Pulling her hair into a bun, zipping her jacket and lacing up her skates, senior Prisha Patel steps onto the ice. The first cut of her blades breaks through the untouched surface. Cold air stings her face as she speeds up, her hair lifting behind her as she spins until the world dissolves into a soft blur. Morning after morning, this is the place she returns to, not in pursuit of medals but because it’s the one place where everything else falls away.
Patel began figure skating when she was three-years-old, one of the several sports her parents enrolled her in without the expectation of it sticking. Fifteen years later, skating is still part of her daily life.
“Words can’t describe the feeling I get when I get onto the ice,” Patel said. “It’s like an adrenaline rush. [When] I’m jumping and spinning around,
that’s what excites me.”
Over time, her involvement in other sports decreased and her attachment to figure skating grew. She liked never having to worry the weather would affect practices. More than that, she craved the feeling of being on the ice.
“When I wake up and get out of bed, I always really want to go skating,” Patel said. “That’s how I decided to stick with skating over the other sports.”
Much of Patel’s life revolves around skating. She gets to the rink by 6 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and goes straight to school afterward. She balances rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) classes by taking advantage of any free time she finds, fitting homework into car rides or while waiting at the rink.
“Her training is super intense,” Patel’s friend, senior Greeshma Raghav, said. “She’s always balancing early practices, school and conditioning. Even with that, she still makes time for the people she cares about. It shows how much effort she puts into everything in her life.”
Patel skates solo and on a synchronized skating team, dedicating most of her time to the latter. She’s also earned a role as co-captain, leading 20 skaters with the help of two other captains. She leads with a more approachable demeanor to create a welcoming environment.
“I want them to see me as more of a friend than a captain,” Patel said. “If they see me that way, they actually listen. I’m not very stern with them because they do what they have to on time. Sometimes it gets out of hand, at that point I will be more serious.”
Still, leading the team doesn’t come without frustrations. Scheduling practices, especially during the holiday seasons, poses a challenge.
“No one’s schedule lines up,” Patel said. “Everyone keeps saying ‘I can’t do that day’. That’s when we get frustrated. It’s especially bad during Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break.”
On top of early practices, schoolwork and leading her team, she also takes on another role at the rink, coaching young skaters. She gravitates towards teaching 9 to 15-year-olds.
“I like coaching them because I can relate to them the most,” Patel said. “They also have a slightly higher skill set which I’m more used to.”
One of her favorite parts of coaching is when they ask her questions, especially technical ones.
“It makes me feel like I really know this stuff,” Patel said. “Sometimes they ask something so specific I have to reflect on how I do it. It makes me improve as well as them.”
She plans to continue synchronized skating in college, and is already reaching out to college coaches, introducing herself and sending videos of her best skills.
“All the colleges I’m applying to have really good skating teams, so I’m excited to try out for them,” Patel said.
As she continues growing as a skater and leader, Patel has noticed the culture of the sport and the challenges that arise from it. She offers advice for beginner figure skaters on how to combat these social difficulties.
“There’s a lot of gossip and bullying, but you just have to have the mindset of not taking it personally,” Patel said. “It’s definitely a cutthroat sport but you just have to focus on your own skating.”
For Patel, skating is more than a sport. It’s shaped her discipline, is a source of motivation and provides a space to de-stress. She returns to the rink everyday because the ice is where she feels at home.
“When you see her skate you can tell how calm and confident she is,” Raghav said. “You can tell skating is her place to breathe. It felt really special to watch her do something she cares about so much.”
