Two of the figure skating competitors at the Manitoba Games in March will be performing on an ice surface with which they are very familiar.
Skate Thompson members Megan Szabo and Amy Shier will be representing the Norman region at the games – Szabo in the pre-novice category and Shier in the juvenile 14-and-under division.
Szabo brings some Manitoba Games experience to the table, having won two silver medals and three bronze in track events at the 2016 summer edition, where she finished in the top five in all seven track and field events she entered. She qualified for the games with her performance at the Skate Manitoba sectionals in November and is focusing on personal goals for the upcoming games in Thompson.
“I want to get a clean program for the Manitoba Games and a new personal best score,” she said.
Szabo, who is 13 and has been figure skating for about 10 years, said she would like to be able to land a double axel by the time the games begin.
“I can do them in the harness,” she says, and believes that it is possible to learn the jump by March “if I work really hard at it.”
Thompson’s other figure skating representative at the games is the 12-year-old Shier, who also started skating when she was three years old and competed at sectionals in November.
Shier says she thinks her first Manitoba Games competition will be a learning experience.
“I think it’s going to be really fun and challenging,” she said. “Lots of skaters are going to be there.”
Shier didn’t feel she skated her best at sectionals but it was good enough to qualify for the games, where she hopes to land a double loop and all of her jump combinations. She says her confidence is one of her weaknesses because she gets really nervous before skating and that she would also like to improve her spins.
As for whether competing on a familiar ice surface will help or hinder her, Shier says performing in front of family and friends and fellow Skate Thompson members may be nerve-racking.
“I think it’ll be a little more pressure put on me because everyone from Skate Thompson will be watching and they want me to do well,” she said.
Shier will try to counteract that pressure by practising her solo performances in front of people and ignoring the fact that an audience is around when she skates at the games.
