Article by Tacy Brown | Owl Staff
Tacy was four years old for her first figure skating competition, which was held at Ice World in Abingdon.
Imagine your first memories being of cold air, sharp blades, and the echo of skates carving the ice. These are the majority of my first memories. My mother was a figure skater and a coach. Growing up, figure skating was always on our television. When I was two years old, I was gifted my first pair of figure skates. I was already excited to finally get on the ice. By Christmas, I participated in the 2008 Winter Showcase and was assisted by an older skater around the ice. The next few years are a blur but I do remember my first competition at four years of age. I was so nervous to go out by myself that I made my mom come out on the rink with me in her sneakers.
Left photo shows her mom hugging Tacy as a baby after a clean skate at 2008 Adult Nationals in Lake Placid; right photo shows Tacy hugging her mom before competing at 2016 South Atlantic Regionals.
When I was seven I had a goal to land my axel before I turned eight years old. An axel is the first hard element you learn in figure skating and I had been practicing non stop for a whole year and still had no luck landing it cleanly. Two days before my eighth birthday, my mom scheduled a lesson with 2006 World Champion Kimmie Meissner. In that very lesson, I landed my first clean axel. After that, my doubles came pretty easily. By nine I could land all my doubles up to a double lutz.
“By nine I could land all my doubles up to a double lutz.”
During my most intense period of training, I was homeschooled and training every day at the University of Delaware. I thoroughly enjoyed the constant training, but it did get lonely after a while and that’s when I went back to school at the end of fifth grade. Being around my friends who weren’t involed in sports made me wish I didn’t have skating practice to go to. I envied how they could do whatever they wanted when they got home instead of training. Looking back, I realize how lucky I was to have the opportunity.
Figure skating being a niche sport did not help with that feeling. No one seemed to take it seriously like they took volleyball, baseball, or football seriously, which at my hormonal stage did not make me feel so great. I was also only in middle school during this time. When I was eleven, I started taking lessons from Johnny Weir’s coach. She was great and a core memory of mine was her calling up my mom to tell her she had the same good feeling about my skating that she had with Johnny Weir, an Olympian.
Tacy is ready to take the ice before a Spring Showcase.
Around this time in my life I watched almost all the skaters I grew up with slowly quit to focus on new sports or school. When I was younger I couldn’t fathom leaving skating for a new sport, or to hangout with friends, but that feeling of leaving the sport came to me too. Eighth grade was when I really felt like quitting for good. All I wanted to do was hang out with my friends and brain rot. I wasn’t built differently; I realized I really just wanted a normal high school experience like all the girls I watched before me.
I completely gave up on my skating during Covid; at least mentally, which was the end of eighth grade through my sophomore year. I was actually happy there was an excuse to stop skating for a while. This is when I started to become your average lazy teenager. I lost all my athletic skills and when I came back I had a new body and was completely done mentally with the sport.
“I lost all my athletic skills and when I came back I had a new body and was completely done mentally with the sport.”
My mom kept pushing me to continue and at least pass up to my Novice Moves in the Field and Freestyle tests so if I was interested in coaching later on, I could. I took my last skating test at seventeen and it felt so freeing to finally be done. About a year or so ago, I started ice skating with my girlfriend. Teaching her basic skills and being on the ice again on my own terms felt great. I am now thankful I kept going to pass my tests because I am now interested in coaching Learn to Skate lessons.
Tacy celebrated her 19th birthday at the rink with her close friends and girlfriend.
Watching the Olympics this year has really motivated me to go back on the ice and find time for it. It’s the first year that the majority of ladies competing are my age and it really puts things in perspective. Everything happens for a reason and I don’t regret any of the choices made to put a pause on my skating career, but I would tell young athletes to never stop chasing a dream because of the world around you.