Brinkmeyer figuring it out

Most sport players in high school spend most of their time on a field or on a court, but not freshman Sydney Brinkmeyer. She spends her time in a ice rink. Brinkmeyer is a passionate figure skating athlete.

Brinkmeyer ice skates for the chesapeake figure skating club at ice world. Brinkmeyer has been skating since she was seven years old. Brinkmeyer also competes in figure skating.

“I compete against various other figure skaters, throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and the east coast.” Brinkmeyer explains. She also travels to ice rinks among the east coast to skate.  “I compete at the University of Delaware Wilmington, there’s a lot of rinks out of state I got to” Brinkmeyer adds.

“The best things about competing are probably getting to dress up and kind of feel like you are the center of attention when you are performing, but the downfalls of that is the nerves and being so nervous, that you mess up and sike yourself out” Brinkmeyer says as she describes the best things and the worst things about competing. Brinkmeyer has placed in more than a dozen competitions.

According to scholastic.com during a competition the skaters are judged on their ability to perform jumps, spins, spirals, and to skate a program coordinated with music. There has been a trend toward more athleticism in free-skating events, adding more complicated and daring jumps.

“My favorite thing is probably just being out there and using that as kind of like my coping method for dealing with stress” Brinkmeyer says as she explains why she likes ice skating over all.

But this sport, like any other also comes with challenges. “The most challenging thing is to not sike myself out when I’m doing a jump.” She says. Brinkmeyer’s favorite jumps are axles and double salchows.

Although Brinkmeyer loves her sport she isn’t sure if she is going to make a career or future hobby out of it.“I’m not really sure what I want to do, I’m trying to finish all my testing and maybe try nationals.” Brinkmeyer says about her future goals for figure skating.