When the Synchro Bubble Pops: A Season Without Nationals

by Sami Winawer

Everything was starting to feel almost normal. We were lucky enough to continue training as a team and had just competed at the virtual Dr. Porter Classic.  I even felt the competition nerves I so greatly missed as my team skated across my laptop screen. We received scores and feedback to work on and set the Colonial Classic and the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships as goals to train towards.  I finally felt like all our work would amount to something.

Then, nationals were cancelled and the junior world championships closely followed suit.  The news hit me hard. Nationals was supposed to be our one opportunity to showcase our programs to a live audience. Even if that audience was solely composed of  judges, it was going to be live!

I was, and still am, extremely proud of the two programs my team put together and I really wanted to show them off.  I deeply miss the feeling of stepping on the ice at a competition and knowing how hard my team worked for that moment.  Nationals, and the opportunity to compete in person, were the last bits of hope I had. They were the only things I was really able to look forward to.

After my team heard the news, we couldn’t wait until our next practice to be together. So, we got on a Zoom, just to see each others’ faces. What I thought was going to be a 30 minute sob-fest turned into nearly two hours of laughter and support. We talked about our favorite memories so far this season, what we look forward to working on in the coming months, and things that made us happy that day.  We watched our first short program run-through of the season, in which I fell in the wheel and had to duck under the line ahead of me to rush back to my spot, and celebrated how far we’ve come. In that moment, I realized I didn’t need a competition to give me joy, I just needed my 21 best friends.

This entire season has reminded me how much I love skating. It’s pretty easy to forget why I skate when I’m completely focused on the next competition. It turns out, my why is that I just love to skate.  I love skating drills to Christmas music on a Saturday morning.  I love mastering a new twizzle series.  I love seeing my teammates multiple times a week and I just love being on the ice.

This season has been hard for all of us and it’s okay to be sad. Trust me, I still am.  However, I think it’s also important to realize all the good this season has brought us. This season reminded me how much I cherish my teammates and how much I love to skate for the sake of skating. The next time we come together in a rink to cheer each other on will feel absolutely incredible. This season, we just need to wait a little bit longer for that moment. In the meantime, remember how much you love to skate and know you’re never alone.