I became a GOLD MEDALIST FIGURE SKATER IN 5 YEARS | Road to U.S. Nationals Vlog
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- Опубліковано 20 кві 2024
- I started skating completely from scratch, zero experience at all, at the age of 20 years old. Fast forward, after 5 years of pure grit, willpower and many hours of training on the ice, I have gone from not even being able to skate forwards or know how to stop to becoming the 2024 U.S. National Champion in my event.
This video personally means a lot to me and I am sharing this with you all with the hopes that it too inspires someone out there to also to chase after their dreams no matter how old you are or how “foolish” a dream can seem. If you were to tell me 5 years ago that I would be a National gold medalist I would have completely laughed and thought “no way that could ever be me.”
Hope you guys enjoy my long road to nationals and thank you as always for following along my journey!
Thank you again for watching and as always appreciate everyone’s support internet heart
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Based currently in NYC | 25
Figure Skater by Early Morning, Consultant by Day, Content Creator by Night
Just another gal in nyc trying to navigate the madness of being 20 something
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I'm 19, looking into buying my first skates soon, and I hope someday I can learn to figure skate. Stuff like this gives me hope it's not too late! Congrats on winning gold
i wish you luck with this and hope you decide to start skating!
Thank you so much! Good luck on your journey! Keep us updated on how it goes!
Have fun with it! I am 40 and yaking leasons for the first time. Its so fun!
I am 25 and starting next winter! In the meantime i do off ice 😏😏😏
THE LUTZ THOOO GET IT GIRLLL WHAT A BOOTYFUL EDGE
WE REALLY TRIED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN THIS SEASON🥺
RACHEL🫶🫶
I started at 14 and this gave me so much hope for my skating future as I thought I'd never be able to participate in big comps!
im 14 turning 15 in november, i might be getting my own skates this weekend after asking to skate for 3 years, i live kinda far away from all the rinks, about 30-45 mins away and both my parents are full time. I will only be able to skate once a week. How long has it been since you first started?
You definitely can! I believe in you- keep going and best of luck on your skating journey. Definitely keep us all updated!
@@cathydingg Ive got my own skates and im going once a week, might be starting private lessons this term, if not ive got my dad on the side telling me what todo (He was a pro skater when he was young), starting group lessons next term! Thank you for your lovely words i binge your videos haha xoxo
Hey Cathy, I started skating at 37 and now at 39 been pushing myself to get consistent with the elements and get a program together, watching you for a while and this was so inspirational , perfect timing as I am feeling like I am hitting a wall but I will keep pushing! (The thought of being too old always comes to mind during these times)
Congrats, super well deserved! So exciting to see your progression! ❤
You got this!! It's totally normal to hit a wall sometimes! Just 2 days ago, I had one the worst practices I've ever had and it felt so demoralizing but you just have to push through and keep going and believe that you can do it. Good luck on your journey and keep us all updated on how things go!
Hi Cathy, I have been following for over a year now, and you have inspired me to keep going as an adult skater (I’m 35 and just starting on my journey). So happy for your 1st place at nationals!! You deserve it!!
Thanks for your content, your honesty, and not being afraid of being out there😊
PS. I loved finding out you play volleyball as well (another passion of mine). Hope to see some of that content too!
Hi there! Thank you so much for the kind note! Excited for you to start your journey and certainly keep us updated on how it goes! Love hearing from another fellow volleyball player as well! Hope to put more content around that as well in the future! (:
Congratulations! I am also 25 starting skating as an adult and so happy that a community of adult figure skaters exists! That after party looks so fun!
Thank you!! So excited to have you join the community!
Hey Cathy,
I am SO GLAD I got to meet you formally at nationals this year!!!
I got to watch both your showcase performance and your freeskate in person and both were absolutely STUNNING!! I love the passion and precision in your performance!! Watching you skate inspires me to push my performance more in the next season!!
Overall, I love the aesthetic of this video!! It’s always fun to re-live the nationals experience through this video and I love how you made it a super personal reflection of how far you have come in the sport! We put so much money, time and effort in this sport and hope in the end it all works out! I am SO HAPPY all the hard work, time, money and energy you put in to this event paid off for you with a NATIONAL GOLD MEDAL 🥇! You deserve it for all you have done and all you have shown us we can do as adults!
Finally thank you for normalizing that skating is for everybody! The work you are doing to normalize that adults can have careers and still pursue their goals and dreams outside their career is very powerful!
Congratulations again on all your achievements this season and I look forward to following your journey for next season and seeing you next year at nationals 😃❤️💪🎉⛸️
Thank you so much Ashley and it was so nice to meet you at Nationals and look forward to seeing you again next year!! Congrats on your skates as well (:
Cathy!! It was such a pleasure meeting you, you have worked so freaking hard for this and thank you for bringing us along your journey
Hi!! It was so great meeting you at Nationals and congrats again on your win as well! Hope to see you again next season!
