These figure skating quotes come from some of history’s greatest skaters. They can be used to inspire young athletes, or remember past champions.
“Failure is inevitable – and it’s the people that keep trying who become successful.” – Mirai Nagasu
As creators of figure skating software for clubs and associations, we are deeply passionate about the sport. We want to see skating thrive, and above all, we want to see youth enjoy the benefits of participating in figure skating.
We’ve collected these figure skating quotes with hopes that they may encourage and inspire young skaters. Below, you’ll find figure skating quotes about training, competing, overcoming difficulty, and appreciating the power of skating.
If you have a figure skating quote you’d like to share with us, get in touch! We’d love to hear from you on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
We hope you enjoy the figure skating quotes we’ve assembled and find some inspiration in the power of the most beautiful sport on ice.
Skating Quotes About the Power of Figure Skating
1) “Skating is an amazing form of self-expression. It’s like my soul at play.” — Josee Chouinard
2) “I love to move, I love to create, I love to express, and as soon as I figured out that I could do that on the ice, that’s what I wanted to pursue.” – Tessa Virtue
3) “For relaxation, I like to figure skate. Being on the ice and spinning and jumping, I feel very close to nature. In particular, I feel very close to Newton’s law of motion. On the ice, you can experience Newton’s laws of motion in their purest, most elegant form.” – Michio Kaku
4) “I love figure skating and what I am able to express creatively. I want to leave a legacy in the sport.” – Patrick Chan
5) “I just try to touch people’s hearts in a way through skating, so they’re not just witnessing a performance, they’re feeling a performance and they’re a part of it.” – Scott Hamilton
6) “I just thought that it was magical having to glide across the ice.” — Debi Thomas
7) “I just wanted to go as fast as possible, and eventually it just kind of evolved into something I truly loved doing.” – Scott Moir
8) “Skating was the vessel into which I could pour my heart and soul.” – Peggy Fleming
9) “Sometimes my skating allows me to do things I never dreamed possible.” – Kurt Browning
10) “I love skating and sparkling and flying around the ice, and people clap for you. It’s an amazing feeling.” – Johnny Weir
11) “If you’re skating on thin ice, you might as well dance.” — Anita Shreve
12) “I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn’t have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world.” – Dorothy Hamill
13) “I wanted to show people that if you work hard, never give up, and believe in yourself, you can achieve success.” – Karen Chen
14) “Skating can make you feel athletic, graceful, beautiful.” – Gracie Gold
15) “A figure skater is not just a figure skater who does great jumps. He is an artist on ice.” – Alexei Yagudin
16) “My skating is a very emotional thing that comes from the heart, never doing it for the medal.” – Debi Thomas
17) “I love how my sport reaches out to people with the music and story lines, the glory of standing up for three or four minutes of tough, arduous, gravity-defying skating and all the stuff that goes with it.” – Kurt Browning
Figure Skating Quotes about Competing
18) “Winning is not about how many medals you get-it’s about accomplishing goals and just being the best you can be!” – Michelle Kwan
19) “No one was as invested in our career as we were. No one was going to hand us a medal just for showing up. We needed to make it happen and we needed to take full responsibility.” – Tessa Virtue
20) “Without strength and courage, it’s really hard to perform at the highest levels of international figure skating, because you’re alone on the ice and you only have seven minutes over two nights to prove yourself.” – Scott Hamilton
21) “My main competitor is myself.” – Evgeni Plushenko
22) “If you don’t have fun, it’s hard to do your best.” – Kimmie Meissner
23) “To be the world’s best, you have to beat the world’s best.” – Dorothy Hamill
24) “I want all the gold that there is out there, everything that exists in figure skating. In all events, in all competitions.” — Adelina Sotnikova
25) “Surrounding yourself with a team you trust and who believe in you is key. My coaches believed in me and supported me every step of the way.” – Kaetlyn Osmond
