Supplemental Post #6 - Erin Cooney

It's been a couple of months since the Olympics and about a month since the World Figure Skating Championships, which means that we're now right in the middle of the season when a bunch of figure skaters are officially announcing their retirement. Skaters retire all the time, but this being an Olympic year means that a lot more are choosing this moment to head out. A number announced their retirement before the Olympics, but I keep seeing more and more tweets or posts on Instagram and so on with skaters looking back on their careers or telling us what they'll be doing next. Patrick Chan (Canadian men's skater, been around for a hundred years, great) just officially retired and has moved on to starting up a skating school and promoting his Ice Wine. Max Aaron (American men's skater, won Nationals ages ago, had a rough season) retired last week and has moved on to working in investment or something. And a bunch more skaters who haven't yet announced if they'll keep skating are going on Dancing With the Stars and doing tours and getting agents. It's really interesting to see how skaters, many of whom have been skating for years and years but just now reached new levels of fame and celebrity through the Olympics, are choosing where to go with that fame, to capitalize on it to begin building up a career in the public eye but further removed from skating or to stay close to the sport or to go in a different direction entirely. Also, it's interesting as someone who follows skating outside of the Olympics to see what happens to how skaters present themselves or how they're received when they gain a wider audience. And as these retirements continue, it's also been fascinating to realize just how emotional they make me; I had no idea I had so many emotions about Patrick Chan, when I only followed the last couple of (less successful) years of his career, but his retirement announcement gave me all kinds of feelings! I hate change and I will miss everyone who's leaving skating.