Above: Coach Jessica Stratton and student Charlotte Anderson at the Excel Final and Festival
By Troy Schwindt
Kind of quiet and shy, 14-year-old Charlotte Anderson of Rochester, New York, felt the excitement as she, her parents, brother and coach boarded a plane for Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Excel Series Final and Festival, in mid-July.
The event marked a unique opportunity in the skater’s career, which commenced right after the COVID-19 pandemic. The chance to compete with her peers on a big stage and learn the nuances of the sport from experts and Team USA athletes was her skating dream come true.
“I felt everybody was welcoming and it was easy to interact with other skaters,” Anderson, who competed in the intermediate division, said. “I learned the most about artistry and staying in the moment, focusing on the little things.
“I had a class with [Olympians] Ashley Cain and Gracie Gold, which was cool. We worked on speed and also quicker movements along with other edges.”
Nearly 900 skaters from across the country practiced and competed at the Broadmoor World Arena and World Arena Ice Hall, each leaving with new friends and their own cherished memories.
The mission of the Excel program, launched in 2019, is to offer singles skaters an exciting and competitive environment that motivates them to focus on strengthening their program components and advancing their technical skills. There were 81 Excel Series competitions available to enter in the 2025 season. The top finishers in each eligible category qualified for the Excel Final and Festival.
“Excel has given Charlotte the community to have the experiences that she’s always dreamed of,” her mother, Samantha, said. “She’s a skating nerd through and through. She just lives and breathes the sport. For her, this is a dream.”
Anderson’s father, Mark, said the Excel Series itself served as the ideal steppingstone to the Excel Final and Festival for her daughter, who is a member of the Thomas Creek FSC.
“She’s had a great season,” Mark said after her competitive performance. “She had some first-place finishes at competitions [White Rose Invitational, Genessee Invitational], so she came in confident.”
Her coach Jessica Stratton had a front row seat on Anderson’s journey to the Excel Final.
“Watching Charlotte grow as an athlete and to take that score from each competition and refine and tweak has been really fun,” she said of the Excel Series. “It gives us targeted feedback of what we are looking for and then kind of a new goal. I don’t think we set a goal to be here but we made it here so we are happy for that, because it was a nice avenue in which the hard work has paid off.”
Traveling from the West Coast, fifth-grader Phoebe Saltzman, her mother, Jessica, and coach, Diane Chen, echoed the sentiments of the Anderson family.
Phoebe trains five days a week at Ice Realm Carlsbad and became hooked on skating the second she took one step in her rental skates.
“It’s been a fun time,” Jessica said. “It’s been positive in that she’s getting exposed to kids all over the country and getting a taste to go farther in skating. She loves competing; I think that’s probably not rare in this group of kids. But she particularly liked some of the classes with national technical specialist Patrick [O’Neil] about the details of spins and what kind of things get edge calls; she likes information like that.”
Team USA Steps Up to Help
One of the highlights for athletes was the opportunity to meet and learn from current and past members of Team USA: Ashley Cain, Luke Wang, Olivia Flores, Gracie Gold, Sean Rabbitt, Elyce Lin-Gracey and Polina Edmunds.
Getting to witness their immense talents and absorbing their knowledge was priceless for the flourishing skaters. It was equally rewarding for the Team USA contingent.
Cain, a 2022 Olympic pairs skater, has helped at the past three Excel Finals and Festivals.
“To see these kids evolve throughout the years and grow through their levels, it feels like a reunion every single time,” Cain said. “They are so enthusiastic and willing to be open-minded and learn as much as they can, like a sponge, just absorbing the whole experience. They give me so much joy and energy to get out there and I continue to want to do it because of everything they give back to me.”
The biggest thing, Cain said, the skaters receive with Excel is the opportunity to establish friendships and build camaraderie. It’s like what she experienced climbing the competitive ranks.
“These are the people who are going to be alongside them for many years to come,” Cain said. “I can remember at the developmental levels, Mariah Bell and I were competing against each other and then got to walk in the opening ceremonies together at the Olympic Games and compete there. It was amazing that from the beginning levels all the way through that and now we are the closest of friends, so you really make lifelong friends and teammates through all of this and those are going to be the people next to you through so many big life events.”
Skaters Enjoy ‘Showing Off’
Skaters, dressed in all black, ramped up the energy inside the Broadmoor World Arena with an exhibition gala set to Todrick Hall and Nicole Schwrzinger’s humble brag number “Show Off.”
New York-based choreographer Sebastian Arango and rehearsal assistant Kata Junninen led three qualifying exhibitions, which also featured Team USA athletes. Getting the skaters ready to perform, Arango said, was the most satisfying part of his job.
“For me, it’s always about the process,” Arango said. “It’s always nice to have an end product, but at the end of the day if you can’t enjoy the process, then what’s the point.”
Arango, who coaches at five New York City rinks, came up with the “Show Off” routine as a way to celebrate each skater’s successful journey to the Excel Final and Festival.
“It was a lot of work for them to get here,” Arango said. [With the song] I wanted them to feel like, you can be humble and can also show off.”
The Excel program, Arango said, is starkly different from what he experienced as a young skater.
“I love this program,” Arango said. “Elise [Preston, senior director of membership at U.S. Figure Skating] and Marc [Weitzman, national vice chair of Excel] have done such a great job. When I was competing, it was more about you just going to a competition and then you leave. This is such an experience for the kids: exhibitions, choreography, the rehearsal process, learning about rules and skating skills. It’s about building more community and education.”
Education is Excel’s Main Calling Card
Faculty member Patrick O’Neil calls Excel “one of the best programs that’s ever come out of program development.”
“I think it helps drive numbers in terms of overall membership,” O’Neil said. “Every year we are growing and growing.”
O’Neil, who led in-person sessions at the Excel event, said education is the most important offering at the Final.
“We educate parents, coaches and athletes,” O’Neil said. “Having education, having knowledge gives the athlete and the coach and the parent power; the power to create and build and move forward and that’s what we want these athletes to do every year.”
“That’s what I think this experience does for them. It pulls them together as a community. It creates an opportunity for all of these people to be together in a like-minded atmosphere, I think that’s what’s important to them.”
For full results from the 2025 Excel National Final and Festival, click here.
To learn more about the Excel program, go to https://www.usfigureskating.org/skate/skating-opportunities/excel
