Audra Yap on Ice
At the age of six, sophomore Audra Yap began ice skating at the Promenade Ice Chalet where she discovered a new aspiration to learn to figure skate. Yap shifted from recreational figure skating in 2019 to specialize in singles skating when she met with her coach to deepen her skating knowledge and skills. Through years of practice and training sessions, Yap has placed second at the Pasadena Open Championships, third at the Los Angeles (LA) Figure Skating Club Open Championships and fifth at the Orange County Open Championship. These ice skating competitions determine which top 12 skaters in each division will be invited to the Southern California Invitational Finals. Yap has advanced to the Southern California Invitational Finals where she placed fifth in finals out of 16 of the best competitors in her age group, referred to as preliminary. In Yap’s preliminary group, she competed against at least eight competitors at a time in the free skating division. As Yap has been ice skating for nine years of her life and continues to make achievements, she does not intend on stopping in college.
After working together for eight years, Yap appreciates how her coach, Jennifer Ito-Harry, does not pressure her to win even as she progresses to larger competitions. Ito-Harry, who has been skating for over forty years, aims to use her experiences to teach students like Yap how to treasure the moments when they finally make the connection between mind and body to improve their technique in ice skating. Learning the basics of figure skating can take between seven to 10 hours over a period of two months, which would equate to an hour of practice once or twice a week (Ice Twizzle Organization). Therefore, Ito-Harry values Yap’s perserverance from learning simple movements to difficult turns and jumps.
“[I am inspired by her] dedication, patience and her acknowledgement that it will take [time] to reach her goal,” Ito-Harry said. “[Her achievements are] all her [own], she has done the work and I have just pushed her in the right direction. The result [of this] is what we have right now, [which is] pretty amazing.”
According to the Southern California Interclub Association, the Southern California Invitational Finals, a figure skating competition that was held on Sept. 25 this year, is considered a prestigious event for skating clubs across southern California. At the Southern California Invitational Finals, Yap earned a score of 26.75 points, which was graded by three judges based on difficulty and execution of each move. In figure skating, one of the hardest well-known jumps like the axel jump would be worth three and a half points while a euler, a smaller hop on one leg is only worth about half a point (International Skating Union). In this competition, Yap’s score was well above the average of 18 and near the maximum score of 30. It was the first time she could receive the results immediately at a “kiss and cry,” which is an area located at the end of the rink for professional skaters and coaches to view the displayed results. Yap was grateful for her experience at the Southern California Invitational Finals and glad she achieved her top rank.
“I was super [excited] because I was [the] third [competitor] to go out on the ice and it is [usually difficult] to tell what place [one will receive] in the end,” Yap said. “[However], I was really proud of myself and super happy I could end the season [placing fifth].
Yap strives to have a healthy mindset before each performance to prevent overthinking her routines. Even if she falls or makes a mistake, she knows allowing it to bother her would only cause more issues as she continues her routine. By stopping stressful thoughts from affecting her, she aims to present a clean program. Yap considers a clean program to be when she lands her jumps, has a certain amount of revolutions in her spins, as well as a good grade of execution for all of her elements. For this season, Yap’s first competition was the LA Figure Skating Club Open Championships held on July 24. She described her experiences there as her favorite competition because she was able to lay down a clean program, earning her third place.
Karling Jennings, who is also an ice skater, has participated in a few of the same competitions as Yap, such as the Pasadena Open Championships. In the summer of 2019, Yap performed at the Promenade Ice Chalet in a duet as Dorothy with Jennings portraying Scarecrow, two characters from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by Lyman Baum. During this show, they came together to participate in the ice theater where they had to stay in sync, interact with and balance off each other. Yap and Jennings have fun skating with each other and testing the limits of their skills by attempting moves such as aerials and spirals. Jennings commended Yap’s good sportsmanship, and how she does not let fear prevent herself from being daring.
“[I admire] her ability to not care if she falls, [which is] why she is able to get all of her double jumps so fast,” Jennings said. “Yap [meets the qualities] of being a great skater by [having] fun, not seeing it as a competition and focusing on herself. [Aside from being] a great skater, she is not afraid to [learn new jumps] and is [dedicated] making her stand out.”
