Defying Gravity

Gravity is not a figure skater's friend. Especially as they age. (Falling hurts waaay more now than it used to!) Sometimes I think it would be easier and more fun to skate on the moon than here on earth...alas, gravity is our reality.

But I didn't know how bad we had it until I read this piece on Gizmodo, detailing a study researchers at Brigham Young did by strapping a sensor to a figure skater's boot to see how much pressure a skater absorbs as they land a jump. The answer? Eight times their own body weight. We're talking 800-900 pounds at the very least for many of us. That's heavy. (And also kind of makes us seem way more badass than we really are...)

For very young skaters, this is kind of terrible news. Imagine a 10-year-old popping off doubles (and maybe even triples!) who weighs 70 pounds. Each time he or she lands a jump, there is 560 lbs of weight crashing down on their tiny little foot. I guess the rising rate of serious hip, foot and ankle injury among those very young skaters shouldn't be surprising, given this study's results. Tara Lipinski, who peaked at age 15 at the Olympics (still the youngest ever gold medalist), had to have surgery to repair torn cartilage in her hip at age 17.  She wasn't even old enough to drink or vote!

Until we can figure out a way to defy gravity, I'll just listen to this song on loop, and maybe try to skate to it...