Zhang Has Zing

Caroline Zhang

February 13, 2007
Article & Photo © J. Barry Mittan 

Caroline Zhang was the sensation of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series this season. Zhang won both the Mexico Cup and the Taipei Cup to qualify for the Final in Sofia, Bulgaria. She won the Final by more than 20 points over her nearest competitor with a personal best score of 162.68. At U. S. Nationals, Zhang finished second in juniors in 2007, eighth in juniors in 2006, fourth in novice in 2005, third in intermediate in 2004 and fourth in juvenile in 2003.

The diminutive dynamo was first on the ice when she was almost four when she went to one public skating session with her sister in Boston, but she didn't skate again for a year. "I started taking lessons when I was five at Costa Mesa Ice Chalet in California," she said. "I was also doing ballet for a while when I was three. I've always liked watching ballet and gymnastics and skating videos and teaching myself. Once I fell off my bunk bed when I was doing a somersault on the rungs supporting the upper bunk. Another time I tried an aerial cartwheel that I saw on a video and fell down the stairs."

She landed her first double axel and her first triple salchow when she was eight, then went to a camp with Alexei Mishin when she was nine and learned all the other triples. "I landed them all, but they were cheated," she admitted. "The first time I landed a triple in competition it was a triple loop in intermediates. I don't have a triple axel but I've tried it a few times. Now I'm working on triple-triple combinations, triple lutz-triple toe and triple flip-triple toe."

Zhang has recently mastered a few clean triple-triple sequences. The most consistent are a triple loop/tap toe/ triple loop and a triple lutz/tap toe/ triple toe), but she cannot include either a triple-triple sequence or combination in her program this year since that would mean repeating too many triples. She is definitely planning a triple salchow or a triple axel in next year's jump layout, in order to be able to include a triple-triple combination. Zhang used triple lutz-double toe-double loop, triple flip-double toe, and triple toe-double toe in her long program this year and triple lutz-double toe in the short.

The 13-year-old, who was born in Boston, trains in Lakewood and Artesia, California where she often trains on the same ice as her idol, Michelle Kwan. She trains with Mingzhu Li, who formerly coached Chinese ladies world champion Lu Chen, and Sondra Holmes. "I have been with Sondra Holmes for six years," she said. "I went to her originally because my first main coach, Mary Becktell, who's still one of my best friends, told me that she was the double axel doctor! Sondra was actually Mary's old skating coach too."

"I have been with Mingzhu Li for three years, after Mary Becktell and I parted ways after my juvenile year," Zhang continued. "I went coachless for most of my intermediate year, because my parents and I were looking for the perfect fit. I liked the idea of taking from her because I want to be the kind of skater that Lu Chen was. Even though she did a lot of hard jumps, she was always really musical."

Zhang trains on ice for four hours a day, five days a week, plus five hours on Saturday and two to four hours on Sunday. "I don't do very much off ice," she stated. "It's boring. If I have a day off the ice, I get really bored."

Cindy Stuart choreographs Zhang's programs. This season, she skated to "Olga" from the soundtrack of "Ladies in Lavender" for the short program and to "Meditation" from "Thais" for the long. Although the short program music was new, Zhang retained her long program music from last season. "I had another piece of music picked out, but I decided not to use it," Zhang said. "I had the same long program last year but I thought I could do more with the choreography so I decided to keep it."

Her original long program music for the season was "Yellow River Concerto". Zhang decided to return to "Meditation" after skating the new program once at the All Year FSC Competition in June. "I like to skate to classical music," she said, "but next year, I want to try something with a different pace or a different character to take myself higher choreographically."

Zhang used "Your Raise Me Up" for her exhibition music. "I had only a few hours to find music for my exhibition in Mexico," she said. "My sister, Yang Yang, and I found it on the computer and downloaded it, then my sister's friend, Raphael Wong, cut it for me. I had to improvise the program on ice. I first heard 'You Raise Me Up' from my Selah CD. When we had to find the exhibition music, my sister and her friend showed me a few more versions. I didn't want to copy Michelle's music, and I really liked the version we ended up with. It's by Celtic Woman."

The teenager listens to all kinds of music, from pop to classical. She plays both the piano and the violin. "I played the piano, because my sister played," Zhang recalled. "We used to take lessons together for a long time. I started piano when I was four, but I never liked playing as much as my sister did. I got the chance to pick up a new instrument at school in fourth grade, and decided that I really wanted to learn how to play the violin, because the year before, I had skated to a violin piece and really liked it. I mainly focused on violin after that, and I still practice now."

Zhang, who won the Presidential Educational Award silver medal, is in the eighth grade at Brea Junior High School in Brea, California. After she finishes competing, she would like to tour professionally, coach skating, and have a job helping animals.

"I love all kinds of animals -- puppies, cats, mice, rats, chinchillas, bunnies, birds," she said. "I used to have a lot of hamsters. At one time, we had four hamsters living in our house at the same time. My sister and I used to have a guinea pig named Poke. His real name was Sammy Milkdud, but if you saw him, you would understand. When I was really young, we also had a cat named Prince Charles. We called him Charlie, but I was kind of scared because he was pretty scratchy. Because I won the JGP Final, my parents are finally getting me a puppy. I'm not sure what kind I'm getting yet, but I'm really excited. Even though skating is really demanding, I think I want to study to be a veterinarian."

Zhang also has a passion for art. "I do painting, drawing, and oil pastels," she said. "I usually draw still life and landscape." She also likes to play on the computer and read. "I like to read books like Harry Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder and English histories," she said. "We have a house full of books. My mom punishes me by taking my books away."

Zhang plans to compete as a junior internationally, but move up to seniors in the U. S. next season. "I'm not aiming too far ahead," she said. "I really love the challenge that skating provides. For example, there is always something more that I can work on. Right now, I'm trying to deepen the outside edge on my lutz and make all my jumps bigger. When I'm done working on my regular stuff during the day, I get to spend a session playing around with new things. It's really fun, because during that time, I can make up new spins, do seventeen spirals in a row, or work on crazy new jumps. The other day, my mom got mad because I fell too much trying triple axels and she thought I'd get injured."