The scratch of the ice beneath her, gliding so smoothly she’s almost flying, cool air hitting her cheeks as she spins - the joys of figure skating. Sophomore Kiana Stadler says, “The gracefulness of figure skating really pulled me in.” She is the president of the UMD Figure Skating Club, which is made up of a synchronized skating team, an individual team, and a recreational team.
Kiana came up to UMD from Ames, Iowa, to study finance and management and to skate with the Figure Skating Club. She enjoys school, playing piano and percussion, and she volunteers at animal shelters, but she admits, “My main passion is figure skating.”
Growing Up on the Rink
Kiana started skating from a young age. She recalls, “I’ve been skating competitively since I was seven, but I started off playing hockey when I was three. I decided that was definitely not for me, so then I switched over and I fell in love with it.” She trained individually with three different coaches who specialized in different skating disciplines, and she traveled with them and other skaters to free skate competitions. Read more