Say,how old were all you skaters who post here when you first started competing?

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FSWer

I started competing at 22! Started skating at 21 and did my first adult comp at Bracknell a year later. And I won! Beginner's luck! That was free skating only

I started dance about 6 months after starting free skating so again when I was 21 but did my first dance competition at 24.

I was only 38.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Uh, I'm going to say 16.

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hey me too!

Actually it was a horrible experience at a strange rink with 18 skaters ranging from no test (including me) to level 5 in dance. Not surprisingly I came about 15th but was just happy to have not actually been last.

It was extremely traumatic and I'm not sure why I ever agreed to compete again but I'm glad I did having since won several medals (including golds - Yay!!!)

I'm the same. My first competition made me feel ill and I was wishing days before that something would happen so I wouldn't have to skate. But I'm glad I did.

I feel like that before almost every competition but the year it actually did happen (slipped disc type thing), I was absolutely devastated.

I still wonder every time why I'm putting myself through it but I guess it's enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way - and you can't beat the joy of winning a medal when it happens.

Yeah I make myself do it because I know I like it, but before every competition I never want to skate. If anyone was nearby at the BAC last year they would have heard me saying I wanted to go home and not skate!

I was 13 when I first competed as a kid in ISI Delta (I got 1st place!) and 24 for my 1st competition after returning to skating in Pre-Pre (I got last place).

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Me too - my first competition was when I was 22.

It was the inter-collegiate competitions in the US, and at that time the lowest level was Intermediate! Boy was I intimidated

I was really nervous the first comp, and completely screwed up my program, but at the second competition I came in 2nd. That was a thrill!

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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I was 43. My daughter was 11. We both competed for the first time at the same competition.

I skated before my daughter did. She took a few learn to skate lessons a year from the time she was six. But then my coach talked me into competing and she said "why don't you ask your daughter if she wants to compete" My daughter wasn't even taking private lessons. She competed in basic 5 and she came in second and she was hooked. That summer she passed pre-pre and started competing even though she didn't even have a sit spin and got creamed for the first year. Talk about sandbagging - pre-pre is terrible for that.

j

I think I was 29, now I'm 43. The first time I performed (not a competition) I was also 29 at my rinks holiday show and I got totally disoriented and didn't remember if I did all of my elements! There was a spotlight too. It was comical actually!

I was about 11 and competed in ISI Freestyle 1. I was scared to death and I placed somewhere near the bottom. I remember my music though - it was Tara's Theme from Gone With the Wind. Oh, and I had a royal blue dress with pretty silver sequin patterns that my mom sewed on for me

16 yrs old - Mid Atlantics - Pre-Prelim - September 1996

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Tim David's Website

It was 2001 so 33... almost 34!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I was 57 and my first competition was the Canadian Adult Championships (just 6 weeks ago) - I told my coach I was going to start at the top and work my way DOWN! LOL!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

We all do. We sit in the changing-rooms and go "Why did we think this was a good idea?"

But we know quite well that as soon as one competition finishes, we'll be eagerly awaiting the next. And I don't know about you, but I find that as soon as I step on the ice, well, yes, this is what it's all about. I love the adrenaline rush, and the cheers, and - when it happens - skating really well. Of course it's awful when you skate badly, or when the judges don't agree with you that you skated really well.... but even still.

To answer FSWer's question, I think I must have been 45 when I first competed.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I haven't joined any yet. But my coach and I are discussing about joining a competition this august since skate asia is going to be held here, in the Philippines anyway. So when i return to the rink, I'll be working my way through my first program.

Like Rusty I was 57 in my first competition. It wasn't a full program, just a team skills event where I had to do a waltz jump and a scratch spin for our team.

Unlike Rusty, I started at the very bottom of the competition heirarchy and will have to work myself up much higher to really count as a competitor.

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Bill Schneider

Yep I said that at BAC too - in part though, because my family seemed to have always placed exactly where we were drawn, almost every time we skated. It was uncanny! And I'd been drawn last but 1, - I thought it wouldn't be worth going out there at all. I did in the end and won bronze of 8! So happy to have broken the 'draw=placing' spell!!!

My very first skating competition was when I was 18, just a in-house thing - skate to whatever's on the loudspeaker. Outside. In a light rain. I wore jeans and a woolen sweater with these HUGE mittens and a pair of cheap vinyl skates from Herman's Sporting Goods. I think I was 3/3. My niece also skated and she took first place. The local paper printed a picture of the winner - you could see me hunched over on a bad spiral in the background. LOL

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I was 40 (I think...*waits while counts on fingers*), and a bit like Rusty - straight to the top, as my first and to date only comp was nationals. The truth of the matter is that up to last year, adult syhcnro only had one comp a year and that was the adult synchro division of our regular nationals. We came third (as in last), so I am the proud owner of a real live national bronze medal...and just as proud of the fact that I managed to remain vertical.

(off topic - the word around the traps is that the powers that be are considering removing adult synchro from the regular nationals and for next year establishing a second "nationals", which will include all adult divisions, maybe solo dance, and non-ISU ranked divisions (ie: below novice). I really hope this comes off as to date the adults have had nowhere to go.)

(back on topic) My next comp will be the little local Coffee Club solo dance comp in a few weeks - Canasta. DH will be doing it too. Our coach has told me in no uncertain terms that when it's my turn, she plans to push me onto the ice, slam the gate behind me, and guard it to make sure I don't run off. (Can you tell I don't really want to do it?? )

I know I competed as a child, open-preliminary and juvenile and then open intermediate all between the ages of 14-18. Then again at 37 as an adult in silver ladies. I've done much better as an adult than as a chlld.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

same - 33.............

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My other car is a Zamboni

I was two months short of my 50th birthday, and had been back to skating for just under a year at the time. It was a positive experience and now I have turned into a big 'competition junkie'

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.