As he finishes lacing up his skates, competitive figure skater sophomore Jayden Luo composes himself before stepping onto the ice, feeling ready to perform the program he has practiced and trained for weeks.
Luo has been skating for five years. He currently skates at Center Ice Arena in Ontario, where he trains twice a week on days his rink is open to prepare for the upcoming competition season in the summer. During practice, Luo focuses on refining key skills such as spins and jumps which are valuable to competitions.
“I think a lot of people think that doing the simpler jumps is really easy, but it took me a long time to get even just the simple jumps and spins. Jumps and spins specifically are the elements that are worth more [in competitions] so they’re more important to practice,” Luo said.
He took an interest to try skating after watching the figure skating Olympic competition on television at age 5, before later deciding to enroll at Center Ice Arena. At competitions, Luo’s routine before performing consists of running the program mentally and physically off the ice, doing skating warm ups and splitting up his program into sections to fine tune each skill to perfection. Earlier this year, Luo competed at the Pasadena Open Championships in the freestyle category and placed first place as All Year Free Skater Champion in his program.
“I felt happy and really proud, and it made me want to work even harder to keep it up,” Luo said. “I always get nervous before competitions, but I just do breathing exercises and remember that there is so much happening outside, and it’s not just me here.”
Luo’s younger siblings, Emma and Mason Luo, followed in his footsteps of figure skating and also skate competitively. In the process, it has allowed him and his siblings to formulate a closer bond as they share an understanding of the sport in pushing one another to be better.
“My family always motivates me to continue skating because [since] it’s a hobby for me and my siblings, we all try to improve together,” Luo said. “We always give each other feedback on what looks good and what we need to work on. It has brought us closer together because we can talk about it, relate to it, rant about something if we need to, support each other and enjoy the sport together.”
Daphny Wut, Luo’s mom, has witnessed the growth Luo has had in the sport from the very beginning, as well as his passion to gain new skills. Luo credits his mom for being one of the biggest supporters of his figure skating and drives him to improve.
“Through ice skating, I see Jayden’s perseverance and determination. It takes falls after falls to learn each move, and I have never seen him back down since he was a young boy. I stay right outside to watch my kids skate every week and have had the privilege to witness their growth,” Wut said.
From competing, Luo has learned how to deal with nerves and perform under pressure. He reminds himself of the training he has done to prepare for competitions to give himself a boost of confidence.
“There’s a lot of competitors in the boys category, so when you see somebody that’s really good, even though you know you can’t really beat them, it’s still extremely important to give it your best.” Luo said. “I think a lot of kids at the rink get really stressed. But I think competitions are good, but you can’t take them too seriously, or else you’ll mess up. So just kind of relax a little bit more and have fun.”
![Playing offense | Right wing senior Sharl Gonzalez attempts to pass the ball to his teammate, striker senior Oscar Feria (not pictured). “I trusted [Oscar] enough to pass him the ball, so I felt like if I got him the ball he would have been okay, and it would have helped the team,” Gonzalez said. “I felt disappointed in the result of the game, but I feel like as a team we tried our best.”](https://whshoofprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/soccer-1200x832.jpeg)
