guests, National Champions Gracie Gold, Alissa Czisny and Jeremy Abbott.
Abbott, the 2008 Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time Olympian and 2014 Olympic Team Event bronze medalist, was on hand in Las Vegas to coach Dinh Tran and two-time U.S. champion Alysa Liu. Not only was it his first time at a U.S. Championships as a coach rather than a skater, it was his first competition -- of any kind -- as a coach.
Some culture shock was understandable.
"It just kind of has all been a whirlwind," Abbott said with a laugh.
Abbott has only been coaching since September, when he stumbled onto this new opportunity by complete accident.
ETA the link to this related article by Phil Hersh (published on Dec. 11, 2020) that was posted in GSD:Abbott acted on another whim in June of 2020, deciding to publicly come out as gay. While he'd never hidden his sexuality from the people close to him, the time finally felt right to add his own voice to the LGBTQ figure skating community.
"I just never talked about it publicly. And I held a lot of shame, actually, about that for a long time," Abbott said. "I struggled with saying it for many reasons, because a lot of times when I wanted to say it, I always felt like I was doing it for the wrong reason. Honestly, with the political climate and everything that was going on, I was just like, 'You know what? One more voice can help. So here it is.'"