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By Ed Rabinowitz, US Figure Skating
The physical challenges associated with figure skating are significant. Olivia Alexander understands that.
But it has been the mental adversities that Alexander, a Black skater, has had to rise above that have perhaps been the most challenging.
Alexander, now a junior at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, ate, slept and breathed skating while in high school in order to qualify for the Excel National Festival, where she placed second at the intermediate level.
“I trained really hard, and it was extremely gratifying,” she says.
Alexander fell in love with skating at age 5 after seeing Disney on Ice’s “Finding Nemo.” Shortly thereafter, her mother signed her up with a local figure skating club. Alexander flourished.
“I was in dance, soccer, gymnastics, but I got a different feeling from skating than any other sport,” she says. “And when I started to learn to do jumps it was like I was flying. I don’t think there’s any other sport where you get that feeling.”
Alexander eventually became a member of the organization’s synchronized skating team, but after several years of skating, she felt she was hitting a plateau in her skating career.
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