Jimmy Ma Looks for Self-Improvement at Veteran Status

At 27 years old, Jimmy Ma appears to be a thriving young adult at the peak of his career to most of the world.

But, in the skating world, he is actually on the older spectrum and past the age most retire. Nonetheless, Ma remains passionate about the sport to which he has dedicated his life and is only looking toward improving himself. 
 

"In the figure skating world, I'm very old, but in life I'm still a kid," Ma started. "At this point, I'm the veteran. A lot of other people have moved on with their lives, and I'm not moving on. I'm just trying to line things up for myself."  

Mariah Bell became the oldest women's competitor to win a U.S. title since 1927 in January. She was 25 at that time and announced her retirement at the beginning of October, six months after turning 26. As the sport has seen a rise of youngsters climbing the ranks of international competitions and attempting unthinkable jump elements, veteran competitors like Ma have honed artistic elements to be well-rounded athletes on the ice.  

"My support system is really great," Ma said. "Yeah, they make fun of me for being old, but, no, I don't feel pressure being the veteran. They (my support system) keep my heart at ease." 

According to Ma, last season he saw himself participate in too many competitions. Despite having a successful season and setting personal bests at Skate America and Golden Spin, The Skating Club of Boston competitor felt burned out by the end of the season. He eventually placed sixth at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships and 10th at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2022.
 
This season, he is taking a more reserved approach and maintains time for coaching his own students as well as transitioning from the ISU Challenger series to the Grand Prix series. 

"I'm really trying to pace myself," Ma, who will compete at Skate Canada International this week, explained. "I'm super-duper honored and like to be able to represent my country in such big events right outside the country, but I want to have a long season and I want to have a good season. I don't want to fizzle out before Nationals." 

To showcase his unique style and energy, Ma and his team chose League of Legion's "Warriors" by 2WEI and Edda Hayes for his short program music and a remixed "Claire de lune" by Claude Debussy for his free skate. Ma, who identifies as a gamer, first saw the music video for "Warriors" and instantly knew it would be a powerful piece for skating. 

"I don't play League of Legions, but they do a lot of things with Imagine Dragons," Ma said. "When I watched the ["Warriors"] video with the cinematic and everything … I got chills down my spine." 

Ma actually heard the piece over a year ago but was waiting for the right moment to use the piece. Originally, he had contemplated using music by The Weeknd, who is one of his favorite artists. However, choreographer Benoit Richaud also clicked with "Warriors" and saw its potential for the program.  

"He said, 'This is the piece,'" Ma shared. "Literally within like five to 10 minutes of being on the ice, we were almost done with the footwork. It just all came together."  

More than anything, Ma felt the piece was able to elevate his creativity and skating skills. For the free skate, Ma took the opposite approach to crafting the program with choreographers Nikolai Morozov and Adam Blake and chose music later.  

"What I do with Nikolai a lot is we choreograph footworks first and then we kind of choose music," Ma said. "When I approached Adam, I told him I didn't know what I wanted to do for a free program. But, I wanted him to choreograph the choreo step sequence. And, I wanted to find something that will absolutely slap and will get the crowd going." 

According to Ma, Morozov chose three versions of "Claire de Lune '' to find the one Ma identified with most. In "true Ma fashion," Ma and his team found the contrast between upbeat and classical music thanks to a Chanel commercial's use of the 1890's Debussy composition.
 
"I really want to start drawing in more people to watch," said Ma, who has also skated to DJ Snake and Lil Jon's "Turn Down for What." "DJ Snake was fun, but I also don't want to typecast myself. I want to be able to do a lot of different things."

Ma was able to debut these new programs at the Challenger Series' U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Lake Placid last month. According to Ma, the competition did not go as planned as he struggled in the short program, but it was a good start to the season. As he looks forward to his Grand Prix series assignments at Skate Canada and NK John Wilson Trophy, Ma is looking to improve his personal bests and maintain a level head.