Trysts with figure skating

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Cortina, Italy will open on February 6. I am excited about the figure skating events. I participated in all sports while growing up in India but never any winter sports simply because there was no snow or ice anywhere around Kolkata, nor any ice rink. My only exposure was occasional viewing of winter games on movie screens. However, I enjoyed watching women’s figure skating. My parents took me to a performance by the “Holiday on Ice” group when they visited Kolkata.

Figure skating is a wonderful combination of athleticism, natural beauty especially women’s beauty, grace, music, and free spirit in a presentation that does not exist in any other sport. Although called a sporting event, it is really a performing art. After I came to the US, I started to watch skating on TV. My serious interest started with Peggy Fleming who won the Olympic gold medal in 1968. Her stunning beauty added to the magical aura around a skater. Many years later I saw her in a live performance in a “Disney on Ice” show with my daughter. I closely followed all major skating news like the scandal involving Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in 1991.

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I remember breakfast cereal boxes with pictures of Dorothy Hamill on them. I was awed by the skating routine of German skater Katarina Witt to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” Women’s skating is the only attraction for me during the Winter Olympics. I was delighted to see US-born Alysia Liu recently become World Champion after many years of disappointment. As fate would have it, I befriended Sally in San Diego who mentioned somewhat casually when I met her that she used to be a professional figure skater; even now she occasionally taught little girls how to skate at the rink in University Town Center (UTC) near La Jolla. She was in her mid-forties at the time but was fit.

I was intrigued but thought that her skating days were behind her; teaching little girls was probably an excuse to be on the rink for old time’s sake. A few months later, she asked me if I would like to see her skate. I readily agreed. We headed out to the UTC rink. The rink was on the ground floor of a large indoor shopping mall. Sally had her own gold-plated skates which allowed her to skate more smoothly and made her stand out. I watched from a Starbucks on the second floor overlooking the rink. I almost screamed as soon as Sally started to skate. She was graceful and athletic but what floored me was her speed. She was moving from one end of the rink to the other at lightning speed. I was worried about the possibility of her colliding with another skater or falling on ice. That did not happen, proving her athletic abilities.

Ever since that first attendance I went to see her skate up-close whenever I had time. Sally was a member of the “Ice Follies” group as a professional skater in her teenage years. She toured many cities. She knew many famous skaters of her time, such as Oksana Baiul and Scott Hamilton. She encouraged me to skate. There was no obvious reward for me but great risk of falling on the ice and a major injury; I passed. Sally told me about her elements of fascination with skating, from glittering outfits and various skates, Axel jumps to that ultimate joy of finishing a routine with arms pointed upward to a cheering crowd. Skating is not only an expensive sport to engage in, but also requires hard work, often waking up very early in the morning and practicing for hours.

She also told me that all figure skaters are somewhat eccentric and messed up in their personal lives. One fringe benefit for me was the opportunity to meet some famous skaters. My most memorable moment was meeting Linda Fratianni (US national champion 1977-80, gold at the World championship in 1977, 1979 and a silver at the 1980 winter Olympics amid the controversy that she was unfairly deprived of the gold by Russian judges). There were scary experiences as well. Once Sally slipped on ice and fractured one wrist. I was not present when she fell but accompanied her to the orthopaedist’s and physical therapist’s offices. There were many cuts and bruises on various parts of her body at other times. I often asked Sally, “Why do you want to continue skating at this age, with risk of injury?” She responded, “This is my sanctuary.

When I skate, I forget all my troubles and feel like I am in a different world.” I can identify with that because that is how I feel when I paint; perhaps this was the bond of our friendship. One of my cherished memories was the day when Sally took my preteen granddaughter Sonali to skate. Sonali is a good athlete who excels in tennis, swimming, and softball. Sally could have certainly taught her to become a good skater if Sonali lived with me in California. It dawned on me that I have never seen a figure skater of Indian origin. I wondered if Sonali could set a pioneering example by becoming a famous Indian figure skater.

When I mentioned this to Sally, she texted me a video clip of an Indian American figure skater Tara Prasad which led me to do internet searches. I was pleasantly surprised on many fronts. Tara was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2000 to a Tamil immigrant family and gave up her US citizenship in 2019 so that she could win for India; she currently divides her time between Chennai, India and Colorado Springs, USA. She is an extremely gifted skater who won not only three Indian skating championships in a row (2022, 2023 and 2025; no competition in 2024) but has also been a silver medallist in two international contests in 2024: “Reykjavik International” in Iceland and “Skate Celje” in Slovenia.

She was handicapped by multiple injuries in 2023 but performed in the final rounds of the 2023 and 2024 “Four- Continents Skating Championships”. I also learned that now there is an Indian Skating Federation and many skating rinks in large cities (Mumbai, Dehradun, Kochi, Gurugram, Shimla etc.), despite India being a sub-tropical country. I hoped that Tara would be the first Indian figure skater to compete in a Winter Olympics but much to my disappointment, she withdrew from the Olympics due to a back injury. Nevertheless, I congratulate Tara for becoming the first internationally-famous figure skater of Indian origin. Against the backdrop of the Winter Olympics, I will certainly encourage Sonali to get into ice skating with Tara as a role model. That will bring my appreciation of skating to a true personal level.

(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America.)