HELENA — With the Winter Olympics in full swing, for many, figure skating is on the mind.
Helena Figure Skating Club President Crystal Ann Curry says they do see a spike in interest following the Winter Olympics.
This rang true for Ashlyn Magnuson, whose figure skating career started after watching the Olympics.
“I was five and I lived in Minnesota at the time. I saw all these people on the Olympics and I was like ‘Woah, look at their cool dresses, look at how they skate’ and I told my parents that’s what I wanted to do. So they found me a club and at the age of six I started competing,” she said.
Magnuson will be competing in the local Capital City Skate Challenge where she will be performing solo routines as well as an interpretive routine.
“It’s really fun because you get to be yourself and do the moves you want to do and so it’s not like you’re being coached to do those moves. So basically, with interp, your coaches go sit on the bleachers, they can’t help you at all.”
For skater Jeremy Barbagello, he started skating as an adult. His journey started with simply wanting to learn to skate backwards, but it has now turned into his hobby.
He started at Helena Figure Skating Club almost eight years ago and now competes at the adult bronze level. He will be competing in four different events in the upcoming Helena competition and says that figure skating has taught him a valuable lesson.
“It doesn’t matter how often you fall, it just matters that you get up and keep going and have fun,” he said.
You can see all of these skaters in action at Helena Figure Skating Club for the Capital City Skate Challenge over Presidents’ Day weekend.
