Isabeau Levito recites her new motto to ease the stress of national figure skaters

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Not long after securing her first senior national figure skating championship in January, Isabeau Levito found herself viewing it less as a triumph and more as a burden. The pressure to successfully defend the title crept in quickly, disrupting her sleep with concerns about the consequences of not repeating as champion.

Transitioning from the mindset of competing with nothing to lose in 2023, Levito found herself in a space where she fretted about potentially losing everything at the upcoming Prevagen U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio, starting on Thursday.

“Honestly, it’s been lingering in my mind since I won nationals last year,” Levito explained. “A month later, I was already contemplating the stress I would feel for the next nationals, realizing that not winning would feel like losing something.”

Recognizing the potential negative impact of carrying the mental burden of defending her title for a year, Levito sought relief by discussing the issue with a sports psychologist. The 16-year-old came to the realization that the championship she won in 2023 would always be hers, regardless of the outcome in 2024.

“I’m approaching it with the goal of winning; it’s not about the fact that I won last year,” she stated.

Her victory in 2023 made Levito, hailing from Mount Holly, N.J., only the second native Jersey girl to secure the U.S. Championship in women’s singles. She joins Elaine Zayak, who achieved this feat in 1981 and went on to become the 1982 World champion and a 1984 Olympian. Notably, Zayak is the sole U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater born in New Jersey. Levito, deeply rooted in her Jersey identity, also trains in the state, distinguishing her from Zayak, who trained in a New York rink during her career.

Levito humorously shared, “People will ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ and I’ll say, ‘Jersey,’ and they’ll respond, ‘Oh, a JERSEY girl.’ I always thought that was very cute. I’ve always been proud to be a Jersey girl. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be.”

Two skaters from New Jersey, Ava Ziegler and Lindsay Thorngren, emerged as potential medal contenders at the national championships following their surprising one-two finish at the NHK Grand Prix event in late November. However, Ziegler opted to withdraw from the U.S. Championships to focus on the Four Continents Championships in Shanghai, where practices commence just two days after the conclusion of the U.S. Championships.

The presence of these three young women at the same time is described as both coincidence and a result of the Ice House in Hackensack making a significant commitment to figure skating, as stated by Craig Maurizi, skating director at the facility since its opening in 1998. The Ice House has consistently attracted elite athletes, including Ziegler (17), who recently relocated to a New York rink, and Thorngren (18), who has trained there since the age of six, a year after moving to New Jersey.

Julia Lautowa, Thorngren’s coach since the beginning, expressed enthusiasm about the situation, stating, “I really love this whole scenario, and I love that it’s happening. I think it’s a great thing for all. And for building New Jersey figure skating.”

Lautowa highlighted the potential future talent in Skylar Lautowa-Peguero, her 11-year-old daughter, who won the novice division in this season’s National Qualifying Series by cleanly landing seven triple jumps in her long program at Skate Milwaukee. “She’s a little firecracker,” Lautowa remarked.

Levito, a junior in high school hailing from South Jersey, enters the competition as the women’s favorite this week, boasting gold and silver medals on the Grand Prix circuit and the two highest scores by a U.S. woman in international competition this season. Despite finishing fourth at last season’s world championships, Levito has faced challenges in the current season, notably during the short program at December’s Grand Prix Final in Beijing. There, she recorded her lowest short program score ever (56.53) in 14 international senior and junior events.

As she approached the free skate, this setback shifted her mindset back to a nothing-to-lose perspective.

“It was like, ‘OK, my chances of really getting a medal out of this competition are kind of gone,’” Levito explained. “So I just regrouped and thought of just skating a long program for myself and almost using it as practice for my next competition.”

Despite encountering three more costly mistakes, she secured a third-place finish in the long program and fifth overall, a disappointing outcome compared to her silver medal in the same event a year ago.

Levito has faced challenges in maintaining consistency this season, with no clean programs (no negative grades of execution) since last year’s nationals. Her long programs in two-phase events this season have all included at least two negative GOEs. Her top mean GOEs in a long program (five) and top seven in a short all occurred before this season.

“Usually I’m so consistent in competitions, but recently I’ve been making little mistakes on almost every program,” Levito acknowledged in Beijing.

Despite these challenges, Levito’s skating style, characterized by grace, fluidity, and a lighter-than-air quality, may lead some to underestimate her competitiveness.

“People might associate terms like prima ballerina with her,” said Justin Dillon, U.S. Figure Skating’s senior director of athlete high performance. “But she has a tiger personality. When she competes, you know she expects nothing but perfection, which is obviously not always attainable. But you just can’t help but watch and admire that drive and that spirit.”

This pursuit of perfection can become another burden, and Levito is actively working to free herself from its constraints.

“It’s tough because I feel like it almost stays with you,” Levito acknowledged regarding perfectionism. “But sometimes you have to think about quantity over quality when you’re always hyper-focused on quality. I can’t just stop my footwork in the middle of it when I feel like I didn’t hit the music on my twizzle.”

The stress of trying to repeat and the pressure to be flawless have created hesitancy in her approach to programs.

Hence, Levito aims to present programs at nationals with “less worrying.”

“I just want to let loose and go for things,” she expressed.