Q&A with Olympic Figure Skating Pair Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea performing.

In February during the winter Olympics, team USA broke the 2002 record for most gold medals won at a winter game, taking home twelve medals. One of those gold medals was won by the USA figure skating team during the team event. Among Team USA members to help bring home gold were pair figure skaters Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam. Kam and O’Shea have since been touring with fellow figure skating Olympians, notably Alysa Liu, Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn, during the Stars on Ice tour, which comes to Providence April 29. Ahead of their upcoming performance, Kam and O’Shea chatted about their time back since returning from Milan and what people can expect from their Stars on Ice performance.

How would you both describe your experience at the Olympic Games?

O’Shea: We would describe it as being indescribable, I think. It’s one of those really cool moments where you work your entire life trying to achieve something and then the moment finally happens. The first word that comes to mind is glee.

Kam: Not only did we get to experience all the cool stuff from the Olympics, but we also skated so well and got to experience some great moments with the team. We felt such pride being able to represent our country well and it just felt like the cherry on top of just being there.

You guys helped the team get that gold medal. Did you do anything special with the medals?

O’Shea: Honestly, they’ve been traveling with us. We’re keeping them close to us for now but I’m sure they’ll get someplace safe once everything calms down.

Kam: We’ve had so much going on since returning to the United States media wise and traveling with Stars on Ice but we’re hoping to have a little bit of a vacation and that’s when we’ll figure out what to do with the medals.

Like you said, you guys skated your absolute best during the Olympics. What do you think makes your dynamic work so well?

O’Shea: Honestly, we’ve talked a lot about this and some of what we think enabled us to perform that well at the Olympics were the hard things we went through before it right when we first started working together. Our partnership isn’t even four years old yet. We started with hardships, being different ages, being different readiness for senior competitions, but we overcame them. We are very different human beings and communicators so overcoming a lot of those things early in the partnership allowed us to continue to grow and continue to find that love of the process. That really allowed us to thrive when the pressure was on the hardest because we had learned how to handle it earlier in our partnership.

I know you guys had to withdraw from the World Championships due to injury. How is everyone feeling now?

Kam: I had a little bit of a thing going on with my arm, and we just had so much of a high coming down from the Olympics. Honestly there was a lot more media and extra attention that I don’t think either of us could have really prepared for going into the games. It was great and we appreciate getting to experience all of it, but when we came home and started getting ready for Worlds, it was just a lot to deal with. We knew we had this big tour coming up with Stars on Ice and we just really wanted to take care of ourselves. We felt like we had a really fulfilling season so prioritizing ourselves after that was the next top priority. We also obviously wanted Team USA to skate really well and going into a competition injured sometimes you’re not going to skate your best. We knew there were other options, so we gave the spot to another team.

Does it feel nice to have these performances with Stars on Ice be the biggest focus right now? It must feel great to not have to worry about the scoring and competition aspect.

Kam: For sure! I think there’s something super special about a tour or just any type of show. Most of the time skaters tend to enjoy it more than competition because we don’t have those scores. We don’t have the pressure of performing in the spotlight to get as many points as possible. We can just skate because we love it and we can just skate because we love it and we can skate to enjoy the artistry. That’s what makes shows so much more enjoyable for the skaters but also for the audience. We’ve gotten a lot of really great feedback from people that have come to watch the show saying that we look like we’re all having such a good time and we are all enjoying ourselves so much. I think that’s %100 true. We’re all enjoying the time that’s not competition, where we can still skate and we can still spend time with our friends.

What do you think people that are coming to these shows should expect?

O’Shea: People can expect a ton of neat stuff that you really don’t get to see in competition. It’s large group numbers with a bunch of skaters getting to perform together that you don’t often see. Ellie and I do a lot of elements in our pairs that would be illegal in competition.

Have you guys ever been to Providence before?

O’Shea: Yeah, I have! I have a lot of family in the New England area. My parents both grew up in Boston and all of my mom’s sisters live around New England.

Kam: I don’t think I’ve been there before but I’m very excited. We’ve gotten to experience and travel to a bunch of different states already that I haven’t been to before. We’ve gotten to eat a lot of really great food and experience some different cultures. We’ve met a lot of new fans and fans that have been following our career for the past couple of years which has been really fun.

Have there been standout moments with fans since the Olympics?

Kam: Honestly, coming back home was really, really special. We weren’t really expecting people to recognize us but coming back to Colorado and even just on this tour, we’ve had so many people come up to us and express how they appreciated our skating and how we gave them some emotion when we were skating. That’s really the biggest goal that Daniel and I have with our skating. We want to share our emotions and share how we feel on the ice. For that to come across on the screen is really special. It’s not easy sometimes but that’s our biggest goal.

Stars on Ice is April 29th at Amica Mutual Pavilion. For tickets and more information visit their website here.