It Brought Me Back - Bianca Wong

Bianca is a freshman at St. Paul’s Convent School in Hong Kong. Bianca is a member of the Hong Kong Youth Figure Skating Team.

I remember watching my sister skate every single Friday when I was in kindergarten. Yet I’d never gotten on the ice–not even once–until I saw her wearing a sparkly dress during a competition. Consequently, I took a few trial lessons, earnestly hoping that I could someday also wear a glimmering costume. 

Throughout all these years, I’ve owned 5 skating costumes. When I was younger, my favorite part of participating in different competitions was being able to wear the costumes. Among all of them that I’ve worn, the most unforgettable one has to be the orange costume in the picture. It was my first ever skating costume (since I used to wear the old ones from my sister) and I was enraptured when I could finally own a new dress. It fulfilled my childhood wish of owning a sparkly figure skating costume.

Apart from that, the dress has also witnessed the most stressful, challenging moments and of course, the enjoyable ones as well. I was around 9 years old when I first wore the dress to a competition. At the time, I had started spending much more time on figure skating, picking up new skills fairly quickly. Moreover, I grew passionate about the sport and I enjoyed every moment on the ice. I got my first bronze medal in an ISU competition wearing this costume, making the dress even more remarkable. 

I still remember the times before my first Hong Kong championships when I was 10. It was so overwhelming since my jumps weren’t stable and always under-rotated. Although I had trained a lot before the actual competition, it still seemed like it wasn’t enough. Luckily, I was able to handle all the stress under the support from my family, friends and most importantly, my coach. To my shock, I was able to perform a clean program. I always believed that the orange costume had some kind of magic because I could always perform well when I wore it. 

From time to time, I would compete overseas and it got even more nerve-wracking. After I retired the orange costume, things didn’t go so well and there weren’t many improvements. Additionally, the rinks were shut down for a while due to the pandemic and I started to lose my patience, confidence, and passion towards skating in a very short period of time. I didn’t want to see myself fail again. I always thought to myself that no matter how hard I try, I was never going to be good enough. I decided to not take skating as seriously anymore and I nearly gave up.

During that long break from skating, I watched all my past competition videos again. When I saw my younger self in that orange costume, the desire to get back to skating suddenly came back strong. One day, I went back to the rink and had my first lesson in months. It was almost like I couldn’t skate anymore. The rink I used to go to every day became an alien environment to me. It took me some time to familiarize myself with everything again. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the process even though nothing was the same. 

I’ve discovered that this orange costume has always been my motivation, it’s the only thing that stopped me from giving up on this sport. Whenever I look at it, I always imagine what the younger version of me would think about myself now. She might not be proud of my technical skills, but I’m sure she is glad that her hard work and that glittery orange costume has brought me back to her favorite sport. 

It doesn’t fit anymore, but it taught me a lot. It encouraged me to step back into the rink and enjoy every moment on ice. I am extremely thankful to have a coach that’s supportive and pushes me to do better. I’m also grateful to have encouraging friends and family. My figure skating story wasn’t always smooth, but that special orange dress has always been my motivation. Most importantly, I’ve gained an understanding that regardless of the environment, as long as you maintain an optimistic mindset and work as hard as you can, anything is possible.