A decade ago on the frozen marshes of Easton, Mass., a
young skater charged fearlessly ahead. Denise Gold remem- bers it vividly: It was the moment her daughter, Gracie Gold, laid claim to her future. Now 18, that same driving force has taken Gracie from
a virtual unknown to the proverbial talk of the town in just two years. Her technical savvy, youthful exuberance and suc- cess on the ice have propelled her to celebrity status around the figure skating universe. “Back in those days, I don’t think I had any in- kling of what a huge passion skating would become for them,” Denise said of her twin daughters, Gracie and Carly. Gracie’s budding career, however, hit a speed bump in the fall of 2010. Considered by many as one of the sport’s top prospects, she finished a disappointing sixth at the 2011 Mid- western Sectional Championships. Following that fateful
sectional, Gold
went back to the drawing board, working on basics while continuing to skate under the ra- dar.
“It was so disheartening,” she said. “Tere
were a lot of tough days when I was really hard on myself. Tere was no reason I couldn’t have made it out of sectionals. To completely miss, it was hard. “Nobody cared about me at the begin- ning of the 2011-12 season. I had to skate as well as I could at summer competitions so that I could get noticed. I did get noticed, but I would never have expected anything this big in two years. No way.” After watching Gracie at those summer
events, U.S. Figure Skating assigned her to 2011 Junior Grand Prix Estonia, where she won her first international gold medal. Around figure skating circles, people scrambled to learn more about this skater who seemingly came out of nowhere and would go on to become the 2012 U.S. junior champion and World Junior silver medalist. Since then, the skating world has learned
that Gracie’s triple Lutz-triple toe is about as automatic as the sun rising, juggling relieves her stress, Carly and Gracie are best friends, and red, white and blue go well with Gold. Did we mention Gracie’s love of Instagram and her dog, Yoshi? Scott Brown, a Denver-based coach and
choreographer who has been in Gracie’s camp for three transformational years, adds that his student is smart, tough, polite, kind and honest.
“My favorite part of working with Gracie has been watching her grow up into this won- derful young woman,” Brown said. In the midst of winning medals, helping
Gold is more than just a talented skater, her longtime choreographer Scott Brown says. Smart, tough, polite, kind and honest are just some of the words he uses to describe the 18-year-old.
Team USA earn a coveted third ladies spot for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games and watching her star rise, things haven’t always been easy. “Te last two seasons have signaled a huge change in my skating and my life,” Gracie said. “I’m skating in the spot- light, and it’s been a total blast, but it’s definitely stressful and there are a lot of obligations. I just try to have a positive attitude through the ups and downs.” In September, Gold parted ways with longtime coach
ing. Since then, we have lived largely separate from my husband and have made this work with a lot of travel and flexibility.”
While much has been said about Gracie’s new coaching
situation, which came just four months before the 2014 U.S. Championships, she sees only opportunity. Speaking with icenetwork’s Lynn Rutherford after the news became pub- lic at the 2013 U.S. International Classic (Gold won silver
SKATING 23
Alex Ouriashev. Denise and her daughters moved from Chicago to California so the Gold sisters could train with world-renowned coach Frank Carroll. Te move west meant even more miles between the teens and their father, Carl Gold, who practices medicine and lives in the family home in Springfield, Ill. “Te choices we have made for skating have involved leaving the traditional family, school and social arrange- ment for a somewhat itinerant lifestyle,” Denise said. “We relocated our entire household once to accommodate skat-
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