Sitting on the cold, hard bleachers in an even colder ice rink, one figure skater’s dad reached his breaking point. He’d been watching his nine-year-old repeatedly attempt to land an axel jump and decided he could do a better job, so he laced up his skates, glided onto the ice and leapt into the air. He broke his leg.
Although getting out on the ice is not a requirement of skater parents, they do have to dedicate a huge portion of their lives to the sport, and not everyone is cut out for it. Kori Ade, an Olympic figure skating coach, said: “If you don’t have a parent who’s extraordinarily invested, you won’t make it to the top.”
