After being absent for a few years, the University’s figure skating club is back on the ice.

Freshman Ruoyi Han, an exchange student from Beijing, China, has been figure skating for 12 years. While she was checking out the various clubs on campus, she was very happy to find a club skating team, she said.

‘I didn’t know that there was an ice skating club and I was really excited when I found out there was one,’ Han said.

Club President Danni Yurek said for a couple of years in the past she has tried to get a skating club together but there was little interest. This year, however, it all came together, she said.

‘The last time the club was around was about three or four years ago, and now we have re-started it,’ she said. ‘It seems like we see new people every week when we skate, and I would say we have about 12 regulars in the club.’

The figure skating club allows its members to further their skills and experience on the ice.

‘In practice, I usually focus on a particular jump that I am working on as well as my footwork and speed,’ Yurek said.

Junior Amber Hansen said she has been skating collectively for about seven years, but has not skated much since middle school, until she joined the club. Now, she has the opportunity to catch up on what she has learned in the past, she said.

‘I work on the old jumps that I used to do and I’m trying to regain my speed,’ she said. ‘I just try to remember the things that I do know how to do and build on those.’

Other than working on technique, Hansen said her time on the ice is an outlet to getting away from stresses.

‘I’m in the Air Force ROTC and sometimes it feels like it consumes my life and skating can help calm me down from that,’ she said.

Amanda Losch, the skating club’s treasurer, said she agrees figure skating can really help reduce stress.

‘When I’m on the ice, the feeling I get is that nothing else matters and I don’t worry about school or anything else when I’m skating,’ she said.

Although some of the club members find figure skating relaxing, Losch said the notion that some people do not regard it as a sport is as wrong as it is frustrating.

‘People look at figure skating as fun, pretty and nice but not a sport,’ she said. ‘It’s a physical and mental sport and you have to be in control of both of those elements in order to do anything,’

Yurek said that many do not realize figure skating is as physical as many other sports.

‘What some people don’t understand is that figure skating is tough and there are as many injuries in it as other sports,’ she said. ‘I tore my shoulder once and fractured a thumb through skating.’

The club holds its practices on Thursday nights from 8 to 9 p.m.

Many members of the skating club have a number of years of experience, but Losch said that should not discourage anyone from coming out and skating with club.

‘We encourage all skaters of all skill levels and styles to skate to join,’ she said. ‘We actually have a member who has never skated before this year, so everyone is welcome.’