phase of tracing school figures and found myself in first place. On the other hand, my free skating (jumping and spinning) left something to be de- sired, and I wound up finishing third.” “Jumps were complicated for me because my
legs are incredibly long,” Rice explained. “For ex- ample, I could never land a double toe loop. I tried to concentrate on other parts of my skating — spi- rals, spins — and to be artistic, but I had real lim- itations and never fared very well in competition.” When she was 15 years old, the overachiever
decided to combine her senior year of high school and freshman year of college. In addition, Rice skated every day, studied and practiced the piano. It was too much and she stopped skating after her freshman year. “I had hit my peak and knew it, but I will al-
ways be grateful to skating for the discipline and per- severance it taught me. I learned to get up the next day and keep trying. A very valuable life’s lesson.”
JULIE BENZ Julie Benz was born in 1972 with skating in
her blood. Her mother, Joanne Marie Seemiller, had been a figure skater. Her older brother and sis- ter, Jeffrey and Jennifer, were taking group lessons. “I was 3 years old when I started,” Benz said.
“I was a cute, chubby kid and all I remember is people were always pushing me around the ice.” With three skaters in the family, the daily
routine certainly kept their mom busy. “During the week, we woke up every morn-
ing at 4 and went to the rink before going to school,” Benz said. “We were picked up around 1 p.m. and went back to the rink to skate until dinnertime. We always ate dinner together as a family; then it was time for homework.
Julie Benz spent much of her youth skating with her family.
Julie Benz plays Abby Dunn on “Hawaii Five-O.”
“On Fridays, we would drive six hours to
Detroit. We would skate Friday night from 6 to 10 and all day Saturday. On Sunday, we would skate until around 1 p.m. and drive another six hours home to Pittsburgh.” Unlike her siblings, Benz started as a singles
skater. Te memory of one particular program still haunts her. “It was my last long program as a senior lady,
she said. “My coaches picked my music (from the Gorky Park soundtrack) and it was very dark. In hindsight, I think it was too sophisticated for me. I have a recurring dream where I’m in competition and I can’t remember any of the choreography to that routine.” Benz switched to ice dancing partly because of her nemesis — the double Axel. “I developed a mental block over it,” she
said. “I could do triples but for some reason, I couldn’t land a double Axel. I still have nightmares about that jump!” She didn’t have to worry about ice dancing.
She loved the relationship she had with her part- ner, Dave Schilling, she said. Tey finished 13th in junior ice dance at the 1988 U.S. Champion- ships. Jennifer and Jeffrey had won the title the previous year. Te 1988 U.S. Championships was their sister’s shining moment. “It was so glamorous. Te dresses, the make-
up, the lights, the big arena, performing in front of a large audience — it was magical,” she said. Schilling decided to move on after the U.S.
Championships. Benz had several tryouts, but said her heart wasn’t in it anymore. “It was at that time that I made the decision
to pursue a career as an actress,” Benz said. “Te most important lesson I learned as a skater is that there’s no such thing as overnight success.”
SKATING 59
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