Ice dancing champ balances studies with international competition
5 – minute read
Florida Gulf Coast University sophomore Lucas Appel became the first American man to win an international solo ice dancing competition this year when he took home the gold at the Maria Olszewska Memorial in Poland. He followed that up with a second international title just a month later at the Washington Picken International in April.
It was an impressive start to his competitive season, culminating over a decade of hard work and dedication to a sport that Appel loves but one he almost never started.
“Some family friends that lived in Florida skated, and they had us come skating one day when I was about 8. I did not like it at first. But my younger sister did, so she started with classes, and my parents said, ‘You should just try it,'” Lucas recalled. “I was very hesitant, and I said no.”
It wasn’t until seeing an ice show his sister performed in that Appel decided skating was something he wanted to do. But after five years training and struggling with the physical demands, he contemplated quitting competitive skating.
“I was trying to jump and stuff, and physically my body just wasn’t fully built for it,” Appel said.
His coach at the time persuaded him to consider ice dancing, a graceful form of figure skating that is, as the name suggests, more akin to dancing on ice without the technical challenges of extreme leaps and acrobatic maneuvers. Solo ice dancing was a relatively new discipline in the sport.
“I said, ‘I’ll give it a year. If I like it, I’ll stick with it. If not, I’ll probably just do skating for fun.’ And I ended up loving it,” Appel said.
Loving it doesn’t mean it isn’t exhausting, however. His day typically begins at 6 a.m., when he heads to the Hertz Arena to practice until about noon. Sometimes he’ll stay longer to coach other skaters. Then, it’s off to classes, homework and studying, as he works toward a degree in psychology. He’s also involved in FGCU’s Dance Company.
“FGCU was a good choice for me to be able to continue to pursue my academics at a great school, while also being able to continue my figure skating career due to its prime location,” Appel said.
And, of course, there are competitions, for which he has traveled around the country the last few years. Solo ice dancing was just this year added to international competition, giving Appel more travel and more tournaments to add to his schedule.
“This past year was really my first year of doing international-level competition while also working as a part-time coach and then being a student,” he said. “Our competition season runs from March through September. By the time July hit, I was very burned out, and I was very much like, ‘Oh, I need to take a step back’ because my energy level was just drained. I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to finish the year the way I want to if I don’t kind of rebalance everything.’”
That meant taking stock of what he could take a step back from and when. A little less private coaching ahead of events. Focusing more on school when the semester starts to ramp up and the ice dancing season slows down. And giving it all on the ice when the big competitions arrived.
That rebalancing act paid off, as Appel recovered from feeling burned out over the summer to win gold at the U.S. Figure Skating national solo ice dancing championships in September. He had previously won the title in 2022 and came just short of repeating last year, finishing in second place. Reclaiming the title was special enough, but the fact that he was able to do so on his home turf elevated it even higher.
“This year it was really special to reclaim it and to be able to do so in Florida,” Appel said. “I had a lot of friends and family come out to watch me skate. It was really special to win and have that awesome support group there to see it happen.”
