Three of figure skating's top names offered their career advice and perspective during the keynote at Champs Camp this week.
Giving the viewpoint of the current athlete were three-time Olympians Madison Chock and Evan Bates while 1998 Olympic Champion and NBC broadcaster Tara Lipinski offered advice from her experience reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
Below are five takeaways from the evening:
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1.
Keep Chasing Your Dream, However Impossible It May Seem
Keep dreaming and setting goals. Believe that if you work hard, you can accomplish what you set your mind to. For Lipinski, even though she was not the favorite going into the 1998 Olympic Winter Games, she believed it was possible and overcame all the obstacles to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
"I think it was a running theme throughout my career, I was always the youngest. I wasn't the chosen one," Lipinski said. "There was a legend that I competed against, Michelle Kwan, who was two years older who had won a World Championships. Her trajectory was that she was going to win the 1998 Olympics and then all the sudden here I came, and I sort of upset that applecart and had to overcome so many obstacles, but probably by 13 I knew this was something that I wanted."
2.
Tap into What Makes You Magical
Be who you are and believe in yourself. What makes you uniquely you is your strength, so lean into it. There is no single recipe for success that works for everyone, but there is one for you.
"I think just sometimes tapping into what makes you magical. As silly as it sounds, what gives you that essence, that thing you can't quite articulate what it is, but you have it, and believing in it, and then that builds confidence," Lipinski said. "So, every competition you're building on that and then I think that becomes part of who you are as a skater."
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3.
Sometimes the Most Difficult Moments are the Most Important
With almost any journey or success story, there will be adversity. Not only did a tough ankle injury spark a change for Chock and Bates with their move to Montreal to train, but one of the most difficult moments of Bates' career, tearing his Achilles tendon, led to a turning point in his career and him skating with Chock in the first place.
"In the moment, it was really difficult to sit at home and watch three teams from my home rink sweep the World podium and to feel like maybe that was our opportunity to win our first World medal," Bates said of his injury while partnered with Emily Samuelson. "It was a really low point, but now looking back at it 10 years later, had that not happened, [Chock and I] would not be skating together. I truly believe that, so sometimes the perspective doesn't come right away when you're down and you feel out … It will get better, and it takes time."
4.
Enjoy the Process
Keep belief in yourself and the desire to be better. Keep you drive and fuel it by working hard.
"I would say it's mainly a love of learning and a feeling of challenging yourself and for so many years, I always felt like we could still improve and I could still improve," Chock said of why she's still skating. "There are so many things that I want to accomplish and areas that I feel like I could be better in, so it's just that drive and that thirst to be the best athlete I can be and the best person I can be and sport has helped me and guided me so much along the way."
5.
Remember Why You Love to Skate
Live in the moment. According to Lipinski, when the pressure is at it's highest, sometimes the performance that edges out another is the one where the true joy is genuinely seen.
"If there's something for me to remind you all, it's that you do all this training every day, but just take a moment to skate and hear your blades, to smell it, to feel that cold and remember why you actually are doing this in the first place."
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