Many people are introduced to figure skating while watching the Winter Olympics on television.
And while most turn off the TV and move on to other things, some viewers — like Samantha Wells — can’t turn away.
“I always, always wanted to do that,” Wells said. “It's just so beautiful and graceful, and watching these skaters just flow across the ice was just something I was very interested in.”
She was 8 years old then, and now, more than 25 years later, Wells is still interested in figure skating. She’s the skating director at the Wichita Ice Center.
And many of the skaters she coaches there have a similar backstory to hers.
Like Aubrey Collignon, a 17-year-old senior at Wichita Collegiate, who has skated for 10 years.
“I watched the Olympics, and then I begged my parents to get me into it for a year,” she said. “And then they finally caved in, thinking I would do it for a month, and here we are.
“I find freedom and joy on the ice. It's my happy place.”
Her happy place on this chilly afternoon was the Wichita Ice Center, where Collignon and several other skaters practiced. They carved graceful arcs in the ice under the watchful eye of Wells, a coach for nearly 20 years.
They spun and jumped … and sometimes fell. An “ice bath” in skater lingo.
Which is part of the attraction for Lily Amos, an 18-year-old student at Hutchinson Community College. She likes the feeling of mastering new skills, even if falling is part of the process.
Amos also decided to try skating after seeing it on TV: in the Japanese anime “Yuri on Ice.”
“Even if I'm having a bad day, or even a bad day on ice, I just remember it's just so fun,” said Amos, who has skated for six years. “I feel so cool. I feel so confident and powerful. And it's just amazing for me.”
Jolene Taylor understands that feeling. She’s president of the Wichita Figure Skating Club and grew up skating on outdoor ponds in Iowa.
“I feel that once you step on the ice, you know whether you like it or not, and it's almost … unexplainable,” she said.
“There’s a freedom of being on the ice, gliding across the ice. … something that you just have the love for deep down.”
Taylor said the club has about 60 members. It offers skating for people of all levels, including Learn to Skate classes, and of all ages.
She said the sport instills life lessons for younger skaters.
“Absolutely teaches them how to be a good competitor.” Taylor said. “It teaches them … when you fall down, you get back up. It's not the end. If you make a mistake, the program goes on. Life goes on.
“Really valuable skills that can be taught at an early age.”
Taylor is one of the people responsible for helping Wichita land the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The best skaters in the country will compete Tuesday through Sunday next week at Intrust Bank Arena.
The event will be televised nationally. Many of the performers will likely wind up in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Wells, the Wichita coach, said the elite national performers have many of the same characteristics as the skaters she coaches.
“You have to have a lot of determination,” she said. “You have to have a lot of self-control. You have to have a good attitude. If you don't have good sportsmanship, you're not going to make it very far.
“You got to have a lot of drive and a lot of ice baths.”
Wells said she took so many tumbles as a young skater, her mother would keep bags of frozen peas in the freezer. Some would be marked, “For Dinner;” the others, “For Sam.”
Despite the bumps and bruises, Wells never lost her affection for the sport.
Taylor, of the Wichita Figure Skating Club, said that’s another trait skaters share.
“It's something that you just have the love for deep down,” Taylor said.
“And that's why sometimes people worry that skating will die off in Wichita, and that will never happen.
“There will always be somebody who gets the bug to skate.”
