When Madison Hubbell walked into the SAP Center in San Jose, California, for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the venue was not only familiar, but full of special memories.
It was where she and her ice dance partner Zachary Donohue qualified for their first World Championships team in 2012. Years later in 2018, they won their first U.S. title to clinch a berth on their first Olympic Team.
Returning for a third time, it was the same Championships in the same venue with another milestone moment. But this time, Hubbell's role was very different. No longer was she out on the ice skating. Instead, she stood behind the boards in her first season as a coach.
Her students at this event, previously her opponents, were Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko. In a full-circle moment that Hubbell could only describe as "serendipitous," in the same arena where Hubbell and Donohue secured bronze to make their first World Team, Carreira and Ponomarenko did the same – earning their best-ever finish at the U.S. Championships with bronze to punch their ticket to their first Worlds.
"Madi is the best thing that's ever happened to me. She's such a good coach and role model for me and all the girls at the rink," Carreira said. "Training with a female coach every day has been so beneficial for me, and I'm very thankful for her."
Throughout Hubbell's skating career, what came after was ever-changing. Early on, she considered medical school and going into forensic pathology. Later, she considered following her passion for writing. She talked about doing a fashion line with her mom.
But as her career progressed, some of the people closest to her inspired her to go into coaching. Those included her coaches in Montreal, who showed her the positive influence and mentorship coaches could be.
"In that eight-year process over in Montreal, I fell in love with the process of coaching. I respected my coaches because for the first time in my life, I actually had a supportive, healthy relationship with my coaches," Hubbell said. "They made me see the sport differently. They challenged me to see myself differently … So it made me realize that a coach could be a lot more of a business manager and mentor than just a figure skating coach who teaches you how to do a few moves and makes sure that you look good on the ice."
The other was her now husband, Adrián Díaz, who she now coaches alongside at the Ice Academy of Montreal, London campus in Ontario, Canada. Coaching has long been his dream, and she admits that without him, her career path may have been different.
"He definitely gave me a different perspective about the sport coming from a different country, a smaller federation," Hubbell said. "Seeing the way that he learned and sacrificed so much in the way of moving around the world and learning it at a later age, and he just had such a love for watching all of the disciplines and all of the levels, that I don't think I would be coaching without his own dream being that."
Going into the 2021-22 season, both Hubbell and Donohue announced it would be the last of their competitive careers. While they had plenty they were still looking to achieve, winning two medals at the Olympic Games and silver at the World Championships, behind the scenes, what came next for Hubbell was beginning to take shape.
"I guess Scott [Moir] kind of voiced on multiple occasions to the coaching team in Montreal that, upon my retirement, he would be interested in having me join his team [in London, Ontario] – that he needed help with the teams that he currently had and to continue growing the school," said Hubbell, who had worked with Moir on choreography as an athlete. "And I had kind of heard from him in that last season things to that effect, but when you're hanging out with Scott Moir, who is an idol and then he mentions that he would like to coach with you, it's kind of like, 'Yeah, yeah. Maybe you're being really nice. I trust you, but are you just complimenting me?'"
But Moir was serious. So, during the final months of her career in March and April of 2022, logistics for moving began to take place. After finishing Stars on Ice, Hubbell began full time as a coach at I.AM with Moir and Díaz in July 2022.
Moir immediately trusted Hubbell to coach Carreira and Ponomarenko as one of her teams, taking charge of their season plan and return to play after Ponomarenko's ankle injury at the end of the previous season.
"I think it took a lot of attention from all of us to make sure that we gave that transition it's due attention, it's due respect and made sure that we kept the connection that we had had and to build on it, but in a very professional way," Hubbell said. "That was something we all felt was extremely important to build our trusting friendship in a very professional setting now instead of making jokes in the locker room, and I just felt like right away they put their trust into me."
But her relationship with her skaters hasn't been the only adjustment for Hubbell as she begins her new career path.
For one, there's the change in mentality and switching from that core athlete identity she's held for so many years, with less time to spend on fitness and redefining what self-care means. And there's the pressure. While Hubbell is used to pressure as an athlete, the responsibility of someone else's successes is very different.
"You [see] the athletes putting in so much effort every day, and you want to make sure you're facilitating their best possible outcomes and they're looking to you for your expertise and so it kind of falls on your shoulders," Hubbell said. "That is a heavier weight than I thought it was going to be, but it's been really rewarding and really fun. I think the athletes have had a good time having Adrian and I join the team. There's a lot of energy in the rink, so I think it's serving everyone very well."
While she's only just starting to feel what many athlete-turned-coaches talk about about how much harder and more nerve-wracking it is being on the sidelines and not having control of the performance, she recalled the different type of nervousness that has started to kick in as relationships got stronger and deeper.
"Now, I think this season, I'm already starting at a higher level of anxiety than I was last year because we're heading into summer competitions in the next couple of weeks and I keep having dreams about their programs," Hubbell laughed.
As a former competitive athlete, Hubbell has great experience she can offer, having competed at the highest level herself – whether that's showing specific elements and movement or relating to her athletes' insecurities.
"I think it's very easy to assume that because I was successful, and because they've decided I'm good at skating, that I never felt insecure, or I never struggled with feeling like I wasn't going to make it," Hubbell said. "And so, I think the one thing that I use, and I think it is great, is to open up my own self and be vulnerable and say, 'Do you have questions about what it felt like? Because you're feeling maybe insecure about your first competition of the season? We always did as well. We always thought the first one was too early. We always felt like it could have been better.' So, I try to open up my own experience for them to kind of pick my brain and maybe find some common ground and realize we're all human, we all have similar doubts that creep in."
She's also trying to take elements from her coaching team at Montreal and implement them herself, including making her athletes feel in charge of their careers.
"My goal as a coach is not only to make people better skaters, but to figure out a way that when they walk away from the lesson, when they walk away from a season, they feel more confident in their own knowledge," Hubbell said.
That means logistically while something may not be the most efficient for her, what matters is if it serves the athletes best. And also ensuring that she keeps an eye on the well-being of her athletes and that they have what they need on a human level, which in turn will make them better skaters.
"I would not be the athlete I am today without Madison," Ponomarenko said. "In only one season of coaching me, she's transformed my perspective of figure skating and helped shine a more positive light on how to approach training and all the hardships that come with it. She exceeded all my expectations and I'm so grateful she made the decision to coach at I.AM Ontario."
