A photo story about a girl balancing on the inside edge – Kat Xing encounters a pivotal time in her relationship with figure skating.
Kat Xing lays flat on the ice for a portrait in one of her old competition outfits. Xing began her journey as a competitive figure skater at 8 years old. She has medaled in over thirty competitions and is a three-time South Atlantic Regional Finalist, a two-time North Carolina state champion, and a Double-Gold Medalist. Xing’s athletic pursuits came to a halt when she suffered four ankle injuries over the course of her high school career. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Rinks shut down and competitions were canceled. During this time, Xing grieved the loss of her passion. As a result of her injuries and the effects of the pandemic, Xing has lost a lot of the skills she used to excel at, along with her chance of winning higher level competitions. Xing returned to practicing figure skating independently in October of 2020. “When I got back on the ice, it was euphoric, almost as if nothing had changed – except I realized I had to give up competing,” said Xing. Everyday, Xing finds herself fighting to maintain her love for skating.Xing practices at least 3 days a week at the Wake Competition Center in Cary, N.C. She repeatedly attempts skating skills such as jumps, jump combinations, spin combinations, and edges at incredibly high speeds until she feels she has performed at her very best. “When I get very concentrated and sort of zone out because I’m focusing so hard on the elements that I’m working on, those tend to be the best practices,” said Xing.Xing demonstrates to a teaching partner the form needed to achieve a double salchow, a skill that requires a skater to leap from one skate into two rotations in the air. Xing started her career as a figure skating coach in 2016 and continued to coach during the pandemic. While coaching students, Xing uses different teaching methods for each individual skater and focuses on their potential rather than their talent. “Even during the times when I don’t want to get on the ice, I have to get out there and put a smile on my face for the kids,” said Xing.Xing places a guard onto the blade of her ice skate as Ivy Liu and Allison Tu, members of the UNC Figure Skating Club, exit the rink. In addition to her time spent coaching and honing her own skills, Xing exercises her role as President of the UNC Figure Skating club by organizing fundraisers and holding public skate sessions every Friday night. “I’m grateful that everyone trusts me to make decisions for the club and sees me as someone they can talk to about things skating and non-skating related. I have had people tell me they are so happy to have found a skating community regardless of skill level, which is what I set out to provide for them,” said Xing.Xing’s most successful year on ice was 2016. She made a coaching switch that resulted in her sweeping competitions for the entire year and her winning the state championship. Her goal was always to make it to nationals, which is more difficult to achieve for female skaters compared to their male counterparts. “I think I would have given competing up easier if I had made it to nationals or something like that, but I never did. Sometimes you can laugh about it, but if you think about it too hard, it still stings.”
The first thing you learn in skating is how to fall. But it’s not really about that. It’s about how to get back up.
Kat Xing
When the ice rinks are closed, you can find Xing and her close friend Ivy Liu practicing on the top of Craige Deck with inliners. Inliners are ice skates with the wheels of roller blades attached to provide as close an experience to ice skating as possible. Practicing with inliners is far more dangerous than figure skating; there is no soft surface to support you when you fall. However, Xing stresses that falling is one of the most valuable skills in skating. “The first thing you learn in skating is how to fall. But it’s not really about that. It’s about how to get back up.”Outside of her athletic and social spheres, Xing is a second year student at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in biostatistics and minoring in data science and chemistry, hoping to one day become an OBGYN. Xing describes her schedule as 30 percent skating and 70 percent studying. “If I could go back in time and assassinate anyone, it would be both Pythagoras and Newton,” said Xing.Xing had a chemistry midterm scheduled for the day following her 20th birthday. After a day spent on the rink, Xing’s friends treated her to dinner and strawberry ice cream cake at the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. The group dug into the cool treat on a freezing cold night, then proceeded to cram for exams. Xing said, “For all of my happy and sad moments, or especially when I feel like I’m falling down, I can always lean on my friends to pick me up.”Xing throws herself into a hydroblade, a rare high-level move in competitive skating. She must stretch herself into an extremely low position, almost touching the ice, as she rotates her body in a perfect circle. Xing continues to practice as if she were still being judged because she craves the discipline, but also because she never received proper closure. “I just don’t think I’m done with figure skating yet,” said Xing.Xing now describes her relationship with skating as a tumultuous yet beautiful one. She can’t think of a single moment that initiated her passion for skating. She also cannot recall a time when she did not want to skate. Despite her setbacks, Xing continues to fall deeper and deeper in love with the sport to the point where it cannot be removed from who she is. “Skating doesn’t have to be competitive, it can just be a part of me now. I’ve done it for so long that it’s just kind of a part of me,” said Xing.