26) “I didn’t lose the gold, I won the silver.” — Michelle Kwan
27) “Love your sport. Never do it to please someone else; it has to be yours. That is all that will justify the hard work. Compete against yourself, not others, for that is who is truly your best competition.” – Peggy Fleming
28) “Half of figure skating is opinion, convincing judges.” – Scott Hamilton
29) “It’s not like we have 18 holes or 4 quarters to do what we have to do and make a comeback. There’s no comeback in figure skating. There’s only perfection.” – Patrick Chan
30) “One piece of advice that I would give to any young athlete or performer is remember to thank your mom.” – Meryl Davis
31) “In order to be the top team in the world, we needed to keep reinventing ourselves, and reinventing our style. That’s something that I’ve learned from my Mom.” – Scott Moir
Skater Quotes About Overcoming Difficulty in Figure Skating
32) “There are so many emotions when I step on the ice. I want to represent my country to the best of my abilities. I want to make Reese Witherspoon proud.” – Adam Rippon
33) “People who aren’t skaters, don’t understand what courage it takes to be one.” – Unknown
34) “Everything that I’ve ever been able to accomplish in skating and in life has come out of adversity and perseverance.” – Scott Hamilton
35) “I knew that things were going to hurt. I knew that things weren’t always going to be perfect. But I could trust that I could make it through it.” – Kaetlyn Osmond, on coming back from injury
Quotes About Skating and Life
36) “An athlete gains so much knowledge by just participating in a sport. Focus, discipline, hard work, goal setting and, of course, the thrill of finally achieving your goals. These are all lessons in life.” — Kristi Yamaguchi
37) “It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time to create something worthwhile.” – Elvis Stojko
38) “Each movement is only learned after you’ve perfected the one before it.” – Scott Hamilton
39) “I need to motivate myself to work hard because only I can skate my program. I need to work on a series of mental skills to help keep focused because I don’t have other people keeping me in the moment.” – Kaetlyn Osmond
40) “I know that, in hockey, the object of the game is simple in that you have to get the puck in the net. With figure skating, it’s not as simple, and there is a ton of work that goes into it.” – Patrick Chan
41) “The biggest lesson has been that there are no shortcuts. It’s just a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice to get what you want.” – Tessa Virtue
42) “I don’t know the secret to success, but I’m pretty sure the closest thing is preparation.” – Michelle Kwan
43) “There are no limits to what you can achieve. Dream big, aim high and never give up.” – Kaetlyn Osmond
44) “I’m a competitive person and I love the challenge of mastering new things.” – Sasha Cohen
45) “You always learn from your mistakes.” – Elvis Stojko
46) “Every day, someone realizes a dream. I believe dreams help light our darkness and give us the push we need to move across the rink of life.” – Kristi Yamaguchi
47) “I worked as hard as I could. I was always the first one on the ice, and the last one off.” – Dorothy Hamill
48) “I have a lot of different stages in my life when training has been easy or hard. Now, it seems that I have been training for so long that it has become almost second nature to me.” – Oksana Baiul
49) “We travelled the world, we had a great skating family, and there are people I still keep in touch with. Skating gives you that big family and gives you friends on almost every continent. That’s very cool.” – Joanni Rochette
50) “I learned so much through skating: setting goals, taking failures, finding my power and using my voice.” – Tessa Virtue
51) “My sport taught me what I could do with my talents, whether in the rink or in the rest of my life.” – Peggy Fleming
52) “At 6 years old, the ice became a place for me to express myself. Because I was so shy off the ice, it became my safe haven, with music and freedom and self-expression. That was my emotional outlet.” – Kristi Yamaguchi
53) “It doesn’t matter that we happen to be decent figure skaters. What does matter is that we strive to be good people. We love what we do and we follow our passions to the fullest.” – Tessa Virtue
If you enjoyed these figure skating quotes, you may also like our 61 Motivational Quotes by Female Athletes.
