Starr Andrews became the first Black U.S. figure skater to win a medal at the ISU Grand Prix at Skate Canada International in Mississauga, Ontario, on Saturday.
A video shared by Twitter user @shoshpd shows Andrews, 21, waving to fans on her way to the podium to collect her silver medal.
In her free skate “Je Suis Malade” by Belgian singer Lara Fabian, Andrews executed an impressive six triple jumps, including a triple flip, and a double axel Euler triple salchow. The program propelled her from fifth place to second, with total a score of 191.26 points.
“I think its a huge deal, to be a woman of color in figure skating,” Andrews said in a Team USA press release. “Im so proud I could represent. (It makes) bringing home a medal even more special.”
Andrews, who went viral in 2010 for a routine she performed to “Whip My Hair” by Willow Smith, left the ice in the middle of her program at a Grand Prix event in France last year.
The skater was struggling to breathe, and withdrew from the Nov. 2021 competition. “It was an electrical issue with my heart — I had an extra nerve and they burned it away (in surgery),” Andrews said. “Now, its one thing less on my mind.”
Andrews will skate her second Grand Prix event of the season, the NHK Trophy, in Sapporo, Japan, Nov. 18–20.
