Even though the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics are over, the 2018-2019 women’s figure skating season is fast approaching! Here is one up and coming figure skater from Slovakia to watch out for in the coming year: Nicole Rajicova.
Nicole Rajicova is a 22-year-old figure skater born in Garden City, New York to Slovakian parents. She started taking figure skating lessons at the age of five. Encouraged by her father who had been an amateur ice hockey player, she started competing in U.S. regional championships and other competitions as Nicole Rajic at 12. She competed in the United States for three years and earned a spot in the U.S. National Championships twice.
When she was thirteen she received an offer to compete and train with the Slovakian National Figure Skating Team, but didn’t consider their offer for another two years after she had competed in multiple U.S. National Championships. At 15, she accepted their offer and moved to Slovakia to join their national figure skating team. She debuted for Slovakia in 2011 at the Golden Spin of Zagreb and started competing in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2012. At the age of eighteen she became the Slovakian National Champion in 2013.
The move to Slovakia wasn’t all smooth sailing. Despite having dual citizenship and speaking Slovak, she was not accepted by her teammates in the beginning. They did not consider her to be a true Slav and she didn’t feel like a true American which left her a little stuck in the middle of two worlds. She became accepted as time went on and finished out high school while competing for her country. During this time, she also changed her last name to Rajicova.
Rajicova’s debut to the entire world outside of those that watch the World and International Championships came in 2014 at the Sochi Winter Olympics. A skater must place at least 16th place in the previous year’s World Championships to gain their countries bid and qualify for the Olympics. The bid for Slovakia had been filled by another skater but in the next season Nicole out-competed this skater by 30 points which is a phenomenal amount. This caught the eyes of the international officials who then said if she earned a designated score at the European Championships, the bid was hers. She missed the score by a quarter of a point. Then a week before the competition she received a call that she would be representing Slovakia in the Olympics where she placed 24th.
Most inspiring to all of us college students out there is that Rajicova then went to college at Fordham University in New York City while still training daily for National, International, and World Championships. She is currently attending their business school at the Lincoln Center. This year in January, Rajicova competed in the European Championships and placed in 6th. Check out this video of her breathtaking performance. Rajicova also just finished competing in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and placed 14th in the women’s free skating event. She had an amazing performance showing her talent and love for the sport, and is definitely someone to keep an eye on in this coming season.