For most of us it feels like Figure Skating, Hockey and Covid-19 have met at a proverbial crossroad and caused an athletic roadblock.  The virus has literally turned our world upside down and disrupted our daily lives. It’s caused us to be shut-in our homes and forced us to create work-arounds while we develop a “New Normal”. 

Nationwide we are all seeing that Ice Rinks have either closed down altogether or dramatically cut back on hours of operation. Just in our local community where we live right on the Illinois- Wisconsin boarder, the ice rink we call home is still experiencing its share of changes due to the pandemic.

Things like a limited number of figure skaters on the ice and coaching from the side boards during freestyle sessions have become common place. In addition, only allowing skaters to enter the ice rink with no spectators allowed has quickly become our new norm.  For our home State of Illinois it has been mandated that high school hockey cancel its entire season as a result of the Corona Virus Pandemic. Somehow, many of us are persevering through all of these changes and even happy to embrace them as  long as the rinks remain open and we have access to the ice.

My question for you today is what are you doing to keep working on achieving your athletic goals during the pandemic? Have you focused more on off-ice workouts to stay in shape? Are you taking a break to give your body and your mental health some rest? Maybe you ‘ve started a new hobby or taken up a new sport? I know at least three figure skaters who have taken up skate boarding and we think that’s awesome! Drop us a comment below because we’d love to hear from you.

 One thing I know for sure is that the virus does not discriminate and as human beings we are all in this together. I truly believe that together is the only way we’ll get through it. Stay safe everyone and if your rink is open, I wish you happy skating!