Smiling through the obligatory cheers, she closed her fist and softly punched her head.
“Oh my gosh, I literally just like messed up so bad,” she thought.
Dejected, she skated slowly off the ice, flopped in the Kiss and Cry chair and forlornly clutched a huge stuffed animal. Then her free skate score appeared on the scoreboard above.
Followed by the total for the whole two days: 188.24.
She hadn’t failed after all. She was in second place with two skates left to go. That’s when she realized she was going to be on the winner’s podium.
“I placed!” she remembered thinking.
In the end, Andrews took fourth. But since the U.S. Figure Skating Championships awards a pewter medal to the fourth place finisher she stood on the same podium as the champion Isabeau Levito, silver medalist Bradie Tennell and third place finisher Amber Glenn. She held the same flowers as the other medalists and took the same group picture. No matter what the medal was made of, it meant everything.
“To be able to be the next African American woman to stand on a podium is amazing,” she said.
At 21, Andrews is considered old in the sport today. Five years ago, she burst across the ice at the same event, in the same arena, as a teenager with a future, finishing sixth and promising to be a big part of the next years of American women’s skating. But then came injuries and inconsistency and an issue with her heart that caused it to sometimes race that led to an operation late last fall. Her promise withered. Instead of the firsts and seconds she’d planned to win, her competition finishes were more eighths and 10ths.
But this past season brought new promise, a silver medal at Skate Canada and hope that after the November heart procedure, she could finally reach her once limitless potential. After finishing third in Thursday’s short program at U.S. nationals, she was sure she would win a medal.
Then, early in Friday’s free skate, her skate caught as she started to do a triple flip, reducing it to just a single flip. A minute later, her skate again got caughtas she started a triple Salchow and double loop combination, turning the jump into a single Salchow. Both were significant mistakes. And though she made up some of the missed points with the artistry of her skate, she was sure she had blown the biggest chance of her career.
“It’s just like ugggh I can do these jumps in my sleep,” she said. “They’re so easy for me.”
Later, Andrews stood in a small room beneath the arena’s stands, sad that she’d lost a chance at a gold or silver but happy she at least got to be on the podium. Growing up in Los Angeles as a Black woman competing in a sport where women of color rarely finish events on the medal stand, she knew the significance of the moment, aware she was the first Black woman to win a U.S. nationals medal since Debi Thomas in 1988.
She talked about the notes she gets from the parents of other young Black skaters, telling her what an inspiration she is to those children. Sometimes those notes come with videos she thinks “are so cute.”
“I can’t believe I’m the person they saw, I’m the person that wanted to make them start skating,” Andrews continued. And I think that that’s so amazing. And I’m so glad that I can be that person.”
Andrews was asked who “that person” is for her and without hesitating she said it’s her mother Toshawa, a skater herself, who has served as her coach and mentor. Toshawa Andrews also held the camera for a video of a 9-year-old Starr skating to the Willow Smith song Whip My Hair, that has not only been viewed 57 million times, but announced Andrews to the world as a skater to watch.
Toshawa Andrews has microvascular disease, a heart condition that her daughter said has resulted in 12 heart attacks. She’s also has had a stroke.
“She’s lived a hard life,” Andrews said of her mother.
“Throughout all of it she’s put a smile on her face,” she continued. “And I think that she’s such an incredibly strong woman and person and to be able to almost die a couple times and be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to take it to the rink’ even though she’s like, barely can function is incredible to me and just shows how strong and how supportive she is.”
While Andrews’s own heart ailment isn’t nearly as serious, she will have to undergo another procedure soon. The surgery is small, the recovery is quick, and Andrews hopes it won’t interrupt her skating too much. After Friday’s free skate, she was named the U.S. women’s team’s first alternate behind Levito, Tennell and Glenn for March’s world championships in Saitama, Japan.
As she stood in that tiny room on the greatest day of her career, Andrews breathed deep then exhaled, She was sure she had blown her chance, and yet everything had worked out fine. She didn’t get the medal she wanted but after everything that has happened, the pewter felt important enough.
“It’s never going to be an easy an easy road (in skating),” she said. “There’s ups and downs and everything and I think that those you have to take and make the best out of it. And that’s how you become a great athlete and … helps you in regular life as well. So be patient because the sport is definitely a roller coaster.”
Source: News