EDMUNDS FINDS BALANCE IN SKATING, SCHOOL by MIMI WHETSTONE
For most people, training for the Olympics isn’t a simple task. Neither is
surviving high school. For U.S. silver medalist Polina Edmunds, both tasks are routine. “A normal day is basically me skating in the morning around 7:30,” Ed- munds said. “Ten around 8:45 I leave for school and I’m there until 2:35 on most days. After that, I go back to the rink and I train for another couple of hours. Ten I go home, I eat dinner, do some homework and go to bed to get ready for the same thing the next day.” With an Olympic Games under her belt at the tender age of 16, Edmunds’ to-do list is a bit different from her classmates’ at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif. For one, this summer, while the other students enjoyed a break, Edmunds trained for two ISU Grand Prix Series events, in China and Japan. At the same time, while other members of Team USA enjoy media ap- pearances, professional shows, postseason vacations and tours, Edmunds bal- ances homework, studying for exams, taking her driver’s test and a slew of orthodontic appointments between competitions. “It’s kind of hard to balance, because you don’t really want to do
Whether she’s walking the halls at school or warming up rinkside, it’s hard to separate Polina Edmunds from any other teenager. Aside from the Olympic rings that adorn her jackets, the U.S. silver medal- ist carries herself like any other 16-year-old — a trait she thinks sets her apart from her competi- tors. Denver-area photographer Hans Rosemond captured both the youthful innocence and fierce competitive edge of Edmunds, who was sporting a shiny new set of braces since making her senior international debut in Sochi.
22 DECEMBER 2014
homework when nobody else is doing homework,” Edmunds said. “I have to make time for it myself. I try to get as much done on the plane as I can so I don’t have to worry about it.” Crowned U.S. junior champion in 2013, Edmunds burst onto the senior scene last year, earning the U.S. silver medal behind Gracie Gold, who had a similar coming-out party the season before. Gold won the junior title in 2012 before taking the U.S. silver medal the following year in her first senior season. While it’s easy to compare careers and po- tential among elite skaters, Edmunds believes her busy life sets her apart. “I think a really big part of who I am, and what
makes me different, is that I am a high school student,” Edmunds said. “I actually go to a school and have that real teen- age experience. I do a lot of things other than skating. I don’t focus on skating 24/7. It’s my extracurricular activity outside of my schoolwork.” “When I’m at school, I’m at school, and when I’m at the rink, I’m a skater,”
Edmunds continued, adding that during the hours she is training, she is 100 percent focused on her training; however, once the skates come off, her head is no longer in the ice rink. “Tere’s a lot more to life, to my life, than skating,” she said.
Although she separates her on-ice life from her off-ice life, Edmunds has one constant overlap — Nina Edmunds, who is both Polina’s mother
PHOTOS BY HANS ROSEMOND
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68