Isabeau Levito takes her place among figure skating's elite: 'I feel like I do belong here'
The 15-year-old American is the reigning world junior champion, and has won three Grand Prix medals in her first senior season. Can she capture the U.S. title?
Figure Skating
Like the stack of books she likes to get lost in during her time away from intense figure skating training, 15-year-old Isabeau Levito is writing her own story.
This season, in her debut on the senior international circuit, she’s discovering something new: “I feel like I do belong here, at this level,” she told Olympics.com last month.
“That’s what I’ve learned.”
The American teen heads to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this weekend (26-29 January) in San Jose, Calif., as the favourite in women’s singles, having won a trio of silver medals in the Grand Prix Series over the first half of the year.
“At the beginning of the season I was nervous and intimidated to skate as a senior because I didn't see myself as a senior,” Levito admitted.
But her international results have proved that she does, indeed, belong, and Friday evening she will attempt to become the youngest first-time winner since Alysa Liu skyrocketed to the title at just 13 in 2019.
Isabeau Levito: Taking her time
The Philadelphia native calls flip jumps her favourite, enjoys paging through as much fiction as she can and took careful notes from her time with Carolina Kostner, the Sochi 2014 Olympic medallist, when the two crossed paths this summer in the U.S.
Levito’s skating has notes of Kostner in it, the Italian – world champion in 2012 – known for her artistry and careful attention to detail. There are comparisons to the balletic Sasha Cohen, the Torino 2006 silver medallist, as well, but Levito has a style all unto herself. And her goal remains one of marked improvement as she navigates new ice.
“I want to keep improving at each competition,” she said plainly. “There are always a bunch of minor mistakes that need to be polished, and I'm excited to finish those.”
But long-term goals also include potential skates at the Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 and the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
Levito has a special connection to Italy: Her mother, Chiara, emigrated from the country in 1997 to the U.S.
She won the silver medal in Torino last month at the Grand Prix Final, and it wasn’t lost on her that the next Winter Games would be back amid her Italian roots in just over three years’ time.
“I have a lot of family here in Italy,” she explained in a post-competition interview in Torino. “It means something to me, speaking the language somewhat. It definitely feels special to [be here].”
Facing down new pressures
But rather than putting future hopes or expectations on herself for the forthcoming Winter Games, Levito is staying in the moment, first focused on attempting to win her maiden national title less than 12 months after she claimed the world junior title.
“I try not to think of it as pressure,” she said of being favoured at the U.S. Championships. “I like to think of it as, 'Oh, I'm making my way up there. I'm improving.' That's how I view it.”
It was in Nashville last year when Levito truly introduced herself to the American crowd (and many international fans watching from afar). She turned in two stunning skates to win the bronze medal behind champion Mariah Bell and runner-up Karen Chen.
At 14, however, she was age ineligible for Beijing 2022.
And how does she mentally approach Milano Cortina? “That's so far away from now. I feel like I can't think that far in advance,” she said with a smile. “I feel like everyone has the Olympic dream of going [to compete] there. It's four years away, but I hope that I will be able to have that, [too].”
Isabeau Levito: Writing her own story
While she is training a triple Axel and quads in practice, she is yet to put out on competition ice the big point-grabbing jumps.
“In the future, I intend to have one of these elements, but in this moment it's not my biggest priority,” she said. “I would rather mature and grow my skating overall before I try to go for such big elements.”
Even in her first year she’d like to see her career take shape as it might, instead of trying to rush success immediately.
“Longevity in the sport is a good thing,” she said. “If you try to do too much too soon, it can cause injuries and perhaps burnout. If you take everything slowly, take your time... by taking your time you're spending more time in the sport, then that will [create the] longevity.”
Levito is set on writing her own story on the ice, and part of that process is stepping away from the sport, too – through reading.
“I really enjoy learning. I really enjoy reading,” she said. “I'm realizing life is so short and I love to read to see the world from other people's perspective. You're experiencing things – if the writing is good – that you might not experience otherwise. That's a million lives in a million books.”
This weekend’s U.S. Championships is the next chapter for the teen. How will she write it?