The scores for Maddy Crevant. Her segment score is 122.76. Combined with her short program score, her total score is 189.87. She is currently in first place. Next, representing the Washington Figure Skating Club, Natalie Zhang!

When I hear my name being announced, I feel the familiar rush of nervous and excited nerves only this time, it was a million times more. I’ve dreamt of this moment from my first clumsy step on my ice. This was the national championships. The blinding white lights and the crowd screaming my name surrounded me, but the only thing I could see was the smooth, glassy ice. It was all so surreal. In this moment, I think of everything that has led up to now.
When I was 6 years old, I watched Kim Yu-Na, or as some call her, Queen Yu-Na, win the World Junior Championships. I can still remember the performance. She floated across the ice like a cloud and skated with the grace of a ballerina, all with swift speed. She made her huge jumps look effortless. Her dizzying spins mesmerized me. With all her grace, she also had power, propelling herself into the air with every jump. Everything she did just seemed…perfect. After watching her, I knew that one day I wanted to have the same grace and power that she possessed, and have little girls look at me the way that I looked at her.

My very first step on the ice was much worse than I expected. I looked at the smooth, translucent ice and thought that I would be able to get on the ice and just glide, the way I’d seen so many girls do before. Instead, I found myself barely able to stand up and clinging onto the board, as if my life depended on it. It took me a month to finally feel comfortable and confident on the ice. After another month went by, I finally learned the basics of skating and began learning basic moves. The feeling of accomplishment I felt after mastering an element was the best feeling in the world. The more I learned, the more I fell in love with the sport. This is when my parents decided that I was ready to have my very first pair of skates. They had perfect white boots with a black heels and blades that glimmered in the light. I loved those little white skates to death. With my skates, came private lessons from my new coaches, Marat and Marina.

Training with Marat and Marina was hard. They expected a lot and I worked hard to meet those expectations. A slight nod of approval from them could make my day. Soon, I saw how accomplished they both were. They’d both medaled in national and international competitions and were looked up to by many others. The more I learned about them, the more I looked up to them, and the more I wanted to make them proud of me. As I became more serious about my skating, I also met a girl named Maddy. She was the same age as me and we trained at the same rink. We were friends with the same skaters but we never seemed to become friends ourselves.
The first time I competed against Maddy was at the Cornerstone Open. We’d both been skating for about year and it was our first time competing. I was so excited, I could not sit still for 30 seconds. My mom did my hair in a bun and my makeup for the very first time. Being a 7 year old girl, I continuously stole glances at myself in the mirror. Before I skated, I felt a rush of nervous and excited nerves. These nerves stayed with me my entire performance and as a result, I couldn’t wipe my silly smile off my face. The entire ordeal was filled with so much excitement the entire day up until then seemed like a blur. After I competed, I waited anxiously for the results, again unable to sit still. After what seemed like 2 hours, the results were finally posted, the only thing I saw was “1. Natalie Zhang.” I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was my very first competition and I won! What I didn’t see was what was written right below my name,” 2. Maddy Crevant.” While ecstatically celebrating with my parents, Maddy came up to me and said, “I deserved to win. Don’t think that you deserve this medal because everyone here knows it belongs to me.”

Being seven years old, after admiring my new, shiny gold medal for the car ride home, I forgot what Maddy said by the time I got home. The next competition came about two months later. I was just as excited as I was two months ago. Once again, my mom did my hair and makeup and before I skated, felt the rush of nervous and excited nerves. This time when the results were posted, my name was not the first thing I saw. Instead, I saw “1. Maddy Crevant” and right below that,“2. Natalie Zhang.” Maddy was right next to me when the scores came out and when she saw her name followed by mine, she turned to me and said, in a voice as cold as the ice we’d skated on, “Nice to see the judges aren’t blind this time.” This time, I didn’t forget about it after I went home. On the verge of tears,I wondered why someone I didn’t even know could hate me.

Maddy and my far off dream of the national championships pushed me to work harder and harder. At the time, my biggest challenge was my axel. If I ever wanted to be good, I needed to get it soon. An axel is a jump where you start skating forward, rotate one and a half revolutions, and land. When my coach first taught me the jump, the only thing I could think of was falling against the cold, hard ice. The first few weeks that I attempted the jump, that’s all I did, fall. 6 days a week, I went to the ice rink and jumped over and over again. I got countless purple and blue bruises and injured my tailbone quite a few times. Despite this, all my injuries were just motivation to work harder. Within a month, I got my axel.
With this same determination, I continued to skate six days a week, twice a day. I remember the countless days I woke up at three AM, barely able to open my eyes, so I could go to the rink and get a little more skating in. Every minute I spent on this ice was an advantage I had against the girls I competed against. Every time I skated, my legs burned. Every day, I went to bed so exhausted I could barely walk. To me, it was all just a sign I was working hard. If something didn’t hurt at the end of the day, I wasn’t working hard enough.

Legs burning, I skate six days a week for a least two hours at each practice, twice a day. Three days of those six, I also did grueling off the ice training for at least an hour. All my life consisted of was school and skating. Wake up, skate, go to school, skate, homework, Sleep . It was my daily routine. For the past 5 years, I haven’t even had a birthday party. When I go online, I see pictures of my friends, laughing and enjoying themselves. I’m not in a single one of those pictures. Sometimes, I wonder why I chose to give up my life for the sport but as soon as I step back on the ice, all my doubts go away.

All these memories fly through my head as I glide to my opening position. I hear my blades cutting across the smooth, glassy ice and think of the words my coaches have told me so many times before: One element at a time. One element at a time. I think of the mornings I got up before the sun did. I think of the burn in my legs I felt every day. I think of the things my parents gave up so I could live my dream. I think of the hours my coach dedicated to helping me improve. I think of the many times Maddy and I battled for first place. I take my opening position, adjusting my shaking legs and clammy hands. The audience becomes so silent; I can hear the sound of my breath. My music begins.