Olympians explain the making of a figure skating program: "We always have something to work on"
Elite figure skating programs can take months (and months) to build. Some of the top names in the sport let us in on the intricate process that takes place before they skate onto the competition ice.
Figure Skating
When the best figure skaters in the world strike centre ice to begin their programs at the 2024 World Championships next week (20-24 March) in Montreal, what fans will witness has been an entire year in the making.
In fact, at the completion of Worlds, it will be just a mere few weeks before they’re back to work planning programs for the next season.
“The process of building a competitive figure skating program is extremely in depth,” says ice dancer Ben Agosto, the 2006 Olympic silver medallist who is now a coach and choreographer himself.
“I think a lot of people don’t know how many hours you put in [on the ice] and making the programs,” adds two-time world medallist Loena Hendrickx. “It looks so easy, but the hard work behind it... there’s just so much hard work.”
That’s the job of the skater and the team around them: Take a brainstorm session in April and – slowly, painstakingly at times – turn it into not only a world-class competitive program, but one that comes off seamlessly and confidently.
“It's kind of like when you're writing a book: There's several drafts, right?” explains 2022 Olympian Mariah Bell. “[A book] goes through several edits. I would say the same happens with a program. It might look very different at the end of the season than it does at the beginning.”
So begins the process.
Summer: Choosing music a pivotal start
But before the “first draft” of the program can be written, the story itself must be chosen, a process that can prove challenging and complicated.
“First things first, for a program, when you choose it, you have to be sure of the music because you're going to have to skate it for a full year,” says France’s Kevin Aymoz, breaking into a smile. “So every day you have to listen this music like ten times a day for a year. So best to choose the music you will like for a year.”
That music choice – for both the short and long programs – serve as a vehicle for the story being told: What does the skater want to portray or convey on the ice? How are they hoping to connect with the audience (and the judging panel) in a way that is both true to them and also sets them apart?
“From this [musical] starting point, we need to also create an atmosphere: So either it's a story or a character or a specific movement quality that we want to achieve,” says Stephane Lambiel, the 2006 Olympic silver medallist and now coach to Uno Shoma.
“And then to start from there, creating the character, creating the movements that this character will play. It's really about using the connection that [the choreographer] has with the skater to create this atmosphere starting from the music.”
Much of that program-building takes place in the early part of the off-season, over June and July, with many national skating federations hosting high-performance camps in August or early September to allow for skaters to present their programs to officials and accredited judges for feedback.
“There's a timeline that really needs to be prepared so that they're ready for the competition on the world scene,” explains Agosto, with ISU Challenger Series events beginning in September and the top tier Grand Prix competitions in October.
Grand Prix season: Connecting with the audience
There’s plenty we’re glossing over, too: What will the choreography be to go along with said music? Which jumps are honed enough to input into the programs – specifically the free skate? How can the costume pull it all together?
And that’s all beyond the general daily rigors of working to become (or stay) an elite international figure skater.
“The whole process can take months,” says Agosto, who has worked with a collection of skaters in Colorado Springs. “You have to think about the angles at which the technical panel sees things, and if a skater has a weakness, maybe you strategize where that element happens on the ice so it’s not as featured.”
But the coming together of a program can be quite different from just the putting together of it.
“The thing that makes figure skating so beautiful, and I think that makes it popular, is the performance aspect and how a skater can connect with the audience,” explains Eric Radford, a three-time Olympian and bronze medallist in pairs in 2018. “That happens by them connecting with music. And the more that resonates with their soul and they express from the heart, the more it resonates with the audience and the greater and more powerful the performance becomes.”
That can take years in the making, with focused work alongside some of the best skating choreographers in the world, as well as the oft-travelled path to take dance classes off-ice, frequently in the style of program that they’re performing that season.
“There's so many components that go into making a really great program,” adds Bell, who was known for her artistry on ice. “But it's not just the elements; it's trying to create a story. And that's really what figure skating is: You want to have some kind of a character or a story that kind of takes you throughout the program.”
Final touches: Always something to work on
As the season unfolds, so too does a program: What you might see from a competitor like two-time champion Uno during the Grand Prix in October or November is going to be vastly different from how he shows up to perform at Worlds in March.
There is the rare – but not unheard of – case where a skater or team chooses to change one of their programs mid-season, but for a variety of reasons: It might not be making the impact they had hoped it would either with the crowd or the judges... or both.
Regardless, the work never stops. Right through their final official practices at Worlds, the skaters fine-tune. No detail is left out.
“That's beautiful in figure skating: We have always something to work on and we have always to improve,” says Aymoz. “We can't be perfect, so we have always have to find something new to work [on]. So it's really great.”