That’s so inspiring! I just started 2 months ago. I’m 9, but there are 9 year olds at my rink who’ve been skating since they were 2
OK MISS GOLD MEDALIST!!!! SO SOO PROUD OF U
THANK YOU I AM SO PROUD OF YOU TOO
Cathy, congratulations! Your figure skating is so beautiful! 🙂
Thank you so much Paula!
@@cathydingg You are very welcome! I wished that I had seen your two performances in Cleveland. Those two rinks were just to cold to sit around in except for the lobby.
Ahhhhhhh CATHY YOU DID IT!!! And SO WELL DESERVED!!! That lutz was :chef-kiss: and those spin entries made me star struck 🤩 Congratulations again, and thanks for editing another full vlog!
Thank you so much!!! Hope to see you soon again!!
Congrats on the win, Cathy! You SO deserve this for all the hard work you have put into this sport!
Thank you so much Elena!!
Outstanding work!! Congrats Cathy!!
Thank you very much! (:
wow it’s crazy how you have come! congrats!! 🎉😊
Thank you so much!!
Congratulations! You worked so hard 💚
Thank you so much!! (:
Ahhh HUGE congratulations on your gold medal!!! This made me really emotional actually - I've been watching your videos for a while and I've seen how much effort you put in, and it has so paid off. I'm so delighted for you!! I started skating last year too and your journey is hugely inspirational to me - thank you for your wonderful videos, and can't wait to see where you go next
Thank you so much for watching! It means a lot to me and I'm so happy that you started your own skating journey as well! Keep us updated on how things go and best of luck on your journey! (:
@@cathydingg thank you so much 🥰 I will do!!!
Wow just looking at the clips of your competition compared to when I started watching your videos around a year ago, looks like you upgraded a lot of your elements. Congrats on your hard work paying off
Thank you so much!! Really appreciate the kind note!
A huge congratulations gorgeous!!!!
Thank you so so much!! (:
Huge congrats!!
Thank you so much!
I’m 21 now and in may I’m gonna have my first freestyle figure skating competition, trying to make it more easy by watching your videos 💗
You got this! Believe in you! Keep us updated on how your journey goes! (:
I started learning figure skating mid-last year; I became more intensive to train myself in the rink from Oct last year on. I skate just for fun and physical well being, no ambition to win anything.
That’s still an amazing reason to skate!! What’s truly best is doing what makes you happiest
Wow! This gives me hope! I skated recreationally when I was younger, but never joined a skate club (I had bad experiences with other sports clubs). Now I want to take skating seriously and accomplish far beyond what I've ever done.
By the way, congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉
Yes!! So happy to hear that! You can do it! Thank you so much and keep us updated on your journey!
I also met you at Adult Nationals. I was wearing the yellow dress, and I even made it in this video! Congratulations on your accomplishments! 💛
Yes!! I remember and your makeup was stunning! It was so good to meet you! Congrats on your skate as well!
Omg congrats!!🥹🥹💖
Thank you love! 💕
Age is just a number, but among every other numbers, the one I never see is "how much did it cost". because Figure skating is an elitist sport and it's a reality. If you don't live near an ice rink, if you can't afford or have parents who can afford private and intensive lessons, if you can't spend hours on the ice, if you don't have the best equipment, you can skate for years and never improve meaningfully. I'd wish people spend less time on the "if you want it, you can do it, motivation is the key" and more on the "how to manage your work-skating time schedules, how much improvements really cost and how to make the sport more accessible". People love talking about the physical and mental struggles and never about the practical (financial) struggles that prevent a lot of people from improving or even starting figure skating. Especially as an adult where you will mostly assume all these costs yourself :) Are intermediary and advanced figure skaters so wealthy they wouldn't even bother talking, or even thinking about it ?
Hi there! 100% valid and 100% agree- I spent a lot of time talking about this aspect of skating in my "How to Start Figure Skating Video" about the financial aspect of this sport and how difficult it can be to manage. I talk a bit about how I budget for it there but especially when I started in college as someone who still today has a lot of loans to pay off, I worked multiple part-jobs to be able to afford skating. And money is definitely a factor that makes it a lot harder to skate (when I was in college, I had to travel 2-hours on public transport just to be able to find a rink with coaching). Even today, there's sacrifices that I make financially to make skating possible, so ultimately agree that I too also wish the sport was less expensive and more accessible.
@@cathydingg you should do a video where you speak openly about it ! It would be so interesting to learn your background and how you came here. You should explain the financial and practical struggles you had, I’m sure a lot of people would relate about it. It would put light on this aspect of figure skating, because advanced figure skaters never talk about it (obviously because they never had to assume these costs themselves). You have a significant fanbase, it would be very useful if you talked openly about it 🙏 money remains the main hindrance in figure skating for me.
Cathy, I am so happy for you!!! Thanks for filming and putting together such a beautiful video. Start to finish, I enjoyed every part of it. You are a such a beautiful skater! I have future goals to test and compete and this gives me inspiration!
Thank you so much Sophia for your kind words! You can 100% do it! Look forward to hearing updates on your journey!
