Josephine Lee: Ready for New Challenges

Figure skating can be described in a variety of ways. To some, it is a sport. It's an avenue of growth, and the adversity that inevitably presents itself on the ice is a chance to come back stronger than ever before.
 
Others view skating as an art. In their eyes, a chance to spend time on the ice is an opportunity to create beauty for spectators to witness. To them, skating is on the same shelf as writing and painting and photography, and its purpose is to make viewers look at life with a fresh set of eyes.
 
Thirteen-year-old junior skater Josephine Lee sees figure skating in a different way, though. For her, the phrase "ice rink" is synonymous with challenge.
 
Lee's career on the ice has not been without roadblocks. She failed the first figure skating class she enrolled in at the age of 4, but the obstacle did not dissuade her from skating. In fact, it only made her more determined to become adept at skirting the surface of an ice rink.
 
Lee quickly developed an affinity for jumping on the ice. Like the first class she attended, the move didn't come easily for her. However, the difficulty she faced was not a deterrent.
 
"I wanted to learn the jump," she said. "It doesn't matter how many times I fail, if I can overcome the challenge, then I could do it."
 
She put in hours of hard work and discipline to learn the move and its different variations. In 2019, that dedication led to another bout with adversity.
 
After spending hours trying to perfectly land a triple jump, Lee began to experience a nagging ache in her back. At first, medical professionals wrote the sensation off as growing pain. But when weeks went by and the feeling remained, a doctor suggested she get an MRI.
 
The results of the scan revealed that the cause of her discomfort was something a little more serious than growing pain.
 
She had endured a stress fracture due to overuse. Suddenly, her daily routine flipped on a dime. Rather than spending afternoons at a skating rink, Lee was in physical therapy, building strength and learning exercises that would allow her to return to the sport that she loved.
 
She admits that at times, the road to recovery seemed monotonous.
 
"All of the physical therapy exercises were the same," she said. "[Every day], I woke up, did the exercises, and biked around. That was all I could do."
 
At one point, she wondered if she should continue skating. There was nothing like the triumphant moment of accomplishing something that had once been hard, but was it really worth all of these long appointments?
 
Lee's family convinced her to stick with the craft she loved.
 
"We told her, you know, maybe this is not the time to do it when you're down," her mother, Caroline Tseng, said. "You can stop skating... you know, on your own terms, but we felt like this was not the right time."
 
Lee thought it over and eventually agreed to continue skating. However, she knows returning to the ice would not have been possible without the support of her mother, her father, and her younger brother, Jonathan.
 
"[Their encouragement] has meant a lot to me," she said. "And it's why I continued growing."
 
The choice to push through the difficulty paid off. A few weeks ago, Lee represented Team USA at the 2021 International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Series competition in Courchevel, France.
 
The opportunity brought new sights, new sounds, and a new country to take in and experience. However, what meant the most to Lee was the chance to skate for the nation that she calls home.
 
"I feel really grateful that I get to represent Team USA, and I feel really proud that I get to represent my country," she said.
 
The trip illuminated one of the aspects that makes figure skating so special: community. Throughout the course of the competition, Lee's teammates had her back.
 
"Every time I skated or another skater on Team USA skated, they would have the big U.S. flag in the stands in the very front row, and they would be shaking it and cheering for all of us," she said.
 
Lee left the competition with an eighth-place finish and memories that she would carry with her for the rest of her life.
 
Off the ice, Lee likes to spend reading books. Her favorite genre is dystopian fiction. She enjoys the category because it offers readers a glimpse into another world, and because the characters often find themselves with challenges to overcome, just like she does.
 
Unlike the personas who exist within the folds of a novel's pages, Lee has something better than a trusted sidekick: a group of people whose love and encouragement will remain steadfast, no matter what stands before her. Their unwavering support, as well as her own determination to conquer the hurdles that arise, hint that for Lee, France was just the beginning.

Lee continues her season this week at the 2021 U.S. Challenge Skate in Norwood, Massachusetts. Fans can watch the competition live and on-demand on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.