Pairs Skaters McBeath & Bartholomay Bring Romance On & Off Ice This Season

As the Olympic cycle resets and the Grand Prix season now underway, pairs team Katie McBeath and Nathan Bartholomay are concentrating on several goals.
 
The first is skating well at their Grand Prix as they open their season this weekend at the MK John Wilson Trophy in Sheffield, Great Britain. Also on the list is making the podium at the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California, after a fifth-place finish last season and hopefully being named to the ISU World Figure Skating Championships and Four Continents teams.
 
McBeath, who first wanted to sign up for skating lessons after her parents took her to Disney on Ice's production of "The Little Mermaid" when she was a little girl, originally saw success as a single skater and reached the pinnacle of her singles career when she made Team USA and won the 2017 U.S. Collegiate Championships. She decided to become a "pairs girl" in 2019 after a successful tryout with Bartholomay.
 
Bartholomay competed with former partner Felicia Zhang at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. If he and McBeath were to make the Olympic Team in 2026, that would be 12 years between Olympic appearances. With Zhang, he also got a taste of what it feels like to stand on the national podium, earning silver in 2014 and bronze in 2013, and is yearning to get back up there with McBeath.
 
"That would be brilliant. Honestly, I take things one year at a time. My body's not what it was in 2014 and it's definitely a lot more challenging to train and do the work as rigorous as it is," Bartholomay, who is 33, admitted. "That would mean the world to get back to the Olympics."
 
Recovering From Injuries
Their season has gotten off to a delayed start because Bartholomay suffered a severely strained finger in the summer that left them unable to lift or twist to their fullest capabilities. Then, he needed to have an unexpected elbow surgery.
 
"Right around Champs Camp in August, we had a twist that went a little bit south and I hyper-flexed my right arm and it really hurt," Bartholomay said, originally brushing it and thinking the pain would go away on its own. "I came in the next day and I couldn't straighten my arm. I was like, 'This is really weird.' I figured the muscles were sore and there was just a tightness or a soreness that had to work its way out, so for the next few days we didn't really lift. We really didn't twist. We didn't throw even."
 
After about five days, he got an X-ray that showed foreign bodies in the joint, which were pieces of cartilage. It turns out that, when he played baseball as a child from the ages of 10-13, pieces of cartilage broke off in his elbow and have been there ever since.
 
"When I hyper-flexed my elbow, the joint opened and pieces of the cartilage went inside between the bones and it was completely restricting my range of movement to the point where I couldn't straighten my right arm enough to be able to hold Katie over my head because it was too bent," he recounted. "It was killing me. It took too much strength. I ended up getting an MRI a couple of days later."
 
Surgeons wound up removing six pieces of cartilage, which made a world of difference.
 
"It feels 100% now and we're working in all of our elements," he happily reported.
 
The Perfect Match
McBeath and Bartholomay are coupled up off the ice too and their connection is evident from the moment you meet them. They didn't even need to tell their coaches Jenni Meno-Sand and Todd Sand that they are romantically involved. The coaches, who are a married couple, just knew by looking at how they interact with one another.
 
McBeath and Bartholomay ended their tryout period with Bartholomay undergoing knee surgery. Certain this was her perfect on-ice match, McBeath patiently waited six months for Bartholomay to recover and be able to return to the ice. During that time, they texted and got to know one another. One month after they officially began skating together, they could no longer resist and suppress their true feelings and became a couple.
 
When skating partners are in love, it adds a layer to the choreography with authentic, genuine expressions. The love McBeath and Bartholomay have for one another is apparent in their short program to "Your Heart Is as Black As Night," which is choreographed by three-time U.S. Champion ice dancer Renée Roca.
 
"It's bluesy. A little bit of rock and roll at the end. It's very slinky," McBeath described. "With it being a sexier piece of music, that would not be easy with someone I'm less comfortable with. Definitely, I feel 100% comfortable around Nate."
 
She'll be wearing a lingerie-esque purple and black costume reminiscent of a cabaret performer. Bartholomay will have a costume to compliment hers, hand-painted by costume designer Dawn Imperatore in Florida.
 
They're keeping their free skate from last season to "The Blowers Daughter" by Christina Aguilera and Chris Mann, but got new, darker costumes that McBeath describes as "way more elegant and romantic compared to the dress last year that was bright raspberry pink."
 
Transitioning From Singles to Pairs
Bartholomay has a knack for successfully transitioning senior ladies singles skaters to pairs skaters. McBeath found his experience very valuable as she took up the new discipline, starting from scratch.

"There's not many pair guys who have been able to bring a senior singles skater up to the caliber that he has been at the senior pairs level as many times as he has," she said. "It's tricky to switch partners, let alone switch partners with someone who doesn't know anything about pairs because you basically start all over again. I give Nate a lot of credit for that because that's hard. If this was something I was seriously going to pursue, I hoped it would be with somebody who had experience, so the safety factor was better and especially because I was learning, and I didn't know what I was doing."
 
What Keeps Them Going
At the ages of 27 and 33, respectively, McBeath and Bartholomay are substantially older than a lot of actively competitive figure skaters. In addition to training, they are also adulting. For example, McBeath coaches at four rinks in Southern California and is working towards her master's degree.
 
"My pairs career is still fresh and short. I've learned a lot. I'm still learning a lot. I'm getting better. I think that drive is still there," McBeath said. "When this door opened, it created a whole new [goal] list. It's been kind of exciting to revisit that type of drive again in a different discipline."
 
Citing passion, Bartholomay added, "You have to love what you're doing. I've always said that I'll keep training and competing in pairs until I feel there's nothing left I can give to the sport. Afterwards, I'll try to help out with pair development or get a grassroots program going so that we have a bigger program in this country."