I’ve always loved watching Figure Skating, but it’s usually an every 4 years when the Olympics are on kind of thing for me. As this year’s Winter Olympics were approaching, I discovered that the ISU were holding the European Championships in Sheffield. Which is only a <4 hour train journey from where I live, so my mum and I decided to make the trip! We spent 2 days in the arena with tickets to watch all of the Ice Dance and the Men’s and Women’s long programs.

As my first time at a live skating event, here were my thoughts:

• It was so cool to be in the rink, see the whole event and hear the skaters as they speed past you
• I loved watching warm-up periods with multiple skaters on the ice at one time
• I was absolutely enraptured by the Zamboni resurfacing the ice every couple of groups
• Figure skating sessions are long, and there’s a lot of time between performances, so sometimes I read or my mum taught me how to crochet
• Skating crowds love to clap along, even when it doesn’t suit the song, or they’re off time
• The amount of plushies thrown on the ice after performances seems wasteful to me and a pretty infantilising tradition for adult professional athletes (what do they do with them all?!)
• The ISU love the song Cold as Ice
• By setting a theme for the Rhythm Dance, it’s a shame there aren’t parameters to avoid everyone doing the same song – I heard a lot of Ricky Martin
• It’s always sad when skaters fall :((
• Ice skating jumps are absolutely crazy – how are they doing that?!
• I wish the Men put as much into the performance and artistry as the women
• If they can judge Ice Dance as an Olympic sport, could they not judge land dancing as a sport too?
• Kind of weird how romance (fictional or real) is valued in Ice Dance
• My absolute highlight was Josefin Taljegard from Sweden, who skated a stunning long program to Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back to Me Now. She is so expressive and lyrical, she genuinely moved me like no other skater. The emotion in the room was palpable, it made me tear up, and the whole arena gave her a big standing ovation. I recommend you give her performance a watch.

Coming out of that event, I was hyped for the Olympics coming up. Though not for the skating, I was actually in Milan during some of the Winter Olympics. I wish the schedules could have aligned for me to get tickets but that wasn’t meant to be.

Watching these Olympics has been an emotional rollercoaster! From the drama of Ice Dance to the heartbreak of the Men’s, then the comeback of Pairs and the joy of the Women’s – it has been so exciting. We’ve had unexpected champions, dreams coming true, wonderful personalities, redemptions and good sportsmanship. It all feels a lot more wholesome than the 2022 Olympics were.

It’s been really fun to share the joy with my family and friends and explain why I love watching this sport. I hope I get to see some more coverage over the next 4 years but, even if not, I look forward to diving back in again in 2030! Now excuse as I go and watch Ice Princess, Glitter and Gold and Heated Rivarly…