The United States has long been known as a melting pot. People move from all over the globe in pursuit of the American dream. This is especially true in figure skating. Team USA is comprised of members originally from Canada, Russia, and Korea, for example. They wear the red, white, and blue with pride.
Reigning U.S. junior champion Clare Seo was actually born in Pomona, California, while her parents were studying in the U.S. After earning their degrees, the family returned to Korea when she was 5 years old, which is where Seo spent most of her childhood.
Seo competed at the juvenile, intermediate and novice levels in Korea. During the pandemic, Seo, along with her mom and sister decided they wanted to return to the U.S., so her mom reached out to coach Tammy Gambill in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to coordinate a visit and try-out about two years ago.
"We just connected really well right away," Gambill said. "We had a couple lessons and it was a good fit. This was a good match."
Seo said, "She understood my jump style and she cares about everything in my program—step sequence, skating, spins, and jumps."
Seo now joins the long list of Asian Americans who are making their mark on U.S. Figure Skating. Olympic champion Nathan Chen and Seo's training mate and two-time Olympian Karen Chen both influence her to try new things.
"I think America really supports athletes to go to the Olympics and other competitions, so that is one of the reasons we decided to move to here," she said.
Gambill did not have to change Seo's skating dramatically. Her coaches in Korea taught her all the basics properly.
"She had some great skating skills, great edge work," Gambill said. "We worked on the timing of some of her jumps a little bit, but she was a good skater when she came. We worked a little more on her spins and posture. Some of the technique needed tweaking."
Seo credits Gambill and her coaching team for helping her improve her jumps by focusing on full rotations, avoiding cheated landings, and cleanliness. She said Gambill also places emphasis on the importance of step sequences in routines.
"Her jumping is probably her strongest element. Her speed and flow. She's quite strong with that," Gambill said." She's a good spinner, but she doesn't like to spin as much. All she wants to do is jump! She has great edges. She has great performance quality. Her step sequences are strong. She has a lot of really good qualities and now I'm trying to get her to emote more and express the program. What story are you trying to tell in your routine? Not just going from jump to jump to jump. What is the message you are trying to portray?"
Although Seo does share Gambill with Karen Chen, she doesn't cross paths with her too much at the rink. Seo is still enrolled in brick-and-mortar high school part-time and does the balance of her education online, so her time at the rink is limited.
On occasion, they do share a session and Gambill sometimes asks Chen to demonstrate technique during Seo's lessons. "Clare has natural speed. She's a very fast little skater," Gambill said. "I use Karen as an example for the flow and extension coming out of her jumps and spin quality."
Seo hopes to one day return to Korea to compete, but this time as an international competitor on behalf of Team USA. This skating season, she competed at the Junior Grand Prix events in Poland and France and is now off to Estonia for the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2022. Her goal at World Juniors is to land her triple Lutz-triple toe in both of her routines and to earn a personal best score.
The 2022 World Junior Championships were originally scheduled to take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, March 7-13, but were postponed due to COVID-19, thus giving Seo more time to prepare.
Seo has made great progress on her triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple loop combination, so those elements could potentially be added to her routines for the 2022-23 season. She is also working on her triple Lutz with her arms over her head to gain more points.
"A quad toe could be in the near future for her," Gambill added.
Had it not been for the support of her family, Seo may have never even reached the point in her career to be learning a triple Axel and quads. The double Axel took a long time for her to land and she considered quitting. Her family encouraged her to keep at it, and she is glad they did.
Her mom not only provide emotional support, but also makes some of her costumes.
"She knows me a lot better than other designers," Seo said. "Her costumes are more beautiful than other designers because they fit me very well and she has really good fashion sense about making the dress."
Seo is skating for the right reason—the joy of the sport. Despite only being a high school freshman, Seo enjoys reading sports psychology books and may pursue that as a career path in the future. It helps her set realistic goals.
She's observed so many skaters who are too hard on themselves and feels that someone else is pushing them to do it. She hopes they can enjoy skating just as much as she does.
"Clare has this joy about her when she skates that's really fun to watch," Gambill said. "She can make a mistake and she'll look over and giggle. She's definitely a very hard worker and you can see when she's training that she just loves to skate and she'll keep doing it. She'll get mad and frustrated and grunt and then go try it again. She's eager to get better."
