Starr Andrews Ready To Shine In Her Second Grand Prix Season

Heading into her second Grand Prix season, Starr Andrews is in a more confident mindset as a veteran. In her rookie season on the Grand Prix circuit in 2018, she competed at Skate America and Skate Canada International.
 
"I feel more prepared this year going into both of my Grand Prixes," said Andrews. "[Last year], I didn't know what to expect exactly, but this year I do know what to expect and I'm definitely more prepared."
 
As an elite athlete, she always needs to be prepared to expect the unexpected. Andrews was originally assigned to compete at one event, NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Japan from Nov. 22-24. But, in mid-October, she got the call that she was added to the roster for Internationaux de France, taking place from Nov. 1-3 in Grenoble, France, following the announcement that Ting Cui withdrew due to injury.
 
An extra competition provides lucrative experience performing on an international stage and gaining the recognition of the judges. It could understandably induce added stress of needing to be competition-ready at a sooner date and knock an athlete off their training routine with traveling factored in. The true athlete that she is, Andrews didn't flinch when asked to step in and fill the vacancy in France.
 
"It hasn't really affected my training that much because I just have to keep training the same," she said. "It's just that I'm going to another competition."
 
Ever since bursting onto the skating scene, Andrews has earned a reputation of being an artistic skater with character-driven performances. This season's freeskate is set to "Salome" and "Dance of the Seven Veils" by Richard Strauss. It's a Biblical story of a girl named Salome who dances in return for John the Baptist's head on a silver platter.
 
"I definitely want to improve on projecting my character in my long program," Andrews explained. "I want [the audience] to see that I am Salome and I just really want to encaptivate people in my performance."
 
In one of her most iconic routines, U.S. Figure Skating royalty Michelle Kwan won her first of five World Championships in 1996 by portraying Salome in a flawless long program. Describing her dress as purple with red on the side and a mesh mid-section with an Egyptian-esque look, Andrews' costume sounds similar to the outfit made famous by Kwan 23 years ago.
 
Andrews is just as musical off the ice as she is on and thinks she'll likely pursue music down the line. In the 2017-18 season, she sang the song she skated to. "That was so fun and I connected to the music on a whole other level because I sang it," she said.
 
She may lend her voice to her skating soundtrack again in the future, but for now, she's leaving the singing to Christina Aguilera. Andrews selected the popstar's song "You Lost Me" for her short program, but it wasn't her first choice. She was originally planning to take to the ice to "Beautiful," also sung by Aguilera.
 
"Once I heard 'You Lost Me,' I was like, 'Oh, this is the [song] I am skating to,'" she recalled. "It sounds beautiful and I just felt like I could connect to it a lot more than 'Beautiful.'"
 
When you know, you know! After a fifth-place finish at the 2019 Finlandia Trophy with a final score of 169.10, Andrews hopes to improve on her skating and technical skills for the remainder of the season. While her short program contains similar content to last year, she's hoping to up the level of difficulty in her freeskate with the addition of a triple flip-triple toe loop combination.
 
"My goal is to skate how I do in practice," she said. "Not think too much because I tend to do that, over-thinking, and to just take things one step at a time. Don't get ahead of myself and remember I'm skating because I love it."
 
Stay up to date with all results on competition central and watch Andrews live at Internationaux de France this weekend on the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold.