A champion on ice

The first time Steven Cousins went ice skating, he never imagined he would eventually become a national champion figure skater and participate in the Olympics. But once he discovered a passion for the sport, he willingly practiced day after day, so he would become successful.

Today, the eight-time national champion of Britain skates in the famous traveling show Smucker's Stars on Ice alongside Olympic medalists and world champions.

As a boy, Mr. Cousins, who was born in Chester, England, enjoyed playing plenty of sports with his brother and their neighbors. One day, after Cousins's friends boasted to the two boys that they'd visited a skating rink, he and his brother pestered their parents to take themto one, too.

It wasn't nearly as much fun as Cousins had thought it would be. "I couldn't do it," he recalled in a phone interview. Instead, it was his brother who took to skating. Although Cousins didn't continue the sport then, he constantly had to go to the rink anyway, to watch his brother skate.

After a while, he decided to give skating another try. It beat waiting on the sidelines every day, he thought. This time, the sport grabbed him. Cousins discovered he actually enjoyed ice skating – and was pretty good at it, too.

When he was 9 years old, he began to train seriously, with a coach. For the first few years, he practiced for 1-1/2 hours every weekday. By the time he reached high school, he skated three hours a day and on weekends as well. On school days, he even occasionally skipped classes in order to practice – with his principal's permission, of course.

By the time he was 14, Cousins had won the British Primary Championships. At age 16, he took first place at the Junior Championships. As a 17-year-old, he became the youngest man in Britain's history to win the senior competition, which made him the national champion.

But performing well as a figure skater required more than just physical training or constant practice, Cousins says. A great deal of mental preparation was needed, too, especially as the crowds before which he performed grew larger and larger.

Large audiences can be scary, Cousins says. He remembers the first time he skated in front of 2,000 people, in Canada. It was intimidating.

But Cousins's coach helped him overcome his nervousness by sitting in the crowd. With his coach among the audience, Cousins realized that they were "regular" people – just like him. More than that, they were fans.

After he realized that, seeing the crowd gave him a "great feeling," because "there were so many people interested," he says.

Even though audiences in Britain tended to be smaller than they were in North America, performing in his home country was daunting, he found, because the fans were less friendly toward him.

The reason for this was that he spent most of his time in the US and Canada, where the pool of skaters, competition, and general interest were greater than in Britain. He usually returned home only to compete in the national tournament.

The British fans didn't like that. "It doesn't sit too well with them if you go abroad," Cousins explains.

But even while performing for sometimes-hostile crowds, he didn't let himself be scared. "I knew I had to be unbelievably prepared," he says. The strategy worked: Cousins won first place in the British National Championshipseight times.

The largest audience that ever watched him perform was at the Olympics, where billions of people around the world can tune in on TV. Cousins couldn't see them, but he could sense the excitement. He skated in the Winter Olympics of 1992, 1994, and 1998, where he placed 12th, ninth, and sixth, respectively.

After that, Cousins maintained a busy schedule of competitions and performances around the world, on TV, and even before Queen Elizabeth for her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

Seven years ago Cousins was invited to join the Stars on Ice tour. The opportunity is "amazing," he says. He considers his colleagues the "best skaters in the world."

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