COLORADO SPRINGS — As the home of the U.S. Figure Skating headquarters, Colorado Springs attracts some of the best athletes. This year, several figure skaters who train at facilities in Colorado Springs are competing at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston.
Amber Glenn, a two-time U.S. national figure skating champion, and 2024 U.S. pair skating national champions Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea qualified for the world championships. Back in Colorado Springs, fellow Team USA figure skaters are cheering them on.
"We watch them train every day, six days a week here, and they've been skating a lot," said Mark Sadusky, a Team USA figure skater. "The overall atmosphere of the world championships is just incredible, because everyone is so supportive of each other, and it's just such a high-level competition and such a prestigious event."
Natalia Mishkutionok took home the world champion title in 1991 and 1992 and is now a coach in Colorado Springs. She remembers the nerve-wracking atmosphere at the competition where the best of the best compete.
"I mean, it's really nerve-wracking because you're training like for the whole season to be there and do your best. And you have to really control your nerves," she said. "Just to qualify, and you know, to go there, it's amazing. And then, if you prepare and you can actually win a medal, that's even like, it's like the best."
Sadusky said behind the bedazzled costumes and seemingly effortless routines are years of hard work.
"We're here every single day, six days a week, training for at least four hours between lifts and everything that we do. So I think that's like, what people don't realize is that we don't get there just by getting there. We do a lot of hard work to get to where we are."
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