Most ice skaters start training when they’re very young, partly because their petite size makes it easier to perform certain moves. There’s small, and there’s the utterly adorable Ekaterina Lipnitskaia, though. In a wonderful YouTube video, we see beautiful little Ekaterina flying across the ice with abilities far beyond her years.
She steps onto the ice, beautifully dressed in a red and white dress with gold accents. She takes her pose in the centre of the rink, and her balance is perfect. As the music starts, she begins to skate, and it’s incredible that she can express the music so well.
Most kids her age would still be watching kids’ shows, not training hard enough to achieve this level of skill.
As she continues with the program her routine is not perfect, but as she can only be five years old we can’t expect it to be. There are a couple of moments in the video where she wobbles and loses her balance for a second, but she never falls.
Notice that, she doesn’t pause or let it bother her, she acts as if nothing happened and keeps going. This is an extremely important trait if competitions are in her future. Her proficiency suggests that in a few years, she will be unstoppable and likely sweeping the board in junior skating competitions. Russia has a superb skating pedigree so she’ll have a lot of competition, but she seems more than equal to the task.
Even if she decides not to begin a skating career, it’s obvious how much this little girl adores being on the ice. Doing something for no other reason than the fact you love it is one of the most fulfilling things a person can do. Even if she takes it no further, she will always have these memories to look back on and they are sure to make her smile.
Once you’ve watched Ekaterina dancing so beautifully, check out a video of one potential future. Alina Zagitova is the only Russian female figure skater to have won gold at the Olympic Games, the World Figure Skating Championships, the European Figure Skating Championships, and the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. Two very talented young ladies who can make Russia proud.