Young Skater's Unique Routine Earns Gold Medal

Mar 27, 2020 by apost team

In a Moana-inspired ice skating routine, Indonesian figure skater Maqdalene Yacoba Kristanti received a gold medal for her creative performance at Skate Malaysia in 2018. The young athlete, who performed in the six to eight year old category, performed accompanied by Alessia Cara’s How Far You’ll Go from the animated film’s soundtrack.

The young figure skater’s performance is unique given her use of props, which usually don’t find their way onto the ice rink — especially at the competition level. But Kristanti’s use of props surprisingly works. To match the theme of her routine, which makes use of the 2016 Disney film Moana’s soundtrack, she skates with both a paddle and a boat. For those who are unfamiliar with Moana, which won big at the Academy Awards, the animated film chronicles the story of a confident young and royal Polynesian heroine, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), who has to save her village.

But it is no typical Disney princess story. Whereas Disney princesses of past films were into beautiful flowing ball gowns and strapping young lads, Moana is more into boats. According to the New York Post, at one point at the film Moana even snaps, “I am NOT a princess...I am the daughter of a chief.” The film was thus lauded for its feminism and representation of Polynesian people.

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The film also received praise for its score, which was composed by well-known Hamilton creator Lin Manuel-Miranda, according to the New York Post. Kristanti takes advantage of the film’s killer soundtrack while also channeling Moana’s strong and heroic personality during the two-minute-long performance. What’s more, to flesh out the Moana theme, Kristanti even wears a costume that resembles the Polynesian character.

The young athlete glides across the ice, smiling nearly the entire time as a packed audience looks on from above. With her impressive use of props and her overall skills as a skater, it’s no surprise that Kristanti took home gold in the Character Spotlight category. She has undoubtedly spent countless days, if not years, of her childhood perfecting the craft.

But becoming a professional figure skater in Indonesia is no easy feat. According to ABC News’ Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley, Indonesia’s capital Jakarta only has two ice skating rinks in the entire city. The country of 250 million people only has enough money to divert a small amount of its national budget to sport, which is partly why the country has never gone to the Winter Olympics in any category. What’s more, one of the two ice rinks in Jakarta isn’t even up to olympic standards.

"It's hard, it's very hard to achieve because here we don't even get to train that much and the coaches have minimal skills," Calvin Pratama, a 17 year-old Indonesian figure skater, told ABC News during a practice session.

The hardships unique to Kristanti’s situation thus makes the young athlete’s skating prowess even more impressive. But who knows? Maybe Kristanti will be among the first Indonesians to compete at the Winter Olympics.

What did you think of Kristanti’s Mona-inspired performance? Let us know and pass this on to all the figure skating fans you know.