Hailey Blodgett walks into the Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion on South Campus pulling her pink rolling backpack. After setting her belongings on the bench, the 12-year-old grabs a jump rope from her backpack and begins her warm-up routine — 50 hops on each leg, 50 singles and 50 doubles — before putting on her skates.

For about two years, Blodgett has been practicing at Tennity three days a week and several hours each day. Since she was about 3 years old, she has been working toward her goal of becoming an Olympic figure skater.

The daughter of a Carrier Dome security guard, Blodgett uses the Syracuse University facility to practice ice skating —a sport she’s using to help children with various medical conditions.

“Skating, I like so much because when you’re on the ice doing tricks and you got the music going, it makes me feel happy,” Blodgett said. “The sport itself is just fun. It’s a lot, but it’s fun.”

In the decade that she has been skating, Blodgett has won more than 160 medals. She’s performed with famous skaters such as Olympic medalists Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. But Blodgett almost wasn’t able to do what she does today.

She was born prematurely, three months before she was due and after only 29 weeks in her mother’s womb and weighing only one pound and 12 ounces.

After two months in a neonatal intensive care unit, Blodgett was released to go home. Her mother, Stacy Blodgett, said although her daughter was fine and healthy, they worried about her health. When she was around 2, a doctor told the Blodgetts that their daughter needed to be around other people to develop her immune system.

It was fall, almost winter, at the time, and the only place that was open and near the Blodgetts’ house in Morrisville was the local skating rink. Her father, Ken Blodgett, said his daughter had to be 3 years old to take lessons, but given her medical needs, the rink agreed to let her enroll.

“We just put her on the ice to be exposed to kids. Before you knew it, she was doing spins and copying the older girls,” Ken Blodgett said. “When she was little she advanced very fast, got to certain levels faster than the other kids.”

Blodgett also consistently performs in shows, and given her past medical history, she helps with programs that help other children, particularly children affected by cancer and autism. In the past, she has collaborated with an organization called Hasek’s Heroes to collect more than 100 pieces of hockey equipment for local children.

“(The kids) also have problems too, and knowing that I was able to overcome my own problems when I was younger means maybe I can help them overcome it too,” Blodgett said.

By now, Blodgett’s parents are used to their daughter’s crazy schedule. Stacy Blodgett said her daughter is busy every weekend, whether it’s a dance competition, skating showcase or a 5K she wants to run. As a fifth grade teacher, Blodgett added that her familiarity with the academic curriculum makes it easier for her to homeschool her daughter and work with her daughter’s commitments.

Although Blodgett also practices at other rinks during the other days of the week, her father described the Tennity Pavilion as having “the best ice in Syracuse.”
Ken Blodgett spends hours every day in a rink with his daughter and assists with her homework, most of which she does inside the car.

On top of that, he drives about 1,000 miles every week to bring his daughter to the International Skating Center of Connecticut for private lessons with her coach, Vladimir Petrenko, a former competitive figure skater with a world championship under his belt.

“My wife and I used to manage a soccer league of 100 kids back in the day. But Hailey is 10 times more work than the 100 soccer kids,” Ken Blodgett said with a chuckle.

Because many skaters aim for perfection, Ken Blodgett said his daughter is her own worst critic. When Blodgett misses a move or finishes a spin incorrectly, she abruptly puts her head down, covers her face and skates off to the side.

“It’s frustrating because I know I could do it, but that’s why when I keep working on it, I know it will eventually come,” Blodgett said.

Blodgett describes herself as a huge SU fan and is passionate about many of the university’s sports teams, memorizing statistics about players and following new recruits. She is such a loyal fan that when the NCAA released the sanctions on SU earlier this month, Blodgett asked for the first time to leave her skating lesson so she could watch ESPN.

For Blodgett, being on the ice is one of the most natural feelings. She said she’s wanted to be a professional skater since she started skating, and that’s something she’s going to be working on until she achieves it.

“Every day I’m just trying to get better and better, trying to reach the top of my dreams to be an Olympian,” Blodgett said. “That’s what I’m hoping will happen.”

Published on March 24, 2015 at 10:16 pm

Contact Clare: clramire@syr.edu