Reigning U.S. Collegiate Champion Ryan Dunk is going after a two-peat this month at the 2022 U.S. Collegiate Championships & Invitational, taking place from July 22-24 in Richfield, Minnesota.
Earlier this year, Dunk thought he took his final bow as a singles skater in Nashville, Tennessee, where he placed ninth at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, moving up five placements from the previous year.
"It meant a lot to crack the top 10 because that was a goal of mine since my first senior nationals in 2020," Dunk said. "I kept my same long program from the year before, so I think it got better and better. The component side of things [improved too]. I would say the only thing that I changed is that I incorporated weight training into off ice, which I hadn't before, and I think that helped with stamina and jump power."
Dunk spent the rest of winter and beginning of spring finishing up his bachelor's degree in psychology from Suffolk University in Boston in only three years. Then, his family finally went on the "trip of a lifetime" to Italy that they had been postponing since 2019 due to the pandemic.
He already has a job lined up as a research assistant at Mass General Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he'll be working in an obesity, nutrition and weight loss program. He plans to work for a year or two and then apply for a PhD program in clinical psychology. His personal skating experiences have led him down this career path.
"When I first got onto Team USA and started going to U.S. Figure Skating training camps like ISP Camp and Champs Camp, they would set you up with a sports psychologist and that was the first time that I had spoken to somebody in a therapy setting," he said. "I thought it was so cool that you could train your mind in how you could practice to prepare yourself for competition. Also reframing things, changing your perspective, grounding yourself and being mindful. That's where my interest came from and I've definitely used those skills when I've competed."
Dunk is specifically interested in focusing on eating disorders, which he says unfortunately hits close to home.
"From my experiences, fueling and eating has been looked down upon a lot of the time, which is so backwards. It's a necessity in every single sport. You need food for energy," he said. "I think in the aesthetic-based sports like skating, we have this belief you need to be smaller to do difficult jumps and that can cause a lot of issues … When I met with a sports psychologist, we also had the opportunity to meet with nutritionists as well, which was the first time I had been given that opportunity and it was extremely helpful to hear a professional say, 'No, it's okay. You need to eat more. You need to have this. You don't want to cut things out. If anything, you want to be adding things.'"
Dunk hasn't started his new job yet, so he was looking to fill his free time after vacation. He made an impulse decision to register for the 2022 U.S. Collegiate Championships on the entry deadline date.
He even decided to choreograph two entirely new routines for the occasion with his coach Suna Murray. Dunk recently landed his very first quad, the quad toe loop, but it's not competition-ready, so he left it out of these new programs. He has increased the levels to align with new judging rules this collegiate season, though.
"The short program is to 'The Feeling Begins,' which Michelle Kwan skated to," he said. "My long program is to 'The Blower's Daughter' by Chris Mann featuring Christina Aguilera, which I actually skated to in the 2019-20 season for my short program. I've lengthened it and made it a long program now. I've always loved that program and that was kind of a rough year for me as far as injuries, so it's fun to get to redo it. This will be the first time and probably the only [I compete with these routines]. I've always loved creating new choreography and interpreting music has always been my favorite activity. [It's] always been very therapeutic for me."
With a self-professed Type A personality, Dunk likes to stay busy and disciplined. With his amateur solo career coming to a conclusion, he decided to join The Skating Club of Boston's senior Theatre On Ice team, Forte of Boston. The team won gold last month at the 2022 National Theatre On Ice competition in Wichita, Kansas.
"You still get as nervous as you would when you're competing by yourself, but the feeling afterwards when you've achieved something together feels so powerful. It's really fun," he said of the team sport.
Forte of Boston competed two routines, a contemporary themed choreographic exercise, which is similar to a short program, and a free skate to "Moonlight Sonata" and a medley of other pieces of music. Both were choreographed by Adam Blake.
When Dunk showed up for his first practice and his new teammates whipped out chains for a run-through of their free skate, his initial reaction was, "I'm not sure what I got myself into."
Then, it all made sense when he learned the meaning behind it.
"The overarching theme is about breaking free from something — something that's been holding you back or something that's pressing inside — so at the end, we place the chains down and we all skate our final pattern together," he explained.
Ryan Dunk will compete in the senior men's event. Follow live results from the 2022 U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships & Invitational here from July 22-24. More info on the event can be found here.
