Caroline Brown takes daily training at The Skating Club of Boston seriously. When social distancing brought rink access to a temporary halt, she kept going, turning to Zoom for off-ice dance and strength training and choreography coaching.
It’s all part of her highly focused passion for skating. “When I get back on the ice, I want to be better than before,” she says.
Her father, Stuart, is impressed by his daughter’s “amazing drive.”
“Skating gives her something that we, as parents, can’t give her,” he says. “She learns and grows from that self-discipline; she learns that with hard work will come reward. And skating – it’s a unique sport in that way. You learn to fall and get back up again from an early age. Those life lessons are great for skaters of all competitive abilities.”
Caroline started skating at age five in Colorado and went on to train at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. When the family relocated to Boston four years ago, Drew Meekens, Olympic and World coach and choreographer, recommended the Browns visit the Club.
Caroline found the continuation of the quality she was looking for. Working first with Suna Murray, and then with Vadim Naumov and his wife, Genia Shishkova as well as with Tracey O’Brien, she was up at 4:30 a.m. and on the ice by 5:30 a.m. five days a week.
She also found social opportunities and made new friends through performing with Ice Chips. Stuart, who works in the financial sector, also got involved by supporting the Club’s vision for growth.
Looking ahead, Caroline, who has advanced to the final round at regionals every time she has competed, is eager for new challenges in the novice and junior divisions. She looks forward to training with renewed rigor at the new Norwood facility, where everything she needs – strength training, study rooms, among other related essentials – are all under one roof.
“I love pushing myself and continually improving,” she says. “I’ll be working on landing my triples and see where it takes me from there.”
Her dedication and the gratitude of her family for the positive Club experience will also contribute to the spirit of the Norwood facility. The Brown family has donated three seats at the new performance center.
The gift is “more about the Club than about us,” says Stuart, who foresees the Club becoming a “regional powerhouse” and one of the premier skating centers in the country.
“It’s going to be right up there with the best,” he says. But he also trusts that the Club will keep its core values that made it a place where experienced coaches gave his daughter the encouragement and guidance to follow her dreams.
“Very few clubs have the ability to meet skaters at different levels and interests as The Skating Club of Boston,” he says. “My personal view is that there’s a good skating base here of both skaters who love recreational skating and who are highly competitive. Now the Club will be better positioned to meet those multiple audiences and become a place where skaters of all interests and abilities can thrive and feel at home.”