I, NATALIE.

THE START OF EVERYTHING

I started skating when I was 3 years old. My sister, Danielle, started before me, when she was 9.

I used to go to the nursery school above the rink where she used to have her skating lessons, in Maidstone. My mom would send me to the nursery school upstairs with the other little kids and eventually she got me started as well.

I used to have these skates that the wheels didn’t really move, you would just walk around on them, you didn’t really do anything.

I just used to love it when I was little. I used to have so much fun. We used to do lessons and stuff, but it was more of like just skating around, playing games. That really gets you into it because you make so many friends as well, and I think that’s what keeps you into it.

We were all really close, like a really big family. It was really fun.

Balancing skating with the rest of my life is more difficult now than when I was younger because I work full-time. People in other countries get paid to train and they just get a sponsor to train them. So they will spend all day skating, going to the gym, doing physio, and loads of things like that.

But, in my case, I have to work full-time to fund everything.

I work from 8:30am until 5pm in the centre of Maidstone and it’s quite handy because it's quite close to everywhere I have to go so it’s not too bad.

On Fridays I train in the morning in Rochester and then I’ll go to work. Sometimes I train afterwards, or only go to the gym. It depends on what halls we can get to train. It’s different every week depending on what sport centre has got time slots.

I think it’s more difficult to balance everything as an adult rather than as a child because you can finish school at 3 o’clock and go do what you want afterwards, but as an adult is difficult because you have other life obligations that you can’t always ignore.

ARTISTIC SKATING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, FRANCE 2018

I had quite a while before we went to Vendée in October last year.

To prepare, it depends on how long you’ve got. Because if you haven’t got much time, you kind of just have to carry on as you are in full training mode.

So I went back to the start, broke everything down again, and it was really good because it gave me a lot of time to like reflect on everything – things that could be better, things I could be changing.

My sister and I were lucky to have a lot of time because other people on our team had to compete on the European Championships three weeks after our Nationals, so they had barely any time to practice at all and carry on the way they were.

The Championship went really well and it was really good. It was such a nice environment. Sometimes you go to competitions and you feel the atmosphere is not that great. Everyone is competitive, obviously, but it was a really nice atmosphere. Everyone was so friendly and it just put me in a good frame of mind.

I had a bit of a stumble in my free dance towards the end but, for us of the team, we’re not going out there to try to win a medal because it’s not really feasible for us. So my achievement is kind of just getting there, and then all I can do is do the best I can, really.

MIND AND BODY CONNECTED

It’s important to keep in mind what you have to do and not let anything get in the way. Because there will always be other things going on around you. There’s always drama with people, or when you’re traveling there’s always problems as well.

I have to be very self-motivated too. It is one of the most difficult things and you learn how to do that over time. Because if you don’t help yourself, no one’s going to.