Catching Up with Pooja Kalyan

A member of Team USA through 2021, Pooja Kalyan continues to be involved in the sport in a variety of ways. A neuroscience major, the 2018 U.S. junior silver medalist now skates for Brown University's collegiate team. She also is making an impact as a volunteer, serving on the AAC and DEI task force for U.S. Figure Skating as well as officiating.
 
To celebrate AAPI Month, we caught up with Kalyan about her involvement in the sport, on and of the ice.

Tell me about your skating background. How did you get started in the sport and why do you love it?
I started skating when I was 6 years old at The Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas. I had recently quit gymnastics and would spend my afternoons after school watching my sister at swim practice at our local recreational center, The Jones Center. Wanting to give me something to occupy myself with, my mom asked me if I wanted to try swimming. I promptly said "no." She then walked me over to the ice rink, to which I was immediately in awe. I remember looking through the glass window seeing skaters gliding and spinning, wanting to be able to do that too.
 
It's oftentimes difficult for me to explain my skating journey to others, as I was a full-time student training primarily on my own at the recreational rink in The Jones Center until I was 17, with the support of my coaches there, Robin Aprea and Jennifer Cuchia. During school breaks, I would travel out-of-state to see the coach or choreographer (most notably, Frank Carroll, Alex Ouriashev and Scott Brown) I was working with at the time to learn new skills. I would then practice and maintain what I was taught while I was in school in Arkansas. Once I was a junior in high school, I transferred to Stanford Online High School so that I could have the flexibility to train in Colorado Springs with Tom Zakrajsek without sacrificing the rest of my high school education.
 
In short, my skating background is quite complex and definitely unique in how I trained and developed as an athlete, yet I feel like this is what gave me such a strong connection to the sport. I grew up loving the constant challenge that figure skating provided me, the incomparable feeling of jumping on ice, and most of all, performing in front of audiences during shows and competitions. I haven't experienced anything like the joy I have when skating and performing, and for me, that is really special.
 
You're co-captain of Brown's collegiate figure skating team. Talk to me about collegiate skating and the unique experience it offers skaters?
Collegiate skating is quite different from when I was competing individually, in that the environment is very team-oriented. Rather than training mostly for myself, as I had for the majority of my time skating, collegiate skating fosters an extremely supportive and collaborative community between skaters of all levels. Since I came to Brown in 2021, we have been working on growing our competitive figure skating team and are planning to compete at numerous collegiate competitions on the east coast this coming season. When I became co-captain last year, I wanted to dedicate time for Learn to Skate sessions so that skaters with little to no experience could develop their skills, and eventually start competing. It's been amazing to see some of our Learn to Skate members commit to practicing regularly and progress from no experience to learning singles and basic spins. Overall, I'm grateful for the friends I've made through Brown's Figure Skating Club, and I can't wait to continue growing our team and competing at intercollegiate competitions this season!
 
What do you want to do with your neuroscience degree and why? How did you get interested in studying neuroscience?
I am currently pursuing a Sc.B in neuroscience on the pre-medical track, and after graduating I plan to attend medical school and become a physician. I am still deciding what specialty I want to pursue; however at the moment, I am most interested in orthopedics and sleep medicine. Without proper health, it's difficult to function at our best, and regardless of what specialty I choose, I want to be someone who can find solutions to people's health issues to help them live their healthiest lives. With this goal in mind, I realized the clearest career path for me was as a physician.
 
Regarding my interest in neuroscience, I've known that I've wanted to study neuroscience since high school when I became fascinated about how integral the brain's functioning is in nearly all aspects of life. I specifically loved topics in sleep, as I realized how important it is to our physical and mental health, yet how little of it is actually understood. I pursued research projects related to sleep in high school, and upon coming to Brown, I have continued to be involved in sleep research in a couple labs on campus. I know that even when I pursue my M.D. and into the rest of my career, I want to continue pursuing sleep and neuroscience research, with the aim to use my findings to help advance medical treatments.
 
You're very involved with the sport of figure skating, from being a member of the AAC and DEI task force to officiating. What do you do in those roles and why was it important to you to stay involved?
Throughout my time competing, from when I was just starting out to when I was competing on Team USA, I relied heavily on the resources and support that my parents, coaches, rink staff, school and U.S. Figure Skating provided me. Even though I was motivated, hard-working and had a love for figure skating, looking back, I know that reaching my goals took the cumulative effort of many individuals who all had an impact on my skating career. Now, I want to use my experiences and advice to help skaters of all ages and backgrounds reach their goals, and being vice chair of the Athlete Advisory Committee, serving on the DEI Task Force and other committees, and officiating have allowed me the platform to do this.
 
The AAC is composed of 10 "10 Year" athletes from each discipline (athletes who have represented Team USA in the past 10 years), and we work collectively to address current concerns in the sport and provide ways to support current figure skaters further. In the DEI Task Force, we are developing ways to promote diversity and inclusion in figure skating, and are working on a variety of projects to ensure that figure skating can be as accessible to all backgrounds as possible. I hope to show other athletes the numerous ways they can stay involved in figure skating beyond competing through my work, and I am proud to give back to a sport that gave so much to me.
 
Since you're of Indian origin, what message do you have for skaters who want to be involved but may not see a lot of people who look like them?
Even though I didn't necessarily have anyone to look up to who was of Indian origin, I found motivation in knowing I could be someone to inspire more kids of South Asian descent to pursue figure skating. I want skaters who are in the minority in figure skating to not be afraid to be one of the first, and instead use this to motivate them to reach higher levels in the sport. Sometimes, taking the first step can be intimidating, except know that there are always going to be people who will support you as you reach your goals and you will be inspiring so many others along the way. My favorite quote is one that my former choreographer, Scott Brown, shared with me when I was 9 years old, which is "She believed she could, so she did." I believe this encompasses the exact message I want to send to other skaters, especially to those who don't have many people in figure skating who look like them.