The End of an Era

I reflected on the Milan Winter Olympics and there is one detail that I have not completely thought through. So many athletes are having their last Olympics, and all the happiness and sadness and regrets and all the moments they have been through, is what I like to talk about today.

Let’s provide a quick list of figure skaters who will be retiring this season or immediately after the Olympics. Madison Chock and Evan Bates will be retiring after the World Championships. Sui WenJing and Han Cong, the pairs skater and former Olympic champion, will be retiring right after the Olympics. Wang ShiYue and Liu XinYu, two ice dancers from China, are retiring this season. Japanese figure skater Sakamoto Kaori will be retiring this season. So many of those amazing athletes are saying goodbye to the rink, but that also signifies the rise of so much more. When Sui WenJing and Han Cong bowed to each other after their free skate at the Olympics, I cried. They stood at the peak of pairs skating in the world before, and now, they are leaving their last competition. All the pain and happiness they have been through together have ended, with just the stop of the music. Sui WenJing also filmed a video that she posted as she waved to the audience while skating across the ice and the audience cheering for her as she said goodbye to the Olympic rink and to her skating career. Madison Chock and Evan Bates ended their Olympic journey with one gold and one silver, and to an athlete, silver may not be ideal, but that is where their journey has led them, and perhaps at the World Championships, they may become champion again.

This takes me back to when Taylor Swift finished her Eras Tour and in her documentary, she said that is was “the end of an era”. That was when I realized the weight of when something significant ends. It is not only the feeling of the hustle ending, and the shift of the pace of life that may bring shock or a major difference, but it is also the end of the creation of memories that will hold on to you forever. In Taylor’s Eras Tour, she put on a 3.5 hour show that created so many memories between herself, her fans, and her crew and team, who have worked together so hard to create the spectacle and now the show has ended. That show created a major change in her life and it also changed the lives of those around her, which was what made the show so special. For me, I experienced this when the Harry Potter and Cursed Child show ended at my school, and because I was Assistant Director and was the first time I took on a role like that, the show made a lasting memory in me and to the rest of the cast as well, which is why the sudden end of it made it feel so sudden and disappointing. I once joked to a cast member from Harry Potter that because we did the show and enjoyed it so much we should do a world tour of the show so the memory can last. I realized that what made the end of a career or a show or anything that one has been doing for such a long time was not the end of the thing itself, it is the memories and the growth that one has gone through from doing that that the sudden stop of it will create a rush and lasting longing. 

After seeing the Gala end, I realized that it is the official end of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics for figure skating, and although I did dread waiting until the next day to watch the skaters’ programs, I now realized how memorable and precious a memory like that is. So much of what we experience revolves around memories that are sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and savory at the same time. The figure skating events made me realize the how much an athlete has to go through to reach where they are, and at the end of the Gala, when they waved to the camera and to the audience, I cried—because it marked the end of their careers, but also the start of a new chapter. I hope to see them all thrive in their future endeavors and their future competitions!

Photo Credit: International Skating Union (ISU)