Howard University is making history as the first HBCU to have an intercollegiate figure skating team, U.S. Figure Skating reports.
The team was founded by Howard students Maya James and Cheyenne Walker, both of whom have been involved in figure skating since childhood and were looking for ways to get back on the ice.
“I just missed the sport, honestly,” James said. “I didn’t really skate that much during the pandemic; I stopped skating for like two years. As I was coming to college, I also saw a lot of the U.S. collegiate Instagram pages and how they went to competitions and how the competitions look so fun and welcoming.”
James reached out to Walker through social media after seeing an article about the fellow skater. She asked her peer if she wanted to collaborate to establish a figure skating club at Howard.
“When Maya reached out to me, I was so excited because I was speaking to other girls from Figure Skating in Harlem who go to Howard, and we would always speak about how we wish there was skating, but we didn’t know how to go about it,” Walker said. “So, when Maya was like, ‘Yeah, I want to start this,’ I was on board for sure because it’s something that I wanted to see on our campus community.”
The process of getting the club approved by the HBCU and U.S. Figure Skating wasn’t easy, but earlier this year, the team was officially formed. The figure skating team held its first practice last month and is expected to compete for the first time in February 2024 at the University of Delaware.
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