L OR I LEE P R I T C HAR D
were buzzing about Hess, her power and incred- ible spins. She said much of the fuss was because she seemingly came out of nowhere, especially since she was coming off an injury. She’d gotten a bye out of New Englands and placed third at Easterns with only three weeks of training. At the U.S. Championships, she delivered programs that pleased her. “I enjoyed the process of cutting my own
music and choreographing both programs,” Hess said. “I needed the music to be true to my style and personality. My coach, Frank Carroll, wasn’t initially in favor of that because it wasn’t the classic style of music he preferred, but when he saw what I came up with, he was all for it.
“I was in first place going into the long pro- gram and I skated last,” she added. “From that moment until the end of my program, I had one of the best moments of my life. Te last thing I did in that program was a blur scratch spin. It made the crowd explode. I’ll never forget the standing ovation.” In addition to teaching Pilates, Hess main-
tains a rigorous workout routine of her own. She also loves to cook, travel and read as well as spend time with her husband. After finishing her professional career, Hess did some skating choreography and coaching, but the injuries made working on skates painful, and she didn’t feel she could do a thorough job coach-
ing from the boards. Skating does have a place of pride in her home, where she keeps the mementos of her U.S. title in a prominently placed shadow box.
What she also carries from skating is focus and commitment. “Being brought up as a trained and elite ath-
lete from such a young age, I have a work ethic and professionalism that I have never taken for granted,” Hess said. “Tis flows into all sorts of aspects of my everyday life, which my students si- multaneously hate and enjoy. Also, my experience in recuperating from and working around injuries gives all the pain I endured new purpose.”
Lauren Hess with husband Jeffrey Hess
SKATING 9
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