{"id":8687,"date":"2017-01-13T17:22:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T22:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=8687"},"modified":"2017-02-20T18:52:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T23:52:55","slug":"gold-reconnects-with-her-past-to-%ef%ac%81nd-strength-for-her-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2017\/01\/13\/gold-reconnects-with-her-past-to-%ef%ac%81nd-strength-for-her-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold reconnects with her past to \ufb01nd strength for her future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Kennedy<\/a>
\nPhotos by Robin Ritoss<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Gracie Gold has had a challenging season. After a disappointing fourth place \ufb01nish at the 2016 World Championships, Gracie has been on a downward spiral in her career. Gold has been vocal and transparent about her disappointment from the World Championships and has clearly been unhappy about her performances this season. She \ufb01nally hit her breaking point after \ufb01nishing in sixth place at Golden Spin in Zagreb, Croatia in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I couldn\u2019t skate the way I was skating at the U.S. Championships,\u201d Gold said during a U.S. Figure Skating media call.\u201cAs the U.S. Champion I couldn\u2019t be skating this way, I don\u2019t want to be skating this way, I don\u2019t want to be feeling this way, that it was time to do something different, it was time to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following that event, Gold met with her coach, Frank Carroll and asked if she could work with her previous coach, Alex Ourashiev, in Chicago, to improve her jumping technique. She was scared to ask him, but he was incredibly supportive. Carroll knew that what they were doing wasn\u2019t working and he was willing to try something different to see if it would help Gold get out of her \u201cfunk.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gold and Ourashiev did not part ways well and she was unsure how she would be received. Gold didn\u2019t know if he would even take her calls, but he did and welcomed her to come and train with him. Gold went to Chicago after Christmas and trained with him for two weeks and returned back to L.A. just last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy con\ufb01dence going into the U.S. Championships, I guess some would say that it is surprisingly high,\u201d Gracie said. \u201cWith Alex, it seemed like everything came back so quickly. It was like \ufb02ipping a switch.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gold went on to explain how the World Championships was \u201cthe perfect storm\u201d for her. Boston is where she quali\ufb01ed for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014 and it was the perfect place and time for her to become the World Champion. She had an incredible performance at the World Championships and was in \ufb01rst place following the short program and well positioned to take the world title. She built up the World Championships in such a signi\ufb01cant way that to have it within her grasp and then failing to make the podium, was devastating for her and she has been unable to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never felt so disappointed in myself,\u201d Gold confessed. \u201cI had trusted my training, and really felt I had done everything right, and I had come up what I felt was so short,\u201d She continued. \u201cI know fourth in the world is not in any way traumatic, but to me it was\u2026Really, I should have just gotten over it and picked myself up like any other disappointment and just gotten on with it. But I just didn\u2019t, and I couldn\u2019t get my feet back under me, and I continued to spiral down.<\/p>\n

Gold continued sharing the process that she has been going through this season. \u201cI loved (this year\u2019s) programs, but I just didn\u2019t love myself and my skating. When I took some time off, instead of taking time off to recharge and reboot the system, I just became more and more distant from the sport. Every time you take time off and get back on the ice, of course you\u2019re not as good, so I felt less and less capable…I just felt like a shell of my former self, which seems dramatic, and it is a little bit. But I could never grow up and just start training.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Gold spent time in Chicago that she was able to put the events of last season in perspective. Ourashiev reminded her of when she was younger that she had blown sectionals and did not qualify for Nationals that year. He reminded her that she came back from that and she could come back from this too.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, just being back in Chicago, it brought me back to my roots in some way,\u201d Gold explained. \u201cI\u2019m feeling so much better, there\u2019s a huge quality change with my skating. I\u2019m kind of falling back in love with the sport and with my programs and, most importantly, with myself. I\u2019m forgiving myself for failing.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Kennedy Photos by Robin Ritoss Needless to say, Gracie Gold has had a challenging season. After a disappointing fourth place \ufb01nish at the 2016 World Championships, Gracie has been on a downward spiral in her career. Gold has been vocal and transparent about her disappointment from the World Championships and has clearly been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8687"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8693,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions\/8693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}