Not all of Team USA is currently in Milan for the Winter Olympics. Some athletes are back home, phones close, bags packed, waiting for the call that could send them across the world in a matter of hours. Among them is 24-year-old figure skater Starr Andrews.
Being an Olympic alternate comes with no less preparation, pressure, or pride. For Andrews, it means staying ready.
“It’s my first time ever being an alternate for the Olympics,” she told theGrio during a recent sitdown. “I’m just taking it the same way I always do. Still working out, still in shape. If they need me, I’ll be ready to hop on a plane and get over there.”
Long before she was an Olympic alternate, Andrews was the little Black girl who went viral at the age of 9 in 2010, skating to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair,” flipping her ponytail mid-routine, and radiating joy and her enthusiasm. The clip went viral and introduced many to a skater whose style would come to be marked by musicality, emotional connection, elegant poise, and, well, fun.
Even before she potentially steps onto Olympic ice, the Los Angeles native has already secured her place in history. In 2022, she became the first Black American woman to medal on the International Skating Union Grand Prix series, earning silver at Skate Canada, a milestone that still feels surreal.
“Sometimes I have to pinch myself,” she admitted, adding, “As athletes, we get so wrapped up in training and wanting to do better that we forget to take in what we’ve already done. To hear ‘you’re a history maker’ is still so weird! You see other people do it and think, ‘That’s so cool.’ So to say I’ve done that? It’s crazy.”
Her presence in a sport long criticized for its lack of diversity signals how far figure skating has evolved and how far it still has to go. Growing up, Andrews rarely saw skaters who looked like her. Now, she’s helping increase representation on the rink for the next generation.
“Compared to when I was little, it’s grown so much,” she said. “We just have to keep putting it out there that skating is for everybody.”
Her journey is even more remarkable when you consider what she’s been managing behind the scenes. At 12 years old, while in skating practice, Andrews experienced her first tachycardic episode, a sudden spike in heart rate that left her lightheaded and terrified.
“I thought I was dying,” she recalled. “Everything in my vision turned white. I got really lightheaded. I didn’t faint, but I remember calling my mom like, ‘Mom, I think I’m dying.’”
She was eventually diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia, a heart condition that causes sudden increases in heart rate and extreme fatigue, per the Mayo Clinic. After years of being told it was just potentially emotional nerves or hormones, a second opinion revealed two extra electrical pathways (or literal nerves) in her heart. One was removed through ablation; the other was deemed too risky to operate on.
“It’s nothing that will kill me,” she explained. “But for an athlete, it’s definitely hard having something you can’t control happen.”
In a sport that demands precision over every edge, spin, and breath, that lack of control could be destabilizing. Instead, it’s sharpened her discipline and self-awareness.
Part of that control shows up in her ritual before competition. Figure skating may look glamorous, but it’s grueling. For Andrews, getting ready is a mental reset as much as it is preparation.
“It has to start with a shower, clean slate,” she says. “Face washed. Cleanly shaved. No hair anywhere because we’re just out in the open.”
A longtime Gillette Venus user before formally partnering with the brand, she values that smooth finish before stepping into costume. Then comes the armor: gel and edge control strong enough to withstand sweat and speed, makeup locked in with setting spray, perfume, lip gloss (most likely from Black Radiance Beauty).
“Make sure the lips look good. Make sure the face looks good. Hair, body, everything is good,” she continued. “I feel good walking out that door. I’m like, let’s go slay.”
That confidence has been building since she was three years old, when she first stepped onto the ice inspired by her mother, who had taken up the sport herself. What began as a childhood curiosity has become national titles, international assignments, a Grand Prix podium, a social media platform of more than 50K followers, and now an Olympic alternate spot.
And after more than two decades on the ice, the joy remains.
“It’s still fun,” she gushed. “After 21 years, I still look forward to going to the rink and being like, ‘I can’t wait to go and do this spin again.’”
Now, Andrews is exploring partner skating, something she once resisted as a fiercely independent teen but feels ready to embrace. It’s not a pivot away from her Olympic dreams. It’s an expansion of them.
“I still very much want to go to the Olympics and be the first African American to win gold [in figure skating],” she declared. “Whether that’s in singles or pairs. That’s still my goal.”
