SHELLEY — Shelley resident Mathew Graham started spinning on the wooden floors in his home after watching the figure skating competition on TV during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Now, eight years later, he performs some of the best spins in the West for his competition level — and he does them on ice.
Graham, 15, currently holds the intermediate men’s title for the Northwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships, and he took fourth place at the Pacific Coast Sectional championships in November.
“At both the regionals and sectional I got a special award for (earning) the most points on spins,” he said, adding that he also earned enough
points to make it to nationals.
Graham took 11th place at the national figure skating championships in Nebraska in January.
“I was in 9th after the short program, but the long program didn’t go quite as good,” he said, adding that he was disappointed he didn’t skate
stronger, but he also felt good about making it as far as he did.
And he’s always working to improve his abilities.
Graham can already perform a double axle jump — two and a half revolutions in the air — and is close to achieving the triple salchow — a jump that
goes from the back inside edge of one foot to the back outside edge of the other while rotating in the air. Graham is also learning to do a triple toe loop and a triple loop right now, he said.
Although he has proven to have talent — he won the first competition he ever competed in at the age of 8 — Graham also has his share of obstacles to overcome.
“We don’t have the ice time and the coaches where I live as a lot of other skaters do. There’s more pressure (for me) and it’s harder to stay with it,” he said.
Still, he does what he needs to to get as much ice and coach time as he can right now. Graham practices four and a half hours each week at the Tautphaus Park ice skating rink in Idaho Falls; he sometimes goes as early as 5:30 a.m. to skate before he has to go to school at Shelley High, and other days he goes in after his classes. He also travels to Utah every weekend to work with his coaches, Karel and Amanda Kovar, and spends most of his summers there.
“There are a lot of thoughts that go through your head sometimes,” he said, adding that it’s difficult to keep up with his schedule. “(But then I remember that) in the end it all pays off and the success I’ve had.”
Despite the difficulty of balancing figure skating with his school studies and other interests — he joined the debate team this year and hopes to
participate in track — Graham said he still enjoys the sport. “I like the pressure of it and the idea of performing,” he said, adding that he is inspired by the other skaters he watches during the competitions and enjoys the challenge personally. “You get a big boost of confidence when you do well in a competition and it gives you more motivation to do better in the next competition.”
Although Graham doesn’t have any Olympic goals at this point, he said he would like to one day place in the top 10 at the senior level in nationals.
“It would be amazing to go to the Olympics, but a lot of people don’t realize how hard that really is,” he said. “(Just making it into the top 10 at nationals) would be a really big accomplishment.”