Competitive Edge: Sarah Glaser

ELLENTON — Sarah Glaser doesn’t have a care in the world.

For six hours a day, the 13-year-old twirls about the ice, as if she’s the only one in the rink.

It’s her stage.

It’s her happy place.

It’s the one place where Sarah feels completely at ease.

“I don’t have to worry about anything else,” Sarah says.

The St. Stephen’s eighth-grader first stepped onto the ice about three years ago, after attending an open skate with her family.

Sarah’s father, Dave, used to play hockey in New York and thought it would be a fun activity for the family to try.

After wobbling around for a few minutes, Sarah quickly got the hang of skating. She was hooked.

“I remember I was really happy that I didn’t fall,” Sarah says. “I hung on to my dad the whole time.”

Shortly after that first open skate, Sarah decided she wanted to take figure-skating lessons. She saved up her money and paid for her first set of lessons.

“I watched a lot of skating before, and I wanted to be able to do jumps and go to the Olympics,” Sarah says.

Sarah began training at the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex with Morgan Boutwell and has only continued to excel; she won the Florida Open two years ago, while skating a level higher than the one for which she had tested.

“I was really surprised,” Sarah says. “I didn’t think I skated as well as I could have, and there were a lot of other young girls in my group.”

Sarah recently passed her juvenile free-skate test and is in the middle of preparing for just her second out-of-state competition.
On July 16 through July 20, Sarah will compete in the Liberty Summer Competition, in Philadelphia. Sarah went to watch the competition last year, but this will be the first time she’s attended the event as a competitor.

“Sarah is a great performer who gives 100% each time she steps on the ice, and I expect nothing less at this next competition,” Boutwell says. “We are looking forward to seeing Sarah achieve her personal-best score and accomplish more advanced elements than she has done yet in competition.”

Following the competition, Sarah will travel to the University of Delaware, where she will take part in a weeklong comprehensive summer-training program, which incorporates both off-ice strength and conditioning and intensive on-ice training.

Sarah will then return home to continue her summer training program, which runs from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. During her summer training program, Sarah participates in on-ice training sessions as well as ballet and fitness classes.

“Sarah is a very intelligent and determined young lady,” Boutwell says. “One of the most remarkable things about Sarah is the incredible improvement she has made in the short time that she has been skating. Skaters usually spend more than just a few years to get to the level that Sarah is at.”

Sarah already has mastered a double loop and a single axel and has aspirations of getting her double axel and one or two triple jumps later this year.

Eventually, Sarah would like to be an Olympian and perform triple axels in competition like her idol — Japanese figure skater Mao Asada.

“She’s one of only a (few) women in the world who do triple axels in competition,” Sarah says. “She’s so flexible and graceful.

“I want to be able to go to the Olympics and do that,” Sarah says. “I think everyone does.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].