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Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2018 18:53:15 GMT
A nervous Gracie Gold struggled with her jumps Friday in her first competitive program since receiving treatment last year for anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. The Sochi Olympian and two-time U.S. champion fell on a triple flip and popped an Axel, tallying 37.51 points for last place of 10 skaters. Gold buried her head in her hands as the score was announced. “We just had to start with something, even if it was trash,” she said, according to The Associated Press. “This is six months out of rock bottom, so we’ll just go from there. “The goal was just to show up and try to be brave.”
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Post by Admin on Dec 6, 2018 18:44:08 GMT
Skating internationally for the first time since 2017, Gold returns to the ice at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, which is the fourth stop in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series. Gold helped the U.S. win a bronze medal in the team competition at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, where she finished in fourth place in the women’s competition. She was also fourth at the 2016 world championships. Gold is returning to competition after taking last season off, when she was being treated for depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. She is among eight U.S. skaters competing in Moscow and the only one in the women’s event, which begins Friday with the short program.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2019 18:50:06 GMT
Gracie Gold’s captivating journey in the sport of figure skating, at times exhilarating, at other times troubling, took yet another turn Wednesday evening when the 23-year-old two-time national champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist withdrew from the upcoming national championships in Detroit.
Gold said on Instagram that this isn’t the end for her, that she’s already working hard to “get a jump start” on next season, with the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing being her ultimate goal.
But after undergoing treatment for what she said was depression, anxiety and an eating disorder in 2017 and missing the 2018 Olympic season, then having a very difficult time when she returned to competition two months ago, Gold’s path forward is anything but certain.
Although it is only natural to frame the conversation about Gold in athletic terms, there should be only one concern for her now, and that should be for her personal well-being.
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Post by Admin on Jan 11, 2019 18:41:06 GMT
Her November 2018 attempt to return to the sport for the first time since the U.S. nationals in January 2017 was alarming to all who watched. Still not in competitive shape, she nonetheless went to Russia to compete in a Grand Prix event against nine other international skaters, including 2018 Olympic gold medalist Alina Zagitova. Gold clearly wasn’t ready, finishing 10th in the short program, unable to land any of the triple jumps that once came so effortlessly to her. She withdrew before the long program. But what came next, on Twitter, was even more troublesome. “I thought checking into treatment last fall was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Gold wrote, “but skating my short program last night might have topped it. … The only place to go from here is up. … I’m heartbroken to withdraw from tonight’s free skate. It was a difficult decision to make, but ultimately I need to put my mental health first and focus on the big picture. Looking forward, I need to keep improving both my physical and mental condition. … I do not want to undo the tremendous progress I’ve made in these last few months and I feel that competing the free skate would be damaging to both my confidence and mental health going into Nationals.”
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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2019 17:58:34 GMT
U.S. figure skating champion and Olympic medalist Gracie Gold is opening up for the first time about the harrowing battle with mental health that led her to withdraw from both the competitive skating circuit — and her life in general.
In an emotional new New York Times profile by Karen Crouse, Gold reveals that at the height of her depression in 2017 she sometimes slept for 24 hours at a time, covered every mirror in her home as “she could not stand the sight of herself” and often couldn’t even manage to brush her teeth or hair.
“I was suicidal for months,” Gold, 23, told the Times, explaining that she imagined her death and thought about no one finding her body until the landlord came to get her rent. Continued Gold, “If I had just continued the way I was in Detroit, I’d probably be dead.”
In September 2017, Gold — who earned a bronze medal on the U.S. figure skating team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — announced she would be “taking some time off” from her sport to “seek some professional help.”
“My passion for skating and training remains strong,” Gold said at the time. “However, after recent struggles on and off the ice, I realize I need to seek some professional help and will be taking some time off.” A month later, Gold withdrew from her scheduled competitions and confirmed that she was specifically being treated for anxiety, depression and an eating disorder.
“It saddens me deeply to sit out this Grand Prix Series, but I know it is for the best,” she said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time, adding, “I will not have adequate training time to prepare and compete at the level that I want to.”
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