Ting Cui landed in Zagreb, Croatia, for the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2019 knowing she had nothing to lose.
Her season had been a series of disappointments, and she was determined to end it on a positive note.
"I didn't really have any expectations on placing," Cui said. "I knew other people had expectations for me, but personally I just wanted to go there and do my best and just enjoy everything, because it had been a rough season and I wanted to end strong."
Standing on the podium, bronze medal in hand, was the storybook ending she was looking for.
But how did she get there?
Her season began with a coaching change, moving to train under Tom Zakrajsek at the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last summer. It's a long way away from her home in Maryland, and she's spent the year splitting her time between the two in an effort to finish high school in her home state.
The 16-year-old had two ISU Junior Grand Prix assignments this season, finishing a disappointing fifth and seventh.
But then, slowly but surely, things started to turn themselves around.
After sectionals, Cui competed at her first senior B competition, the Tallinn Trophy, and finished second.
"After that I think I started to skate with a little more confidence in myself," Cui said.
With U.S. Championships medals at the intermediate, novice and junior levels, she headed to Detroit for the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships hoping to podium at the senior level.
However, a disappointing short program had her sitting in 12th place going into the free skate.
"U.S. Championships obviously didn't go as I was hoping it would," Cui said. "However, I did skate the best long program of my career, so it made me feel a lot better after that."
The free skate of her life earned 139.66 points, good for third place in the segment and ahead of 2018 U.S. champion
Bradie Tennell, and bumped her up to fifth place overall.
It was good enough to earn a place on the Four Continents team, but her performance there became the latest in a string of disappointments. Cui placed 11th.
She returned to the U.S. and, with several weeks before she had to leave for Croatia, hit the reset button.
"I was really happy that I had that much time. It's not a lot, but it was a lot compared to the competitions before that," Cui said of the quick turnaround between U.S. Championships and Four Continents. "To be able to have that much time, it really helped me re-center and refocus for my next competition and just really be able to train."
Cui headed to World Juniors, the biggest stage of the season, oddly calmer than she usually is.
"Normally I definitely get nervous before I compete," Cui said. "It's pretty natural for me and I just work with them. But at junior worlds, it's kind of the last big competition of the season, there's no more qualifying. Essentially there's nothing to lose. So it really helped calm me down."
Cui had previously competed at the event in 2018, placing seventh, and she credits having been there before with allowing her to be more comfortable with the atmosphere. She also found comfort in knowing her fellow members of Team USA, and spent some time sightseeing with
Hanna Harrell.
Ultimately, Cui found herself in third place after a strong short program and in prime position to take home a medal.
"I was happy, but I tried not to make a very big deal about it," Cui said. "I was still me, I was still there at the competition, and I still had a long program. I like to keep to myself, so it was very internally-driven."
Her calm held until the middle of her free skate. Cui admittedly tends to get too excited during programs when she's doing well and makes stupid mistakes, having to work to stay focused.
When she landed her loop, she pumped her fist in exuberance.
She promptly fell on her final jumping pass.
"I got a little over-excited after I landed my loop, because that was a struggle for me during the week there, and it was a really good loop," she said, laughing. "I landed it and I was really happy the program was going so well. So going into my last jump I just got a little ahead of myself. I just rushed it a little bit. I wasn't focused enough."
Despite the fall, Cui earned 126.72 for her free skate. Her overall total of 194.41 bumped into first place for the time being. With two skaters remaining, she was guaranteed a medal.
"I was just really happy to be able to go there, skate well and medal," she said. "It just lifted the whole season."
Cui ended up on the podium with gold medalist Alexandra Trusova and silver medalist Anna Shcherbakova, both of Russia and both with quadruple jumps in their respective arsenals.
Cui knows what she's up against, and she knows what she has to do to remain competitive.
"I'm working on a quad, so hopefully that will help me keep up with them," she said. "It's been in the works for awhile now, but I haven't really been fully training it because of competitions and the risk of injury. But I feel like I'm ready now, and I'm finally ready to tackle this jump and really work on it this offseason."
Cui's ultimate goal is the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, where she hopes to compete in front of family members that live in the Beijing area. But in the short term, she hopes to begin competing on the senior level sooner rather than later.
And then, of course, there's the quad.
"I definitely want to increase my total score, and have a quad," Cui said. "Having a quad next season is a huge goal for me and would just be amazing."
