Standing at five feet two, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, Krysta Nichols looks like your average sophomore.
But in her free time, instead of hanging out with friends, you would most likely find her at the skating rink. Nichols has been competitively ice skating for twelve years.
She recently won third place at an international ice skating competion in Austria. “The competition was normal…it was like every other competition,” she said. “Some contestants were from the states and others were from other countries like Canada.”
As a young girl, she was inspired by the figure skaters who participated in the Olympics.
“My parents thought that it was a normal thing for me to try out new things since I was five, so they signed me up to group classes at Anaheim Ice,” Nichols said.
During practices, she trains from 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM. When she does not do a jump right or incorrectly executes a move, her coach makes her do 15 push-ups on the ice without gloves.
“My coach has to be strict, especially when I’m training to compete because I have to be working my hardest to get jumps off the ice. If they [my parents and coach] weren’t strict then it would not be possible to rise up,” she said.
Nichols plans to become an ice skating teacher after she graduates. “I like how when I’m working so hard and I’m going through those hard practices and when I’m done doing that, it gets easier and it’s a lot more rewarding when you win,” she said.
“It’s not easy for a performance to be good and when the performance actually comes out very well, it feels very accomplishing.”
