About the movement
There is no expiration date on starting something you love.
Never Too Late to Skate began by listening to people who discovered skating later—and by asking why the opportunity to learn should be limited by when someone discovers it.
Figure skating is often seen as a sport you have to start young. But for many, the love for skating begins much later.
Some first become interested after watching a competition. Others begin after finishing school, entering university, or starting work. Some are looking for a challenge; others are searching for freedom, confidence, community, or simply the joy of moving across the ice.
Limited rink access, a shortage of suitable coaching, financial costs, fear of injury, and the pressure of school and work can all make it harder to begin—and harder to continue.
Yet people keep coming back. Skating can offer freedom from everyday pressure, confidence in a once-impossible movement, self-expression through music, and a community on the ice.
On the ice
The movement in motion.
Founder’s story
A story still being written.
As a competitive skater, Martina once knew figure skating through training, performance, and medals. Interviews with late starters led her to reconsider who the sport makes room for—and what it means to begin again after one identity has ended.
TEDx talk
Looking beyond the titles.
For most of her life, figure skating gave Martina a clear identity: athlete, competitor, medalist. In this talk, she reflects on what it means to move beyond an identity that once defined her—and to begin again.