I love this!! What music did you skate to? Your outfit is amazing!
Thank you! I will post my freeskate program soon but I skated to a mix of Yearning by Raul Ferrando and Layali Al Sharq by Al-Ahram Orchestra!
yasss u slay and always will!
Thank you!!
Congratulations!!! And your earrings fit perfectly well with your dress! It's a pity that coaching in skating isn't as liberal everywhere, adults competing would just be for most clubs a waste of time here so my skating experience has been quite different lol, i def still be skating otherwise
(liposomal vit D can allow you to stack it with the classic one, zinc gluconate is also good for the skin / not getting sick, as well as vit D, all of those are good and cheap for preventing travelling inconvenience ^^)
Hi! Thank you for the advice on the immune system support! Appreciate it and the one thing I will say is put yourself out there- even if a coach doesn't typically work with adults, doesn't mean you can't try. And the other thing that I've found is that if you consistently show up and work hard, most coaches recognize that and respect that no matter what level you are. But of course that can differ from situation to situation but that's what I have learned from my experience!
@@cathydingg Thanks for the reply and encouragements; tbf, the 3 coaches represented France at some point in 1 discipline, and they told me that if i was willing to travel between 600k and 900k per week, a club could fit me. Also since i was the only adult, and quite in shape, i didn't fit well with teenagers who can still be uncomfortable with their images. Like i had some valuable stuff stolen a few times...
An old lady who is a doctor got kicked from dance bc for obscure reasons too, and another adult got different issues the year before me so i learnt my lesson, even my money wasn't welcome here lol. Plus it's way too hilly for inline
But i didn't abandon the idea of skating someday, and i'm still kinda training for, i'm just waiting for a better place or time haha
Sorry for the reading!
First?? Congrats on winning nationals❤❤
Thank you so much!! (:
I got comments. Imagine if there was decent pho served at every rink and high speed internet with little office spaces. Also, I did see your programs in-person here in CLE and the knee spin choreo definitely stood out. I really enjoyed seeing this behind the scenes perspective of the whole arc of your journey, because it gives me an idea of how far I could be in 4 - 5 years. I'm currently at that point where my brain just isn't ready to allow me to really go for the loop.
Haha that would be the dream- thanks for catching my skates at Nationals! Appreciate it a lot and good luck on your skating journey as well!
the buckling down for the lutz is too real. it literally took me 6 months to fix my lutz edge
i love that the world got to see me as i truly am (unhinged)
omg hi Liz
Congrats on winning nationals! I'm travelling to NYC in 2 months, which rink would be the best to go practice in Manhattan/Brooklyn?
Thank you so much! There's a rink called City Ice Pavilion but it's Long Island City, and there's Sky Rink in Manhattan . Most rinks in Brooklyn are seasonable so much ice there in the summer unfortunately!
💜💜
Congrats! You mention that in final preparations for the end of season that you practiced 2 hours a day, 7 days a week. How did you manage that with a full time job? Do you get in the ice super early in the morning?
I just assume she trained later in the day. I’m a an elite rhythmic gymnast that goes to school full time and I have practice 4h-ish a day but later in the day from 5pm-8:30/9pm. I just assume she goes to work in the morning and in the afternoon she goes to practice
Where I skate, late afternoons and evenings are reserved for hockey. So you have to get in early or during the work/school day to get any figure skating ice. But maybe her rink has more availability
Hi Janet! Yes that is correct! I do skate super early in the morning as you are correct (I get up around 6 AM), my rink also doesn't really have freestyle sessions after work. Also the nature of my job is a bit unpredictable from day to day so some days I get off at a reasonable time like 6 PM but other times I may be working until 10/11 PM so skating later would be hard even if I could! If helpful I plan on doing a video soon about how I balance my corporate job and skating!
@@cathydinggI would love to see that video! I’m not a morning person at all, and am just getting back into skating this year. Finding a good practice schedule is rough!
@@Bunnyplans Hi! I just released a new video today talking about how I balance my corporate job with skating and providing some practical tips there! Hope it’s helpful! 🫶🏼
the first video is from your start of ice skating? and you were learning how to do backwards doing crossover and sitspin?;p
Haha indeed I did not just start learning sit spins at day 1!! I never thought I would be making videos about skating so unfortunately I didn't take videos of myself skating until about 1/2 year into my journey so all those upfront clips were about 6 months into my skating journey!
@@cathydingg oh i see, well done!:D i hope to get to this point one day
I wish there was an ice rink on my country
Keeping my fingers crossed that you will have a rink soon!
@@cathydingg thank you ♡♡♡
24.09!? I have doubles in my solo. Like 2 lutz. my season's best is 24.98! how are you so close to my score!?
Congrats on your doubles!! That’s amazing- I wish I will get mine someday!! I just scored high on my GOEs, my spins and my PCS! (:
@@cathydingg congrats! I already knew you were born for this!💪
You choreographer is Kaitlyn Weaver?🥹 I love her🫶🏻
Yes! Indeed- she is amazing! (: