Article originally published on sfchronicle.com and written by Marisa Ingemi
When Starr Andrews was 9 years old, she would close her eyes and imagine opening them again on the national stage.
The figure skater revisited that memory when she medaled at Skate Canada in October, a second-place finish in which she became the first Black American to medal at a Grand Prix event. She opened her eyes on the podium and imagined being in a movie, where time would skip by and she’d have reached her dreams, including reaching the Olympics.
“I would be like, I’ll open my eyes and it’ll be five years from now,’” she said. “It’s so funny it actually happened.”
The 21-year-old from Los Angeles headlines the senior women’s skaters coming to San Jose for the U.S. Nationals this week.
And she still intends to reach the 2026 Winter Olympics, despite having had heart surgery and facing another.
Andrews missed the beginning of training for Skate Canada because of an operation she had in May for supraventricular tachycardia. Long undiagnosed after years of randomly feeling faint, it had caused her heart rate to accelerate upwards of 220 beats per minute. She had to pull out of the Grand Prix de France in November 2021 when an episode started right before she was scheduled to hit the ice.
Recently, the nerve she had removedcame back; it will have to be burnt off a second time. She won’t undergo that surgery until after the season.
“Of course, I’m special,” she lamented, mentioning it doesn’t feel as bad as the first time. But she still has to sit down to make it stop. “At first, I was really upset. I just went through all that and I’m still having episodes.”
Part of her surprise over what she’s achieving isbecasue of the slow start to her season after heart surgery. Occasionally, Andrews still will set a program to her own singing. She hopes to pursue music even further when her skating career ends.
Coming back to SAP Center holds special meaning for Andrews. The first time she heard her own voice echoing through a stadium was in San Jose in 2018, when she skated to her cover of Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time.” She finished sixth in the senior ladies’ category at the U.S. Championships in that event, having placed eighth in the short program and fifth in the free skate. It was her second senior event after being bumped up from juniors in December 2017.
When: Through Sunday
Where: SAP Center
TV: Peacock, USA Network, Channel 11Channel 3Channel 8
Schedule highlights: Women’s short program, 6 p.m. Thursday, Peacock (7 p.m. USA Network); Women’s long program, 4:45 p.m. Friday, Peacock (8 p.m., delayed Channel 11Channel 3Channel 8); Men’s short program, 1:15 p.m. Friday, Peacock (2 p.m. USA Network); men’s long program, 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Peacock (noon Channel 11Channel 3Channel 8).
Tickets: ticketmaster.com
What to watch
• National titles are available in the men’s, women’s, pairs and ice-dance programs. Skaters also will be competing for trips to Japan for the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships in March. The U.S. can send three skaters from each category.
• Of the four 2022 national champions, three will not be defending their crown in San Jose. Six-time reigning men’s champion Nathan Chen is not competing this season, and 2022 women’s champion Mariah Bell and two-time pairs winners Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc retired.
Also absent are Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou, on break this season, as well as Richmond’s Alysa Liu and ice dancers Zachary Donohue and Madison Hubbell, all of whom retired.
• Ice dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock will look to repeat as U.S. champs in San Jose after finishing fourth at the 2022 Bejing Olympics…. Ilia Malinin, 18, who became the first skater to land a quadruple axel and did it at all four of his events this season. He ranks second in the world by best total score…. Jason Brown, the 2015 champion, is back after many thought the Beijing Olympics would be his final competitive appearance
In the bowels of SAP Center five years after that 2018 performance, Andrews held a Starbucks caramel macchiato — her go-to is the caramel brulee latte, just a touch out of season in early January — and reflected.
“I’ve been to so many, and that was a while ago,” she said. “They kind of mesh together a bit, when somebody asks me about a certain nationals, I’m like, ‘I don’t really remember.’ I have to think back by which programs I did, but those also mesh together. I wish I could differentiate all of them a little bit better.”
The rest of the skating world finds her memorable, especially her most recent accomplishment. In Skate Canada — a moment Andrews says she “still can’t believe that was real” — she landed six triple jumps in her free-skate program.
Her trainer, Derrick Delmore, has been with Andrews since she was 12 years old. He, like everyone else in Andrews’ life, wasn’t sure what would happen after her surgery, or when she began training for Skate Canada. So when she delivered one of the best performances of her career, Delmore was nearly speechless. He said it was one of his most rewarding moments in coaching her.
“She had the flu, and she went out and had a perfect program and skated to a standing ovation,” said Delmore, aStanford alum. “It was so special, that’s a moment I am going to take with me forever.”
Appreciation for Andrews’ skill went viral when she was 9 and performed a routine to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” at a recital; the video has more than 57 million views on YouTube. Back then, she was excited for a decade-plus ahead in figure skating.
Andrew named her cat Loki, after her favorite Marvel character.The cat makes appearances across her active Instagram feed. A Marvelhead, Andrews connected with the “misunderstood” character of Loki.
“I feel for him,” she said. “I wish I could give him a hug.”
At 21, Andrews probably has fewer skating days ahead of her than she does in her past. The minimum women’s figure-skating age for the Olympics recently was raised from 15 to 17, which might lead to older competiors. Delmore doesn’t think that means she needs to stop any time soon, just evolve.
“People have certain perspectives about age in the sport, for the ladies in particular,” he said. “They think once they get to their early 20s, it’s the end, but I think we’ve seen many women in singles and also pairs and dance prove longevity. You can’t let other people dictate when you’re done.”
Delmore said after Andrews’ short program at Nationals in 2022 she said she might be done with the sport. Two days later after a strong long program, she was enthusiastic once more. Andrews has gotten better at balancing her emotions, especially about her relationship with time. A year ago, she said she might have felt pressure to finish things within a certain time frame, before she was 21. Or before she faced heart surgery.
Her return to the sport has altered that perspective, even as she faces another procedure.
“Everybody moves at their own pace,” she said. “You can’t be expected to do something a 15-year-old can do, it’s just not the same. I worry about quality of quantity, because you can have all these amazing jumps in your program, but if you don’t do them well, the person who executes easier jumps will score higher. That’s something I realized as I got older.”
Andrews joked how she will feel old, and people will do a double-take. “‘You’re 21,’” she quipped. “‘You’re not even old.’”
As one of the few Black elite figure skaters, Andrews is more than aware of what her voice means, literally while she skates and it radiates from speakers, but also her presence on the ice. Her Grand Prix medal carries more weight for her because of it. Delmore thinks it gave her motivation, too, that her career still has an upward trajectory to it.
Maybe it does. She’s still figuring out what life looks like after figure skating but also what it looks like now, while she’s still at it, but with another heart surgery on the horizon and another Nationals to finish first.
“Most people don’t get to this stage,” she said. “I’m so proud of that. Of course, I want to accomplish more, I want to go to the Olympics and medal at Nationals and Worlds, that’s still my goal. But if that doesn’t happen, God forbid, I’m still proud. I’ve made a name for myself, and that’s amazing.”
Marisa Ingemi is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: marisa.ingemi@sfchronicle.com