Eight-Year-Old Skater’s Unique Routine Earns Her Gold Medal

Jul 12, 2020 by apost team

Young Indonesian skater Maqdalene Yacoba Kristanti won gold at the Skate Malaysia competition 2018 with a Moana-inspired routine. The young skater wows the crowd with movie-accurate props and a costume while performing to the Grammy-winning song How Far I’ll Go.

Ice skating is a tricky sport. It takes an incredible amount of balance and grace to perform even basic moves on the ice without falling over. Trying to incorporate twirls, poses, and even props make it even more difficult! Yet that's just what one young skater did to take home a gold medal. Maqdalene Yacoba Kristanti entered the Skate Malaysia competition and wowed the audiences and judges with her Moana-inspired routine, complete with a costume and props.

While some people have trouble walking in a straight line on solid ground — never mind trying to stay upright on the ice — it's not unheard of for young skaters to develop impressive skills early on. Maqdalene has proved this with a number of artistic and popular performances. The YouTube videos of the young Indonesian skater show that she has earned herself several gold medals and has become a fan favorite in the process.

This particular performance followed the same trend. It has been watched over 1.7 million times since it was first uploaded in 2018 as of this writing. It's easy to see why this performance is so popular — the tropical costume, moves, and props perfectly complement the powerful song she chose for her routine.

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Maqdalene decided to perform to How Far I’ll Go from the popular animated Disney film Moana. When she first steps on the ice, she carefully places her props and assumes her starting pose. When the music begins to fill the arena, she flows into action, her arms mimicking the motion of waves before she twirls with fluid grace.

After a few passes across the ice, she picks up the first of her props; a paddle that she uses to imitate the way the titular character of the film tried to row out into the ocean during this song. The way Maqdalene manages to use the paddle while gliding on one foot is truly impressive!

She places the paddle on the ice long enough to strike a pose, looking very like Moana with her long black hair and tropical outfit. Maqdalene wasn't done with the props, though!

After picking up the paddle again, she climbs carefully into a specially constructed boat and continues around the ice, spinning gracefully and even performing a few small jumps, all while successfully using her props. It's obvious viewers loved it, leaving such comments as “She’s so beautiful at ice skating”, “Loved it, great job”, and “Wow amazing I wish I can do that”.

According to IMDB, Moana — the 56th animated film from Disney — won 20 of the 88 awards it was originally nominated for. The song How Far I’ll Go was written by popular composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and won a Grammy for “Best Song Written for Visual Media". It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

The version of this song that Maqdalene skates to in this enchanting performance is sung by the Canadian artist Alessia Cara. It wasn't just the song and movie that won awards. Maqdalene also took home a gold medal for her performance to this piece at Skate Malaysia, beating out other six, seven, and eight-year-olds from all over South East Asia in the Character Spotlight section of the competition.

Let us know what you think of this talented young skater's performance and pass this video to all your Disney-loving friends!