Gracie Gold is a phenomenal U.S. figure skater who took home the gold twice at two U.S. National Championships. She was also placed in third at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. She has won several titles; however, in 2017, she had to take some time away from the sport and withdrew herself from competition, due to battling several mental health issues. She was suffering from depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder. She stepped back from the sport to focus on herself and getting better. This year she decided she was ready to start coming back into the sport. She had to qualify in her regional competitions in order to go to eastern sectionals, and after medaling at sectionals, she was able to reserve a spot for herself to compete at nationals. This is a difficult time for her to comeback after taking time off, but she is pushing through and trying her best to make it back up to the top.
She said in an interview that “America loves the fall of a hero. America loves a comeback story. America loves an underdog story, and I am all three of those stories” (Gracie Gold). Incredibly, she came back out on national ice to compete again after taking a few years off. She is there to show her emotion, maturity, artistry, and grace throughout her performance. Regardless of what she places in this competition, the placement and score does not matter as much as the simple fact that she is back out there doing what she loves and showing everyone that she is a fighter.
She opens with a stunning triple lutz, double toe combo, it was meant to be a triple triple combo but she turned the triple toe into a double last minute. It is likely that she did this because she did not get enough speed out of the triple lutz to turn the second jump into a triple. The next jump she did was meant to be a triple flip, but she popped the jump and only did a single. However, she put on her game face and did a high triple loop with a flowing landing position immediately after. In the past, if she were to mess up one jump in competition, she would give up on herself throughout the rest of the performance. This was not the case for this performance, as she is fighting the entire way through. Her next jump pass is a double axel, she could not quite stick the landing and stepped out of the jump. She did a beautiful level 3 combination spin, followed by a lovely step sequence that she took her time on to match the tempo of her music and choreography. She does a double lutz in the second half of her program, followed by a triple flip, double toe combo. It is amazing that she did this jump in the second half of her program because she popped the triple flip in the first half of her program. This section alone shows that she is a fighter. She pulls in tight to do a beautiful triple salcow as her last jump. She goes right into a flying combination spin that received a level 4. Moreover, she does beautiful choreography into her last spin being a lovely layback.
“She’s not perfect, but she tries,” some beautiful lyrics in the song choice she skated to. She has a heartbreaking story, but she pulls through and gives her all in this performance. Although there were some technical mistakes made, she got back out their determined to rewrite a new ending to her story. “She is gone, but she used to be mine” some other lyrics in the song she chose. This represents her past with the sport, and her mental health. Although that was a time that that she struggled, she pushed through it, so that version of herself is gone but it used to be all she was. In another interview, she said that she felt as though she was on a train and could not get off. She felt as though her career and everything had to be prepackaged, and felt as though she could not be herself. She took the power back. It is extremely inspiring to see her back out there. Throughout this performance, this is the realest version of herself that anyone in the audience has seen from her. She was beautiful and strong. The performance made everyone watching feel so drawn into her story. It made everyone feel her pain because she showed so much of her true self in her program. She was invested personally in her own experience and showed it on the ice. This was the most heartfelt and emotional performance at nationals. The way she cried at the end of her program showed how much she loves the sport, the courage it takes to be back out there, and how she put her all in this comeback. She is absolutely incredible and will always deserve a standing ovation from the audience.
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