Figure Skating with Pooja Kalyan

Ever since first laying eyes on the skating rink at six years old, Pooja Kalyan ’21 fell in love with the majestic and impressive sport of figure skating, and has excelled as a skater herself since then. Having grown up in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Pooja has been an athlete almost since she could walk; Pooja trained in both gymnastics and tennis from when she was three to five and began ballet when she was five. One day while at the community center during her sister’s swim lessons, Pooja’s mom offered to show her the ice rink. As soon as Pooja saw the skaters on the ice, she thought, “I want to do that!”

Figure skating’s unique combination of athleticism and artistry, as well as the thrill of going fast, captivated Pooja and drew her to the sport. Pooja notes, “I think that jumping and spinning is really what fascinated me even more than the artistry. The fact that it seemed to combine everything, like how I could be some sort of a gymnast and a ballerina almost at the same time, was really cool to me.”

Once Pooja started taking lessons, she knew that she wanted to pursue figure skating to a high level, as she loves the challenge that it provides: “I always liked challenging myself, and I knew that in figure skating, like in most sports, you’re always challenging yourself to get better. […] Whether it is learning a new jump or learning a new spin, I always am trying to perfect even the smallest details.”

As Arkansas is known for its track and summer sport athletes but not specifically for its figure skaters, Pooja would often travel to other states to receive the training and the resources that she needed to improve. First, she traveled back and forth to Tulsa, next to Chicago, and then to Los Angeles. Now, as a high school senior, Pooja spends most of her time living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and skates six days a week. 

As a full-time OHS student taking six classes while also pursuing figure skating to such a high level, Pooja's schedule is extremely packed. Pooja’s standard day begins bright and early at 6 a.m. She first prepares a nutritious breakfast and prepares for her first class, Multivariable Calculus, at 7. As her class ends at 8:15, she will stretch and warm up for the 45 minutes before her first skating session. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Pooja can be found at the rink, completing a total of four skating sessions and three hours on the ice. Each afternoon after skating, she spends about an hour to an hour-and-a-half working out or practicing dance. After training ballet seriously for many years, Pooja now continues ballet “as a way to supplement [her] skating and [her] artistry on the ice.” Each week Pooja will usually also try some other form of dance, such as hip hop or modern, “just to kind of get outside of [her] comfort zone and classic dance.” Once finishing her dance practice, she attends two more of her OHS classes. Making sure to prioritize her body’s needs after a long day of training, Pooja then stretches and recovers so that her body is fresh and prepared for the next day. Usually eating dinner around 5 or 5:30, Pooja spends the rest of her evening completing homework and preparing for the next day, heading to bed anywhere from 10:30 to midnight depending on the day’s workload. 

Bullet journaling has proven to be very helpful for Pooja in managing her packed schedule. Pooja picked up this skill during quarantine, noting, “It made planning more fun for me. Writing out my to-do list every evening before I go to bed of what I’ll do the next day really helped me stay organized and manage my time a little better.” She keeps her bullet journal simple, drawing little boxes for her to-do list, writing a daily quote and sometimes doodling, but is impressed by elaborate bullet journaling spreads and plans to try some in the future.

Pooja’s hard work and dedication in skating has paid off, as she is currently working to qualify for the 2022 Olympics. In order to qualify as a figure skater, the Olympic committee reviews the skater’s “body of work,” which is composed of the skater’s performances and placements at national and international competitions that the U.S. Figure Skating has sent them to. Nationals is the biggest event within the country, and Pooja explains, “How I perform at Nationals next year is the ultimate factor in whether I make it or not to the Olympic team. I’m definitely pursuing that track to actually get to the Olympics next year.” Since there have been fewer international competitions due to Covid, Nationals will also “hold a greater weight going into the Olympic year because of how the pandemic shaped things.” The day this interview was conducted, January 17th, Pooja had just finished competing at the 2021 nationals, finishing in the top 10. Pooja notes that due to the pandemic, this year’s national competition was quite different than those from past years: instead of crowds of people, there were fan cutouts and pre-recorded cheering, “which was pretty funny.”

As can be seen, Pooja loves pushing herself to her limits. While she loves to challenge herself in the rink, Pooja brings the same dedication and hard work to her academic endeavors. One of her favorite classes has been AP Chemistry, as chemistry and neuroscience are her two academic passions. She also is drawn to writing, AP English Language being one of her favorite classes. Pooja is currently still determining her academic plans for next year, as she will either take a gap year or attend one semester of college before taking a break during the second semester for the Olympics. She acknowledges that “figure skating and college [are] huge commitment[s] side by side,” and she is ready to prioritize school above skating in the future as “education is so important to [her] and [her] family.” Even if she skates less in the future than she does now, in college she will “ideally [skate] every day and either in the competitive, national level that I am on now, or the collegiate level when I get a bit older.” In college she would like to focus on the pre-medical track, as she currently hopes to pursue neurosurgery. She explains, “My interests are kind of evolving, but I know that I really like anything related to neuroscience and how the brain functions, [so] something in that field is what I’ll pursue throughout college and into the future.”

Outside of skating and school, Pooja pursues a variety of extracurricular endeavors. She particularly enjoys co-hosting the Blurred Box podcast with three other high school students, where they discuss “social issues and global problems facing society today.” The topics vary, ranging from a discussion on black representation in filmmaking with former OHS student Marie Tagbo to gender inequality to the pandemic. Pooja notes they “cover a bunch of different topics, and we try to touch on various things because it’s interesting for us to get different perspectives on different topics between ourselves.” Alongside the podcast, Pooja serves as the vice president of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) Club, a Stories editor for the Pixel Journal, and the senior class vice president. Pooja also tutors online each week and enjoys baking.

Check out the Blurred Box Podcast at this link.