Monday, January 10, 2005
U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS PROFILE PASSION TO PERFORM
Summary: Young Christine Zukowski's love of figure skating grows with the competition
 
Christine Zukowski doesn't remember when figure skating grabbed her heart. Her mother does. It was the 1994 Olympic Games, in the hoopla of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and 4-year-old Christine was glued to the TV. "Her eyes got that big and she said, 'I can do that, Mom,' " Theresa Zukowski recalls. "So we enrolled in a mom-'n-tot class and she went, whoosh." Christine Zukowski will compete for the junior women's title beginning today at the State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Rose Quarter. After winning the novice title last year, the 15-year-old from Newark, Del., is among the favorites. The championships continue their eight-day run today with the junior women's short program at the Rose Garden and the novice finals and the junior dance compulsory at the Memorial Coliseum. Christine, her mother says, is middle America -- the antithesis of the figure skating stereotype of the ice princess with a silver-spoon upbringing. Her parents, divorced when Christine was a child, shoulder the costs of the sport because of what they see in their daughter's eyes. Not just the dreams of world and Olympic championships -- dreams shared by every skater at the championships. "Her joy in the sport is just as much today as it was eight or nine years ago, and that's as important as anything," her father, Chet Zukowski, says. There are sacrifices. There are mounting credit card debts. The cost of trying to become an elite skater runs $35,000 to $40,000 yearly, and there are few sponsors or endorsement deals for up-and-coming skaters. But there also is a parent's pleasure in seeing their daughter excel at what she loves. At 5, Christine was in private lessons. Chet Zukowski woke his daughters before dawn, fed them breakfast and drove 45 minutes from their Philadelphia suburb to the Wissahickon ice rink. Within two blocks, the girls were asleep again but always woke to plead for treats from the Wawa Store near the rink. Later, Theresa Zukowski and the children lived in New Jersey, where the rink was a 60-mile one-way drive away. When Christine was 8, Theresa Zukowski moved with her children -- son Jeff is 18 and daughter Jennifer is 13 -- to Newark, Del., so Christine could be coached by Jeff DiGregorio at the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club. Theresa Zukowski found a good job as an intensive care unit nurse. At work at 7 p.m., home by 8 a.m. -- in time to take Jennifer to school and Christine to the rink and awake in the late afternoon when they came home. The move brought the children closer to their father, who lives in Philadelphia, where he works in the Temple University athletic department producing radio and television broadcasts of Owls football and basketball. Christine, a 10th grader, attended Newark High School until this year, when she is continuing her schooling by the Internet. High school wasn't a social experience because of her limited classes, Christine says. She doesn't miss it. "I have six good friends in the neighborhood, and none of them skate," she says. "It's nice to have friends who do other things." And skating was everything. "It's just fun to be out there and knew I could do new things," Christine says. "When I was 12 and I won junior nationals, I knew that I wanted to do this. But even when I first started, I knew I wanted to skate." For Christine, the sport was a passion. It was special in other ways to her mother. In 2001, Theresa Zukowski was diagnosed with breast cancer. She continued working through her treatment. And her daughter continued skating, preparing for a major intermediate level competition. "I think her skating helped me a little -- a distraction," Theresa Zukowski says. "The day of the short program was the day my hair just all fell out. So I wore a wig and everyone was saying, 'Oh, your hair looks so nice.' And I wanted to cry. "But she skated great." Christine remembers. "It was really hard for me to keep pushing myself, when someone in your family is ill," she says. "Then I went out and did really well because it made my mom happy." Winning the novice championship last year opened some doors for Christine. She received $5,000 from U.S. Figure Skating and a $2,366 grant from the foundation run by Olympic figure skater Michael Weiss. That helped defray some of the on-going expenses: boots and blades at $1,000-plus, every seven months; ice time at $6,000; coaching at $500 weekly; costumes at $2,000, easily. Christine also competed in her first international events, including a junior Grand Prix in China. She hopes to compete on the junior Grand Prix circuit next fall, but will move up to the senior level for the 2006 U.S. championships. She will begin work on the triple Axel and quadruple toe loop jumps after Portland. "I've pretty much mastered the skills I've learned," Christine says. "It's time to move onto something new. "I don't think there's anything that scares me." Not today's competition. Christine Zukowski says she loves to perform. "I just want to skate really well here," she says. "Do two clean programs, because I know I can do it."

Abby Haight: 503-221-8198; abhaight@aol.com