Avid reader Isabeau Levito writes her own story on the ice: 'It doesn't feel like real life'

Fifteen-year-old Isabeau Levito loves a good book.

The breakout figure skating star, who last month captured her first U.S. title at age 15, has a knack for fiction as a way to unwind from the rigors of her demanding sport.

So it should be of no surprise to fans that the teen likes to channel the literary heroines she goes adventuring with when she steps onto centre ice herself.

“I feel like when I'm doing my programs, I get into a trance,” she told Olympics.com in an interview after claiming the American title. “And I'm trying to bring everybody in the crowd and the judges into this void where I feel I am in when I'm doing my program.

“It doesn't feel like real life when I'm doing it... it feels like it's a different world, like a fictional show or something.”

In fact, however, it is non-fiction – real life! – and this season Levito has burst onto the senior international scene, capturing three medals in the Grand Prix Series before winning in San Jose last month.

This week (9-12 February), she’s a headliner at the ISU Four Continents Championships, where she’ll go skate-to-skate with an international field that also includes top Japanese and Korean skaters.

“I feel like I'm really excited to see how I handle two very important competitions in a very short period of time,” she said, noting the less-than-two-week gap between nationals and Four Continents.

“As I do more competitions, I get used to the environment of senior international competitions. How will I feel not going home? Going straight competition to competition? [Let’s] see how things go.”

• Four Continents Championships: Full preview | Schedule & how to watch

Isabeau Levito: ‘Tough like Inej’

With an athlete like Levito, who is finding international success at a young age, it’s important to have interests away from their sport. For a while, in the throws of the pandemic, she shared with fans on social media that she had taken up crocheting.

And while she still picks up the needle at times, what has piqued her interest of late is books. Engaging, enthralling fictional stories. They’re the kinds of stories she’s inspired by – and are not unrelated to how she seeks to captivate her own audience when she steps out onto the ice.

“I think of this one character from this book series Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and her name is Inej,” explained Levito. “Sometimes I'll go into my long program and I'm like, ‘Let's be tough Inej.’”

She continued: “This girl, she was 60 feet in the air on a rope and someone threw a dagger into her thigh. If she gives up and lets herself lose her balance, she falls 60 feet and dies. You know, obviously my long program isn't that dramatic, but sometimes I'm like, ‘Fight like her. Be tough like her. She could do it. I can do it.’ Even though she's fictional.”

The kinds of skaters Levito has looked up to are those that write such brave stories on the ice and get lost in them – those being non-fiction, of course.

“That's what I aspire to do,” she said of the on-ice storytelling. “Like create a whole world and be in that story.”

Levelling up as a senior

The transition has come fast: This season marked the first year she’s been eligible for senior international events, but her time on the Junior Grand Prix and at the World Junior Championships last March have helped prepare her for that.

She is, after all, the reigning world junior champion. She said she’s “proud of” her progression to this next level.

“As I do more of them, I get used to the environment of these international competitions,” she said. “I feel like probably this season was when I started to gain more confidence. I started, you know, being in the senior international level and feeling like I actually really do belong in this level and feeling like I am amongst the top competitors.”

Everything, however is new, including her gold at the U.S. Championships, where she held off former champion Bradie Tennell to win the title by 10 points.

“Once I finished, everything just came out and it was like this, you know, thunder of emotion,” she said. “I was just overwhelmed. And of course, I was so happy as well.”

The emotions – and the expectations – are what Levito is learning to manage. The forthcoming Four Continents and world championships are set to be new experiences, too.

“I feel like I have the same goal going into it in most every first international competition: My goal has always been to just do the best that I can, do my best programs,” she said.

“So that way, when I look back one day, I can say I was so mentally prepared for this, even though it was my first time doing this type of competition.”