Fountain of Youth

Months ago I saw Jo Anne Schneider Ferris's post about some believing figure skating being the fountain of youth. It makes sense, staying indoors in a cold rink, out of the sun, for years on end ... that definitely helps keep the skin perserved. Too bad there's the trade-off with taking in too many Zamboni fumes. Let's hope that one is more of a myth.

But the fountain of youth? After seeing an old skating friend on my summer vacation who I hadn't seen in over twenty years, I now believe it.

You know how we all say (and especially those of us in the ice show world), "Oh you look great. You haven't aged." What we really mean is "You look good, you haven't aged as much as my non-skating friends have."

But seeing this friend, who was an incredible showskater and now skating coach, I was thinking what I was saying. She hadn't changed, except that her arms were buff. Wow. Makes me wish I could get back into an ice rink and do some push-ups or something.

Problem is there aren't any ice rinks around and I'll be headed to the pool this afternoon. That's not helping. So for those of you coaches around, even though the job can make you feel like a mushroom sometimes (from the mouth of one coach I knew), remember, you'll be a youthful, good-looking mushroom.