On the Ice

Like most students, sophomore Abby Jordan is tied to her unique sport while enduring the constant pressures of school, a job and maintaining a social life. But unlike any other students, Jordan lives her life on the ice as a competing figure skater of 10 years.

Beginning in kindergarten when a neighbor asked Jordan to attend an ice skating class with her at the St. Peters Rec-Plex, Jordan has since attended more than 40 competitions, has earned a picket fence, passed multiple U.S. Figure Skating (USFS) skill tests and performed in several ice shows.

“I’m really into performing; I like theatre, I like dance and I’m into all of that stuff,” Jordan said. “It’s just that when I’m skating, I feel like it’s more of a challenge and when I accomplish something super hard I feel more proud of myself.”

Jordan currently skates with the Metro Edge Figure Skating Club at the Webster Groves Ice Arena, where she skates on the St. Louis Synergy Synchro Novice Team and has been skating synchro for six years.

In addition to skating with her synchronized skating team, Jordan also performs at various ice shows at St. Peters Rec-Plex with shows such as Willy Wonka and Aladdin under her belt.

But the highlight of Abby Jordan’s ice skating career is participating in many competitions over the 10 years.

“One of my favorites I did was about two years ago, in Kansas City, it was my first USFS competition and I got a picket fence, which is basically where the judges place you all as first place and that’s really hard to get, so I was pretty proud of myself,” Jordan said.

In addition to taking part of many different competitions, Jordan has passed multiple skill tests for the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

“There’s tests that you pass for freestyle, which is like jumps and spins, I’ve passed freestyle six. And for moves in the field, which is basically footwork, I’ve passed novice in June,” Jordan said, meaning she only has two tests to pass before reaching the gold medalist level.

“I would say she’s really dedicated. Ice skating is really hard and it’s tough and it’s a lot of work and it’s also pretty cutthroat in St. Louis,” Jordan’s longtime friend sophomore Emily Brockmann said. “She’s worked her whole life and and it’s just constantly her being pushed.”

However, Jordan is still like every other student and has homework to complete and a job to attend to and sometimes balancing the two schedules can become hectic.

“Usually when I’m at school, I’ll try to get as much work as done as possible. So even if there’s like a few minutes before a lecture or even sometimes at lunch, if I have a lot of work, I’ll usually just try to fit it in in weird spots,” Jordan said.

“In addition to skating, I also work every night and it gets kind of crazy, but I work at a bank and I clean it after hours. So I’ll go skate for whatever that time is and then whenever I’m not skating, I go to work for an hour each night. It’s just a lot of whatever free time you have, you’re working. Some nights, I’ll kind of procrastinate and then just stay up really late.”

But no matter how stressful balancing the love for her sport and her schoolwork can get, you can always catch Abby Jordan on the ice.