On many a weekday morning, when the roads are empty in the coldest part of the day, the members of the Capital Ice Chips have already been up for hours, practicing a routine they will take to the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships in Providence, R.I., later this month.
“We’ve been working towards it since June,” said Becky Gallion, the team’s coach for the past 18 years. “These girls are here five to six days a week, sometimes twice a day, and they do individual training, as well.”
The Ice Chips, made up of 19 girls ages 13-18, is the most advanced team of nine in the Bismarck Figure Skating Club’s synchronized skating program.
This will be the team’s 10th consecutive trip to nationals, where the girls have placed on the podium for the past six years. In 2017, the skaters earned silver, their best finish so far.
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The Ice Chips don’t face very much competition in North Dakota, but the team has been traveling more widely in the region for the past four years to face comparable teams, according to Gallion. Just in the past few months, the skaters have flown to Michigan, Minneapolis, Chicago and Kansas for various levels of competition.
“We’re kind of just at a level where that’s what we need to do,” Gallion said.
The team tends to stand out at nationals for being from a smaller city. Gallion said their main rivals are from areas such as Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington D.C.
"We're one of the only nonsuburban areas left at nationals, quite honestly," she said.
‘A real family’
Though some people might associate the sport of figure skating with only solo or pairs performances, Gallion said synchronized team skating is a unique sport that “incorporates all aspects of skating.” The Ice Chips routines feature moves from both individual and pair competitions, and have the added challenge of synchronization.
Elizabeth Fedorchak, 18, is a St. Mary’s student who said that while she and other team members are required to do individual competitions as well, she prefers synchronized skating.
“It’s a team sport and you’re with 20 other girls that are fun and your age and you become close and get to travel all over the country,” she said.
Most of the girls on the Ice Chips have been skating together for much of their lives. The youngest members of the program are 4 years old.
“These girls have been all doing this -- and all doing this together -- for a very, very long time and that is part of it,” Gallion said. “This team really trusts each other and when they trust each other, you can see that translate onto the ice.”
Hannah Wilson, an 18-year-old Century student, said the club feels like “a real family.”
“This club is such a tight-knit community, and we’re all always there for each other,” she said.
Though the program is private, it is recognized by Bismarck public schools for lettering and has team members from all four high schools in the city.
Evolution
Gallion said that over the past 18 years, the sport of synchronized skating has changed quite a bit.
“It used to be a lot more choppy and more like a drill team, and now it’s definitely incorporating the other divisions of skating,” she said. “So luckily we’ve been able to evolve with that and haven’t been left behind.”
This year, a new section called the “moves element” has been added to the program. Gallion said it is probably the biggest challenge for the girls. It includes moves like spread eagles, in which skaters rest on one edge of their skates, heels facing each other; and spirals, which is when a skater glides on one foot while raising the free leg above hip level.
While the “intersection,” in which skaters must skate through formations of one another, has typically been the team’s weakest element, Gallion said, it’s been scoring the highest across intermediate high school-level teams in the U.S. this year. One of the team’s signature strengths, she added, is its speed.
‘Let yourself go’
Fedorchak said she is most nervous about performing her spirals within the routine, particularly in one section in which the girls must pass underneath each other's legs while maintaining their own posture. While that might be difficult, Wilson said that one of the trickiest parts of the performance to get right is actually the face.
“The hardest part is sometimes emoting yourself,” Wilson said. “You don’t want to be embarrassing, but sometimes you need to get into that character. You really need to let yourself go, you really have to not care what anybody else thinks.”
The girls are tasked with portraying more emotion than usual in this year’s routine, which Gallion said was inspired by the survival story of kidnapped girl Elizabeth Smart.
“(I) just was inspired by what she went through and how she survived and the person that she is now,” Gallion said. “That’s kind of what this is based on, is her story of being captured and coming home.”
The intense routine ends on a note of hope, with a skater representing a missing child coming home, surrounded by team members in a triumphant pose.
The U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships begin Feb. 26.
