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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR


The family keeps on growing at Adult Championships


Thom Mullins and Ted Gradman are two


of seven skaters who have competed at each of the 23 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Champion- ships. So it wasn’t surprising to see them


roaming around the awards area at the Polar Ice House (Wake Forest, North Carolina) 15 minutes after the fi nal event Saturday night, congratulating everyone who competed in the marquee championship masters ju- nior-senior ladies event. Specifi cally, Mullins was there to com- mend medalist Jaclyn Yacomes-Metzler, whom he met at a rink after moving from San Francisco to just outside of Philadelphia. “Every year you get a new friend or two


from the event,” Mullins said. “We moved from the West Coast, where we were for more than 20 years, to the East Coast. In doing so, it’s expanded my group of skating friends and here I am cheering them on. It’s like you have this family that has this big reunion every year and the family only grows.” Gradman sat with gold medalist Regan


Alsup’s family during the fi nal event. “I was blown away by her two double


Axels and total exuberance,” he said. It’s in front of this supportive group of


friends that Mullins and Gradman look for- ward each year to showcasing their creative talents. It’s a labor of love to come up with an original program, said Mullins, who is the artistic director of fi gure skating at the Lehigh Valley Charter School in Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania. It’s the only public high school with fi gure skating as part of the curriculum. “Doing something new every year is


important to me,” he said. “I don’t like to repeat things. It’s a chance to express yourself creatively, so I love that side of it.” Mullins’ streak of competing at 23


consecutive U.S. Adult Championships was in jeopardy in 2007 when he suff ered a mild heart attack after doing a run-through at his home rink in San Francisco. He was taken to the emergency room and later that day underwent an angioplasty procedure. Some- how, someway, he persuaded his doctor to let him travel to Bensenville, Illinois, a few weeks later for the 13th annual event, where he performed a scaled-down version of his program. “I’m motivated to come each time,” said


Mullins, who was asked if he makes sacrifi ces each year to attend. “I don’t see it as a sacri- fi ce at all; it’s almost become our vacation, so the only sacrifi ce might be a nice vacation on a beach somewhere, which I sure could use.” Gradman, who lives in San Francisco and is a clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and cognitive-behavioral


4 JUNE/JULY 2017


therapy, performed a light entertainment program for the fi rst time at the U.S. Adult Championships. “A friend at the rink played a rap version


of “Let the Sunshine In,” Gradman said, explaining the origins of the program. “When I brought that home, adding in “Here Comes the Sun,” my wife was kind of horrifi ed by the excessive cheeriness. She suggested a darker, bluesy song to contrast, thus the “Ain’t No Sunshine”/“Let the Sunshine in” combo. And add one trip to Haight-Ashbury for the costume and stir. “It was fantastic when Cindy Crouse


came up to me after the skate to applaud my new rocking style. That made my day.” Gradman performed the program, with


his wife remaining back home after under- going knee surgery. After the competition, he made his way up to his boyhood home in New Jersey to visit his mom. “My mom is turning 90, so I’m excited about heading up there,” he said. “I usually combine the trip to New Jersey with nation- als.”


Mullins’ and Gradman’s love of com-


peting and rekindling friendships at the U.S. Adult Championships is shared by hundreds of others who attend each year. One of my favorite interviews this time around was with Burton Powley, who, on the eve of his 60th birthday, won a medal in the championship masters novice-intermediate men’s division. Powley has competed in 22 of the 23


events, missing only the fi rst one in Delaware. He joked about having shoes older than the winner, and he exemplifi es the spirit of adult competitors at the event. “I don’t do it for the medals,” Powley said.


“All I want to do is skate well. I don’t care if I fi nish in last place; I have a whole room full of medals, so that doesn’t matter. If I put my best performance out there and someone outshines me, good for them. Now if I feel I give it away, well, then I don’t feel so good.”


Seven skaters have attended every U.S. Adult Cham- pionships. They are top row (l-r) Angela Prevost, Julie Gidlow, Colleen Conroy, Dorothy Ray; front row (l-r) Thom Mullins, Walter Horton, Ted Gradman


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