Lindsay Thorngren has been quietly having a breakout season. The 2020 U.S. junior champion and 2019 U.S. intermediate champion was off the ice for about three months in the lead-up to the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships due to pandemic-related rink closures, but nonetheless managed a sixth-place finish in her debut at the championship level.
This year, on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, the newly-minted 16-year-old qualified for her first Junior Grand Prix Final and was set to leave for the competition on her birthday. The event was postponed due to the pandemic, but Thorngren has been focused on one event all season, anyway: the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
"I know what I want to do this year, it's exciting," she said. "I just want to train my hardest because I know what I have do and it's important to work harder than any other season. I want to make the Olympic Team. That would be so amazing. It would mean so much to me."
After earning two medals on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, Thorngren also notched a first-place finish at the Leesburg, Virginia, edition of the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championship Series presented by Toyota and a fifth-place finish at the Warsaw Cup, marking her senior international debut.
Thorngren called qualifying for the Junior Grand Prix Final her career high thus far. She said she was even more excited for the Junior Grand Prix Final than getting started with her learner's permit.
Making the adjustment from junior- to senior-level programs, including the additional choreographic sequence, doesn't faze Thorngren: "It's more challenging but I enjoy the challenge," she said. "It's more challenging to switch between each program but I'm up for the challenge."
The junior-to-senior path Thorngren is following has historic precedent, as
nbcsports.com pointed out: Polina Edmunds had no senior international experience prior to competing at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. And before Bradie Tennell won the 2018 U.S. Championships and was named to the 2018 Olympic Team in PyeongChang, South Korea, she had competed in just one senior international event.
Thorngren's coaches, Julia Lautowa and Nina Petrenko, have gone through a metamorphosis of their own this season, Thorngren noted.
 "(This season) they're pushing me harder and encouraging me a lot in practice, using the Olympics as a motivation for me to train harder."
Her coaching team has expanded this season to include choreographer Benoit Richaud. He visited Thorngren's home rink in Montclair, New Jersey, but she also got to take a trip to France to work with him in July. Thorngren said in addition to working with Richaud while overseas, she got to explore the area a bit.
Thorngren and Richaud had both seen Netflix's "Queen's Gambit" and designed her free program around the theme music.
"I watched the show and I really loved it. I was like, 'OK I want to portray this,'" Thorngren recalled.
(Spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen the show!)
"It starts with a tragedy," Thorngren said. "The girl's mother dies in a car accident. In the beginning it's a tragic loss and the feeling of like, 'I don't know what's happening.' The rest of the program is trying to find herself and overcome the challenges she's faced losing her mother. It's just overcoming challenge and being successful. Finding herself, I guess, and finding myself. I have challenges that I need to overcome this year just like in my program."
Working with Richaud to choreograph the program was fun, and challenging, Thorngren said.
"It was something different, but I really enjoyed working with him. He pushed me to improve a lot with the different programs," she said.
The support of her coaches, choreographer, and larger circle has meant a lot to the
2021 Mabel Fairbanks Skatingly Yours Fund recipient. The award is given to "athletes who demonstrate and emphasize the attributes of good sportsmanship, commitment, perseverance and determination in striving to be their very best in the sport," the description reads.
"I read a lot about Mabel's story and being named the recipient of the award was an honor," Thorngren said.
"Lindsay's recent competitive history highlights her potential and how promising her future is in skating," Ouida Robins, a selection committee member,
said in an April press release describing Thorngren's $10,000 gift. "The committee also appreciated that Lindsay looks up to her competitors; to us, it showed that she recognizes the skill set required to be a top-ranked skater in the world and her desire to achieve this goal."
Fairbanks was drawn to figure skating as a child in the 1930s but was denied ice time due to the color of her skin. Fairbanks pursued a barrier-breaking career in the sport anyway, including training under Maribel Vinson Owen and eventually producing her own shows, coaching, and mentoring many notable skaters in California.
"It was just really cool that they recognized me and her story was so inspiring, just like wow," Thorngren said. "I feel lucky to have all the support of my coaches and U.S. Figure Skating and all the people I train with, and my parents and my sisters. I really appreciate all that and all my coaches' work to help me this season."
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