From athletic jumps to beautiful elegance, ice skating is a sport that entails persistence and patience. This sport requires a person to have great athleticism to be able to skate on ice without falling, which is more difficult than it appears. However, senior Nia Chavez and junior Vivian Luo have what it takes to be great skaters. Although Luo has skated for many years, she has found her rightful place on the ice as an ice dancer, which does not have as many tricks and athletic jumps in the routine as ice skating. Since Luo was five-yearsold, she has practiced and perfected ice skating with help and support, especially from her mother Grace Chen. Luo became interested in ice skating when a her mother enrolled her in lessons, and Luo’s mother enrolled her in classes as well. When Luo first started to ice skate, her role model was two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan. However, after a while, Luo became overwhelmed by her training schedule that had her practicing every day.

“Sometimes I would not want to get up in the morning and practice, but my mother was persistent and because of her, I have become a better ice skater,” Luo said.

After a while, Luo noticed that she had difficulty in the jumping aspect of the sport and her coaches decided to change her performance style to ice dancing, which required less jumping and more style and fluid synchronized skating with a partner. For six years, Luo and her partner, Darrell Cheung, have created beautiful memories at the Junior National Championships for ice dancing. In the future, Luo hopes to continue skating in her free time and become a figure skating judge at the professional level, or become an ice skating teacher.

Furthermore, Luo’s skating coach of five years knew from the first moment he met Luo that she was going to be a strong athlete. Luo’s coach, Peter Kongkasem, has a history of coaching Olympic, World, and National ice skaters for about ten years. When Kongkasem first started to coach Luo, he noticed that she had amazing posture and elegance that was required for the sport.

“Vivian has a strong sense of focus and perseverance, and when she sets her mind to something, she always tries 100%,” Kongkasem said.

In the future, Kongkasem hopes that Luo will continue to skate whenever she has a chance, but Luo has also taken an interest in judging figure skating. With judging, Luo will still be connected to the sport and retain her passion for ice skating.

Along with Luo, Chavez has also been an avid ice skater for nine years, and started to skate when she was just nine years old. Chavez has competed in a number of competitions over her years of training, but found it difficult to continue to balance skating with school. While she was skating, she enjoyed many competitions.

“My favorite competition occurred when I was 11-years old and I performed the Mexican Hat dance and skated to the best of my ability,” Chavez said. Chavez has trained at the Ontario Ice Arena, East West Ice Palace, and Toyota Sports Center for a total of nine years. Through all of the back and forth areas of training, Chavez remained strong and focused on her goals to do better each day.

Throughout her whole experience on the ice, Chavez has her coach La Rhonda Scott and her mother to thank for teaching Chavez to always try her best and reach for her dreams. Chavez always has chosen to do her best and continues to have a passion for ice skating.

Throughout Luo and Chavez’s experiences with ice skating, both have proved to have learned the amount of focus and discipline with achieving the strength and courage to try their best at achieving their dreams. Ice skating requires one to put everything he or she has trained for on the ice and hope to inspire others to attempt something that may seem difficult to overcome.