Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan may have captured the hearts of America at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, but Princeton's Figure Skating Club already holds a few Tiger hearts here in Princeton.
The growing club counts among its 25 members skaters who all share the same passion for self-expression on ice.
"We're pretty typical of club sports," senior Liz Asch said. "We practice usually twice a week for about three hours on and off ice."
Now in its 10th year, the club has had a synchronized skating team for the past seven, which has recently become its main focus. Synchronized skating is a relatively new part of figure skating. In 2006, it will be an Olympic trial sport and is expected to become an NCAA sport within the next few years.
Asch is the captain of what the skaters call the "synch" or "synchro" team, now 15 strong.
In synchronized skating, 12 members must perform a routine in perfect unison. To this end, the team uses its office practices to rehearse the choreography of a particular routine so that each team member knows her role.
"Everything has to be exactly synchronized — your head, your arms, your feet. Everything has to be completely together," Asch said.
Coaches
On the ice, the team has been coached for the past two years by Lynne Leger and Konstantin Kaplan. Coaches of New Jersey's only senior-level synch team, they bring tremendous experience and expertise to the team.
Kaplan's story is remarkable. He emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel at the age of 21 with only $300, the maximum one was allowed to take across the border at the time. He is a former world ice dancing competitor as well as a two-time Olympic judge.
In ice dancing, Kaplan would perform a routine with a female partner. This past Sunday night, another ice dancer joined Leger and Konstantin to work with the synch team — Olympian Maya Usova.
Usova won a bronze medal at the Albertville Games in 1992 and a silver medal at Lillehammer in 1994. She earned both while skating with Alexander Zhulin for Russia.
"This is [our] holiday gift to the team," Leger said, "sort of our little present and a 'Thank you' for having us aboard."
Usova's lessons
Usova worked on fundamentals like skating skills and footwork with Princeton's skaters during the session Sunday night.
"I enjoy [working with younger skaters] so much," Usova said.
Usova's youth was, to say the least, quite different from the typical Princeton skater's.
Training in the Soviet Union was difficult, she said, adding that she came to train in Lake Placid in 1992 and that the United States had given her opportunities she would not have had even in today's Russia.
"If you like to work, you can be here," she said.
Moreover, Usova felt she could be useful to skaters in the United States.
"That's why I'm here — I want to help," she said.
Certainly, Usova's visit to Princeton was a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience for the members of the Figure Skating Club, as Asch put it.
The skaters spent about half an hour talking to Usova, enjoying casual conversation with a legend of figure skating before lacing up their skates and taking the ice, starting practice with the beginning of this year's routine.
Competitive club
The synchro team, which competes in the Eastern Sectionals Championships as well as the National Championships each year, will dance to music from "The Mask of Zorro" this year.
Princeton's club team is the strongest in the Ivy League and is competitive with, though not on par with, national figure skating powerhouses such as Miami (Fla.), Michigan, and Delaware.
For the Tigers, though, equally important with competition is the strong team atmosphere the synchro team fosters.
"When we're missing someone, it's difficult to practice," Asch said. "We need everyone to be here for almost every practice."
Everyone is usually there, though — a testament to the passion the team has for the cross between sport and art that is figure skating.
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