The video below contains multiple clips from my journey. The last clip, where I am shown ending a program, is the final clip of my competitive skating career. That was the end of the last program I ever performed and where I was ultimately named a 2x U.S. Figure Skating Gold Medalist. I skated to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as an ode to the ending of the biggest chapter of my life thus far. (If you are wondering why I am not wearing a dress, after Covid we were allowed to test in all black as opposed to traditional attire). You can see me beaming, mouthing the word “YES!” because, in that moment, I knew I was going to pass. It was, and is, the greatest moment of my life.
Coach Debby couldn’t take me… I was high enough at this point (even though I was “ruined”)… but she had no spots available. She called us explaining that she had called one other coach in Georgia… the only other coach known to make girls try out… and he only took on girls with a double axel or higher. Not only had I never started my double axel, but even my single was wonky. Debby told us she was willing to meet with us (she had called in a huge favor for me). To this day, I don’t know why.
I remember the first car ride to Duluth. I’m very straight-laced, but the only way to describe the rink is a complete and utter dump. The movie I, Tonya was actually filmed there… as the trailer park-looking rink she started at. My mom and I were nervous the whole drive, which inevitably made it feel even longer. We were an hour away from this rink without traffic. We both knew it was over for me… but I was trying to stay calm. I made my mom promise she wouldn’t watch. I knew she wouldn’t… we agreed she would never watch me skate again when we flew to New York and I couldn’t concentrate with her watching. She was too scared to see me get hurt to watch anyway, but she was still beside herself when I asked if she would stop watching me skate. It was now her whole life too. The rink was filled with moms in the bleachers… I was terrified. Less than a month after being told I was better to jump off a bridge than to ever skate again, I skated up to Coach Aren. Coach Aren is 5’3 and yet is one of the most intimidating men you will ever meet. That is, until he smiles. He didn’t smile at me the whole first lesson, though. I was on pins and needles when he said that my jumps sucked. My family barely slept the next week awaiting Aren’s call. We huddled around my mom’s iPhone 6 anxiously when he called. “Like Coach Debby, I am fully booked with girls.” In that moment, all our hearts sank… dropping simultaneously. He paused for what felt like forever before saying, “… but I want to take Avery on… so I have gotten special permission to extend ice time. We will meet privately at noon every day on the back rink. Just me and her.”
We met every day at noon for the next six years.
The rest is history.
PROGRAM MUSIC 2022: GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD BY ELTON JOHN (REMASTERED BY SARA BAREILLES)
“Make sure the pleasure always outweighs the pressure”
-Gracie Gold