Anna Charney a
"Creativeskater", for March/April 2010
By: Elizabeth Hollett Shackett
Meet 16-year-old, Anna Charney. She is your typical high school student when it comes to a heavy course workload, friends and Facebook. The one thing that sets her apart from everyone else is figure skating. She is the only skater in her school.
Anna’s passion for figure skating started at age 9. After pestering her father about taking lessons, she started in group Learn-to-Skate. She progressed quickly which led to private lessons and from there, it never stopped.
Jumping is Anna’s favorite thing about figure skating, “It's the best, when I land and it's perfect and I know it, it's just the absolute best feeling.” Skating is her escape from her busy school life. Figure skating keeps her from exploding. “When I'm on the ice, it’s not about papers, French homework or having to finish that lab. It’s just about what I'm doing on the ice and if I'm upset or frustrated I can channel it out through skating.”
Some of Anna’s school subjects include, Chemistry, English, French, Math and History. English is her favorite class, as she loves reading and writing papers. She also enjoys the hands-on lab work in Chemistry.
If Anna’s school schedule isn’t busy enough, add in skating 4-6 days per week. One of those days includes a 2.5-hour commute, one-way, for coaching. While some kids are sleeping in on Saturday mornings, Anna and her mother hit the PA Turnpike to make an early lesson with me. She also makes the trip to a technical lesson from 3-time Olympian, Mojca Kopac. I should mention that despite the early rise, Anna always comes to the ice with a positive attitude and ready to push herself closer to her next goal.
Looking ahead to college, Anna plans to continue skating and wants go as far as she can. She has been shopping around for possible schools with collegiate skating teams. Perhaps this would be a dream come true, as her solo after-school activity would now be a team sport. |
