Top facts you did not know about US skater Lindsay Thorngren
Caribbean roots, talent on the track and a love for Oscar-winning music – here are some surprising facts about the rising USA figure skater.
Figure Skating
USA figure skater Lindsay Thorngren has a flair for the dramatic – and her movie-themed routines are only one testament to that.
From her unexpected Caribbean roots to her hidden talents on the track, Thorngren is a skater with an infinite capacity to surprise.
We looked into some facts you might not know about the 18-year-old figure skater as she prepares to start her third year on the ISU Grand Prix Series.
Thorngren had an early start and breakthrough
Thorngren was a natural on the ice from her first practice sessions. And those came early on too.
She first tried skating at age four and immediately loved the sport. A handful of skating lessons later, she took part in her first skating competition. Thorngren was five at the time.
The young skater shot into the spotlight at the 2023 NHK Trophy where she finished a surprise second in the women’s short program, completing a triple lutz, triple toe-loop combination and a double axel and a triple flip to earn a season’s best of 68.93 points. It was the fourth Grand Prix event in her career and she ultimately finished the competition with a silver.
Movie-themed programs are her top picks
Thorngren is a movie buff – her favourite are the Hunger Games series – and often taps into movie soundtracks to find the music for her programs.
A French version of “Once Upon a December” from Anastasia was the music choice for her juvenile program in 2016. A year later, she opted for darker tones, skating to “On My Own”, a ballad about unrequited love from Les Misérables.
Oscar-winning songs are a particular soft spot for Thorngren.
Sofia Karlberg’s cover of “Writing’s on the Wall” from the 2015 James Bond film “Spectre”, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, was Thorngren's short program tune for two seasons. Her last season’s short was set to “Windmills of Your Mind”, a Venus cover of Noel Harrison’s song from the 1968 classic The Thomas Crown Affair, which also won an Oscar for Best Original Song.
The most recent Oscar winner Thorngren plucked out for the ice rink was Billie Eilish’s 2023 single “What Was I Made For?”, which featured in the soundtrack of the summer hit Barbie. The figure skater gave the song a winter spin as she set her gala performance to it in December 2023.
Music from movies and series about teens is also a staple in Thorngren's skating playlist. Her last season's free skate was set to a potpourri from the teen vampire saga Twilight, and she has earlier used music from the TV series Glee and The Queen’s Gambit.
Spins or speed, Thorngren can master anything
While Thorngren spends most of her sporting life in skates, her other favourite footwear is running shoes.
The 18-year-old competed in track events while at school. Sometimes the two sports even overlapped.
In 2016, she competed at the NJ Council skating competition in the juvenile event in the morning. As soon as she finished her skate, Thorngren rushed off to the West Essex Country Championship track meet where she was running in the 400m and 800m.
Thorngren was in such a hurry to get to the track that she missed the figure skating award ceremony and only found out that she had won the event when her skating coach texted the results to her mother. The happy news spurred the multi-talented athlete on to a second-place finish in the 400m and a victory in the 800m.
Thorngren stays connected to her Caribbean roots
Thorngren’s talent and passion for running becomes clearer when looking at her background.
Her mother Elizabeth immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic – a Caribbean nation that won six of its total 15 Olympic medals on the track – when she was 15. Elizabeth was born and raised in San Juan de la Maguana and still has close family living in the country.
Thorngren visited the Dominican Republic as a child and was able to connect with her roots thanks to her mother who continues to cook traditional food, such as arepas and empanadas, in the house and often plays music from the island nation.
"I don't think people would think [I'm Dominican] because of the way I look. I'm very pale," Thorngren told US Figure Skating. "I think my Dominican culture is what makes me a unique person and a unique skater. I'm proud to identify as a Dominican American figure skating athlete."
Lindsay Thorngren is proud of her Caribbean roots and has found a way to connect to her mother's birth country.
Thorngren is an advocate for Hispanic figure skaters
Thorngren’s connection to her roots makes her a proud representative of the small group of Hispanic and Latinx skaters who compete at the top level of the sport.
She uses her spotlight to advocate for more diversity and inclusion in figure skating and dreams of building an ice rink in the Dominican Republic so that more locals can take up the sport.
Javier Fernandez, Spanish Olympic medallist and fellow advocate for the Hispanic community, is among her role models as is the late Dominican fashion designer Oscar de la Renta who channelled his international success into philanthropic efforts such as building a school and orphanage on the island.