Lady from Monterrey

Ana Cecelia Cantu

November 10, 2006
Article & Photo © J. Barry Mittan 

Mexico's Ana Cecelia Cantu has been dueling with her sister, Michelle, who is three years younger, for the national ladies championship for several years. Ana Cecelia won the title in 2003 and Michelle won in 2006. This season, at the state competition leading up to Nationals, Ana Cecelia won the short and Michelle the long, but both will compete at Nationals.

Cantu was just starting to make the big time in 2003 when she had a run of bad luck that set back her training. "When I was at Four Continents in China, I had gold blades. They were some of the first that people had ever seen. Somebody thought they were real gold and stole them after the short program. The other Mexican girl (Ingrid Roth) loaned me her skates to do the competition. I actually did my first clean triple lutz there, but I fell but it was huge for me to have actually tried it in the competition."

"I was selected to go to Worlds," she continued. "We ordered new boots but they were too big. When I was practicing my loop, I caught the heel and fell backwards and cracked my leg above the boot. At first, they didn't think it was broken so I kept skating and cracked it some more. Then I had to stay off the ice for six months until it healed. I came back stronger but I don't do the triple loop now." After making Worlds in 2003, Cantu missed almost the entire 2004 season but she came back to compete at Four Continents again in 2005, finishing 22nd, and 2006, where she placed 18th with a personal best score.

The lively 21-year-old began skating when she was seven. "We were watching skating at the Olympics on TV and my mother asked me if I wanted to do that," she recalled. "I saw Paul Wylie skating and said sure. They had just built a one-quarter-size rink near my house so my mother took me to skate there. Then a year or so later, I was reading a book about Connecticut and I loved the scenery. I asked my father if it was a real place and he said it was. The next summer, Michelle and I came to Simsbury for a camp for a week, then the next year we went to a camp in Lake Placid. In 1998, we started coming to Simsbury for two months during the summer. Then in 2002, we moved to Simsbury so we could train all year. In the summer of 2005, we moved back home to Mexico because my father built a full size rink there."

Richard O'Neill coaches Cantu and her sister in Monterrey, where she trains for about 2-3 hours a day on ice and an hour and a half off ice. She previously trained with Galina Zmieskaya. Cantu landed her first double axel in 1998. "I remember because I had won the Mexican novice nationals without a double axel," she said. "Then I landed it in Mexico in the summer. The first time I landed it in competition was at the North American Challenge Skate in 1999. I don't remember when I landed my first triple. I know I landed my first triples in competition at the 2003 Mexican Nationals. Now I'm comfortable with the toe and the salchow and I can do the flip and the lutz."

Her long program includes the triple toe, salchow and lutz. She also does a double axel-double toe and a double axel-double lutz-double toe near the end of the program in her international competitions. "My goal is to do a clean program," she said. "I finally had my first clean short program in the state competition in Mexico this season."

Mark Hird choreographed her short program, with assistance from David Wilson. Wilson choreographed the long, which she also used last season. "I'm using 'Are You Ready For This' as my short program music," she said. "I was going to do a Spanish program because I used to dance flamenco, but a friend told me I should use something fun. David said it was too corny, but he cut it to sound good. I'm using 'Kill Bill' for the long. I did the choreography for the first 'Kill Bill' program with the help of the Beckleys. David did my long when he came to Monterrey to visit my rink and to see my sister before Worlds. I used to do karate so I'm into that kind of movie and I liked the music. I like to skate to really different music. I have to be able to get into the character. I can't get into character for a Spanish program."

Cantu's recent exhibition programs include Santana's "She's Not There", "All or Nothing" by Alexander Altamirano, and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". "My sister and I did a program together using 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' for the opening of the rink in Monterrey," Cantu said. Then Altamirano debuted 'All or Nothing' at our rink. I like doing my own choreography and I do the shows for the rink and for my skaters. David Wilson had a choreography seminar that I really enjoyed and use to choreograph my student's footwork and programs. "

"I like to listen to reggae music," Cantu said. "I also listen to a lot of classic rock but I like all music to be honest." Other off ice interests include karate, in which she has a green belt, rappelling and rock climbing in caves, and running. "Running makes me feel calm," she said. "I also read for pleasure, about five books a week when I'm not in school. I like mysteries, fantasy, magic, action, and funny books. I like all kinds of books. When I go to the movies, it has to be an action movie or black humor. I hate chick flicks. I'm not a girly girl."

Cantu has been coaching for the last three years, working for 5-6 hours a day. She has a number of competitive skaters as well as supervising Learn to Skate classes at her rink. "Once I had to put one of my novice girls on the ice and then had to go compete myself a little while later," she said. "I want to keep coaching in skating but I'm going to law school in Mexico so I can be a lawyer on the side. I started studying computer science but I like law better." She has three more years in law school. Cantu plans to compete until the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.