Caroline and Gordon Green had high hopes for their 2018-19 season. The brother-sister ice dance duo would compete on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, perhaps the Junior Grand Prix Final, follow that up with the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships and end at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
Then, at the beginning of the season, Caroline got sick.
Really sick.
She came down with pneumonia and was off the ice completely for two weeks.
But even after she resumed training, something wasn't right.
"We were training but it never really got to the point where we could actually train," Caroline said. "It was always just skating around and just trying to do certain elements."
Caroline went back to the doctor and found out that she had a lingering infection that would require antibiotics and a much more gradual return to the ice. In total, she estimates she spent two months completely off the ice.
"From there, I think it only went up."
Gordon continued to train while watching his sister struggle just to walk, their parents splitting their time between the hospital and the rink.
"It was pretty difficult," Gordon said.
Caroline says that there were moments that she questioned if she would ever skate again, especially as she watched her peers travel to their first Junior Grand Prix assignments in late summer.
"Just getting up and walking around was pretty tough, so it almost seemed like skating, at the time, felt so impossible," she said. "Just the thought of getting back out on the ice seemed so crazy to me.
"But then also I realized that I had to be patient and take everything one step at a time, and it really changed my perspective on everything and kind of reignited my love for what we do."
Caroline returned to the ice in early September. For the first week she focused on simply trying to skate again, and wasn't yet cleared to get back into full training with Gordon.
"It was kind of an awkward period where I was back on the ice, but it didn't really feel the same," she said. "Like, I'm here but it's not me. That was also really difficult, just trying to come back to training."
When she was finally cleared, it took some time, but things started coming back together both physically and mentally.
"Being off the ice for so long, you can't really do what you're used to doing," Caroline said. "But it almost gave me a sense of relief, just like, 'Okay, I can get back to where I am,' and we were allowed to start skating together.
"It was just a really comforting feeling, like, 'Oh, everything's going to be okay. I'm not done skating forever.'"
Because they were unable to compete at their Junior Grand Prix assignments, the reigning U.S. junior silver medalists refocused and shifted their goals to the U.S. Championships.
They made their return to the ice at the 2019 Mentor Torun Cup in January, which they won, and felt confident going into U.S. Championships in Detroit several weeks later.
In Detroit, they scored 63.14 for their rhythm dance and 84.43 for their free dance, earning 146.72 overall and their first junior title.
"Our goal was to just show what we've been working on, how much we've improved as a team, so I think we just laid it out there and did what we came into this competition wanting to do," Caroline said.
Now 15 and 17 years old, Caroline and Gordon teamed up when they were 4 and 6, respectively. Gordon started off playing hockey and was taking basic skating lessons for that, and Caroline followed him onto the ice.
"I kind of did both for a little while," Gordon said. "I didn't really choose. I kind of signed up for some classes for hockey, but stopped doing the classes and I kept doing the skating, so I continued with that."
"I think it was mostly just being at the right place at the right time," Caroline added. "We live 10 minutes away from the rink that we train at, and that's where our coaches were training out of. They saw us doing basic lessons and decided to give it a try. A lot of skaters start out doing freestyle or singles and I just was interested and started out in dance."
They had no plans to eventually be one of the rising U.S. ice dance teams, but that's exactly what they've become.
They've won at every level: U.S. juvenile champions in 2013, intermediate champions in 2014, novice champions in 2015 and 2016, and junior champions in 2019.
After placing sixth at their first World Junior Championships in 2018, they will head to the 2019 edition of the event on March 4-10 in Zagreb, Croatia, knowing that the sky is the limit.
"This season has been full of a lot of roadblocks and challenged us as a team," Caroline said. "It just shows that, even with challenges, we can come together and do something amazing."
The ice dance competition kicks off tomorrow, March 7, at 6:30 a.m. ET. Watch Caroline and Gordon live
here and follow all of Team USA on
competition central.
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