Ice Dreams
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Phyllis Friello with her pairs partner.
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When Phyllis Friello twirls on the ice, she’s inspired by the sequined
skaters she watched leaping through this year’s Olympic Winter Games
in Turin, Italy. Now training for the 12th Annual Adult National Figure
Skating Championships, which take place on March 29 in Dallas, Friello practices
her pair-skating program over and over. The long training hours are rough,
yet she relishes the thrill of being on an edge and flowing across the ice.
“I love being thrown, and the lifts feel like flying, but nothing
can replace the simple joy of gliding across the ice,” says the
45-year-old research program manager who works with the upper-aero digestive
group at the Kimmel Cancer Center.
Friello did not start skating until she was 28. She was slogging through
a master’s degree in biology and craved physical activity. Intrigued
by the jumps, throws, lifts and death spirals, she discovered pair skating.
Since then she’s been competing in regional and national competitions,
raking in nine national medals, including two golds in artistic skating
and a silver and bronze in pair skating.
Along the way, Friello skated with Olympians Johnny Weir and Kimmie
Meissner, Olympic champion and Baltimore resident Dorothy Hamill, and
Olympic pair skater Calla Urbanski.
Friello practices up to three hours, three days a week. Weekends, she
and her pairs partner from Atlanta fly up and down the East Coast to train
together. Fitting time-consuming lessons and training around a complicated
work schedule is a challenge, but Friello carves out enough hours and
then some. She’s vice president of the Ice Club of Baltimore and
coaches at the Northwest Ice Rink in Mt. Washington. She also teaches
silk painting to patients and families at the Hackerman-Patz House, takes
care of two cats and a dog, and provides shelter to a parcel of foster
animals.
Friello’s skating informs her work as a research program manager.
Through skating, she’s learned how to handle herself in different
situations. “Once I was dropped from an overhead lift during a sold-out
performance. You just get up and go on to the next element,” she
says. Training has taught her not to give up easily. With practice, patience
and a lot of hard work, she feels she can tackle anything.
As a research coordinator, she moved from project to project and has
had to learn how to pick up new concepts. “Same thing on the ice.
You need to have a can-do attitude, but when something doesn’t work,
it’s important to recognize that it’s time to make a change.”
—Lydia Levis Bloch
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