Gabriella Izzo Exudes French Flair This Season

Gabriella Izzo is proud to represent Team USA domestically and internationally, but she reserves a special place in her heart for France.
 
A few years ago, she competed in Italy, and as a high school graduation gift, her mom booked them a trip to Paris on the way home. "I just fell in love with it. I thought it was incredible," she said. "I think it was one of the best trips I will ever take in my lifetime. We got to see everything, and it was just so much fun. I think since then I have been a little obsessed with Paris."
 
Her passion for the City of Lights will shine through in her short program this season. She's skating to an Edith Piaf medley.
 
"I picked these specific songs because I fell in love with [Canada's] Kaetlyn Osmond's short program during the 2018 Olympic season," she explained. "I absolutely love French culture and the accent, the language."
 
The routine was choreographed by Adam Blake and they worked together to tell a story. Izzo recently got her skating costume for the piece. It's a one-shoulder dress that is eggplant in color with some black lace. "It's super romantic. It's super French," she described. "It has a belt and everything about it is like evening gown in Paris on a night out."
 
Izzo has decided to keep the same free skate from last season because she only got to compete with it once at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It's set to the soundtrack from the Broadway musical Sunset Boulevard.
 
To help achieve her goals this season, Izzo has a new coaching team in her corner. She transitioned to work with Aleksey Letov and Olga Ganicheva four months ago and is now training at The Skating Club of Boston's new facility. She said their approach is a bit different than what she was used to because they focus on "a lot of off-ice conditioning" and improving her explosiveness and the whole package.
 
"It's a very thorough and thought-out effective training," she said. "[At The Skating Club of Boston], we have access to a full gym as well as an altitude training room. It's like a little box and it has Hypoxico. It takes some of the air out of the room to mimic different altitudes. You can switch it to whatever height or percent oxygen [you need to train at] and it keeps it filtered as well. We have a treadmill or bike in there and you train with less oxygen. How I understand it, you are training your body to be more efficient with less oxygen, so it helps with fatigue when you are running programs. It improves your conditioning."
 
The other big change by switching training venues is that she now shares the ice with pairs teams—Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov, and Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. She finds it very intriguing to witness the dynamic between the partners and learn more about another skating discipline.
 
This summer, Izzo attended Champs Camp in Nashville, Tennessee. Not only did she leave with constructive feedback about consistency and performance quality from international judges, she also received words of wisdom from Olympic champion and Nashville patron Scott Hamilton, who was a keynote speaker.
 
"He is so motivational and he's so dynamic, so interesting, so lively, so to have him there just made it so special and it kind of gives you a nice warm feeling that you're being supported," she said. "He…kind of lights a fire under your butt and makes you want to get going."
 
Hamilton spoke about how training is the most important part of the process and shapes athletes not only for the Olympics and competitions, but also for life off the ice. That mindset will take you far in all your endeavors. He also stressed how important it is to support fellow skaters and to know when you need to reach out and ask for help.
 
Izzo recently began her sophomore year at Harvard University. She has yet to officially declare a major, but she is leaning towards government with a secondary in environmental science and public policy. She's taking a pre-law route and may pursue politics or criminology. Due to the pandemic, Izzo spent her entire freshman year taking virtual classes. She is excited to experience campus life for the first time.
 
During her gap year, Izzo did participate in An Evening with Champions ice show to raise money for The Jimmy Fund, which is the fundraising arm of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The annual show has been around since 1970 and takes place at the Bright Hockey Center in Allston, Massachusetts, home to Harvard's ice hockey teams.
 
Now that she is a student, Izzo may decide to join the board to help organize this upcoming spring's show. She thinks participating in a show to raise money for such a worthy cause gives new purpose to her skating.
 
"Skating is so solo and so introspective that to be able to have that tangible outward effect in such a positive manner, it makes it all worth it in that moment," she said. "It's such a warm feeling and such a good feeling that something that I love to do and I worked so hard at can be a facilitator for such a positive and wonderful foundation and movement."
 
She will be competing this week at the 2021 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic at her home rink in Norwood, Mass. and hopes to qualify for January's 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville.

Fans can watch Gabriella Izzo compete this week live and on-demand on Peacock Premium.