The World Competes

Figure skating is one of the most popular Winter Olympic sports in America, although much of the country doesn’t follow figure skating throughout the rest of the year. This means that, although Rachael Flatt is a relatively unknown name right now, in a few weeks, she could be a household name.

Rachael Flatt seems to be your typical 17-year-old high school student. She is a senior at Cheyenne Mountain High School. If you follow her on Twitter, you will see typical entries for a high school student… excitement about getting to sleep in because snow delayed school, getting A’s in school (she’s taking AP Physics), and applying to college. There is one major difference between Flatt and your typical American teenager… Flatt is one of the top US figure skaters.

She took the top ladies’ spot at the US Figure Skating Olympic trials, which were held in Spokane a couple of weeks ago. Incidentally, the other skater that will be going to Vancouver with her is also a teenager: 16-year-old Mirai Nagasu.

While the US was lamenting the lack of talent in ladies figure skating a year ago, and was looking to skaters like Sasha Cohen to have a chance to get a medal, Flatt seems to have come out of nowhere. She has been working towards her goal for years, however. She was the 2008 World Junior Champion, and took home the silver medal in the US Championships in 2008 and 2009. We still have to wait to see how she will do against figure-skating front runners Shizuka Arakawa and Mao Asada, both of Japan.

Skaters in the photo are (from left) Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt, and Caroline Zhang. Photo by David W. Carmichael (Creative Commons).

Here is Flatt skating to Fame