Sydney Wong

Sydney Wong is a 3rd-year Psychology major on the Pre-Med track at the University of Oklahoma. After competing as a figure skater for 15 years, she's now finding her balance between her work and her passions.

interview by Anthony Nguyen

photography by Emma Nguyen

How did you get into figure skating?

When I was young, my parents were basically like, “Do you want to do a physical activity?” So my sister and I, we decided to get into ballet. We did it for about a year, but we didn’t like it that much because the environment was a bit toxic.

Then, we stopped. Later, my sister started figure skating. Ballet was somewhat translated to figure skating because both are related to dance. At first, I didn’t join her because I was actually scared to go on the ice. But maybe a couple months after she started, she had a lot of fun playing tag on ice and making a bunch of friends, so I decided to try it out. And after a few lessons, I fell in love with the sport.

You mentioned that you started figure skating when you were five. Do you remember anything from back then?

There’s this thing called group lessons. And you would basically have one main coach, and you would learn in a small group of people. That’s how you start off, and then you go through each level. But after those lessons, there’s free time where you’re supposed to practice, but my sister and I would just play, like all the time. We would make snowballs with the ice and play tag with all the other kids. I think that was a pretty big reason why I kept skating all the time, especially when I was young since I just liked playing a lot on the ice.

You started off with figure skating as a means of physical activity and as a hobby. How did you transition to competitive figure skating?

I feel like that's just what happens when you're doing it so much. You start becoming more passionate about it. And then obviously, I started getting into competitive figure skating. My first competition was actually at the Blazers ice rink in OKC. When you do well in the competition, it ramps up and you keep wanting to do more. You just keep building your skill and you just keep going.

How was your training routine like?

It was different compared to when I was younger to when I was older. When I was younger, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, there would be the group sessions that I was talking about earlier. You’d go to those sessions, have lessons with the coaches then practice by yourself afterward. Tuesday evenings after school, I would go to the rink, but on Saturdays, it would be in the morning.

It was different compared to when I was younger to when I was older. When I was younger, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, there would be the group sessions that I was talking about earlier. You’d go to those sessions, have lessons with the coaches then practice by yourself afterward. Tuesday evenings after school, I would go to the rink, but on Saturdays, it would be in the morning.

This is kind of funny, but back then, I really liked Winx Club, but my figure skating lessons would be during the time that Winx Club aired on Saturdays. So my dad would always record it on the cassette tape, and after my sister and I went to our skating lessons, we’d come back and watch that episode of Winx Club together.

But that was when I was young, so it wasn’t too rigorous. When I grew up, that’s when school started to get heavier, so I’d skate before school and sometimes after school, depending on the day. Sometimes back in high school, I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning just to go skate. Even though it sounds kind of rough, once you’re up and you get moving, it becomes routine. On the other days, I’d go to school, but I would have my ice skating clothes in my car. Afterwards, I’d drive to the ice rink and skate for a couple hours, have a lesson, and just practice after that.

How was competing like for you?

It’s definitely really scary. Like, I am not the type of person that likes to put myself in the center stage, but obviously when you’re skating, you’re the only one on the ice a lot of the time. But I think that it’s not the fact that I was scared of a bunch of people looking at me, but it's the fact that they’re judging you based on that one day. I definitely felt really nervous in the days before I would compete, but I would practice so much that it became routine. To a point like, even if you slip up a bit, it doesn’t affect you too much.

Figure skating is a unique type of competitive sport in a way that you’re just competing against yourself. Does that create a different type of competitive mindset for you?

It definitely does, because when I was young, I felt like I improved really fast and all of a sudden, I reached a plateau. Then, improve really fast again, before plateauing again.

I think that happens in a lot of athletic careers, but when I was in that plateau era, I felt like I wasn’t that good of a skater anymore. But I shouldn’t base my self-worth based on how much I’m improving. As long as you’re putting your best effort into it and trying to gradually improve, I feel like that’s good enough.

Does that type of mindset affect other aspects of your life, like school and academics?

I don’t know because academics is a very different thing. Growing up in an Asian household, academics are very heavily prioritized by my family. So no matter what, academics would always be placed on a pedestal.

With academics for the longest time, I felt like I had to do well on every single thing. With ice skating, I felt the same way for some time, but it wasn’t as much of a detriment to my mental health. Especially in college, I feel like I focus on academics a lot, but I wish I could have relaxed a bit more and just taken a breather sometimes.

You’ve told me that you had to “quit” figure skating because of college. What, in particular, do you miss about it?

I think it’s the adrenaline that I get when I’m skating, as well as being able to have this skill that I’ve developed over so many years. And all of a sudden, it’s not there anymore. I felt empty inside, and a lot of people have asked me, “Why do I not go back and start skating again?” I really want to, but it takes a lot of time, especially since the rink is 30 minutes away. It’s not as convenient.

In college, like I said, academics are still important, as well as focusing on my career.

Being a premed student now, when I’m skating, I’m like “Oh wait, I should probably be studying for the MCAT or getting a medical assistant job” or something like that. Isn’t that kind of sad? It’s just that feeling of how I should be doing something that benefits my academic career instead of something else that I enjoy, but I feel like I should try to change that mindset.

As a premed student, you have a lot of things on your plate. What are your thoughts on balancing work/school and your passions?

I’m still wondering about that today. Because, for example, I was really passionate about figure skating back then, but I had to put aside those passions for academics, basically. A lot of people just say, “Oh, just manage your time” or “Just make a schedule.” But both of those things take a lot of time, so I can’t just make an hour here for this and another hour there for that.

But I’m still trying to discover that answer for myself right now. How to balance everything together. Have you heard of that thing that’s like, “Social Life, Good Grades, Sleep: Pick Two?” It’s something like that.

What does passion mean to you?

Passion, I feel like it has a different definition for everyone. But for me, it’s fully involving yourself in something. So it’s just really immersing yourself into something you really like. Taking your whole time and effort to be willing to put yourself into it.

But I know when people have to put aside their passions for school or other reasons, it’s sad. Like, for example, my older sister. She’s really passionate about art, but she doesn’t want to go into art as a career. She feels that if she’s doing it as a career, then she won’t like it as much anymore because she is constantly doing it for monetary gain as a job.

If you do something so often, sometimes you start losing your love for it depending on the situation. But then, I’m not so sure if that means that she’s just not as passionate, you know? Because people are like, “If you’re passionate about something, you’ll keep on doing it, no matter what.” But I feel like I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that. Because I would say I was pretty passionate about figure skating, and I’m still pretty sad that I’m not able to continue to do it as consistently. It’s not that I’m not as passionate about it anymore, but life happens.