This weekend, the McMaster figure skating team hosted their first meet in several years. The team, led by one of Mac’s captains Emma Bonafiglia, came in fourth place overall. Ontario University Athletics gold medalist Belvina Mao came in first once again for the Senior Silver Solo Dance category.
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We caught up with the two Marauders below:
Belvina: Third year, kinesiology.
Emma: Fourth year, kinesiology.
B: My main reason was for the kinesiology program because it’s one of the best in the country. I was also really attracted to the fact that everyone who came to Mac loved the community feel it had.
E: I originally decided to come to Mac to join the [synchronized swim] team in my first year. I also chose Mac because it is close to home and I heard about its reputable Kin program.
Tell us a bit about the McMaster Invitational.
E: It’s a lot of work to host a tournament, but this year myself and the other captains wanted to host one. The process was a bit challenging, but overall we ended up figuring everything out and it ran smoothly the day of. In terms of skating, we came fourth overall, which is good but it’s still the beginning of the season so we have a lot to work on.
B: It was really nice because alumni, family and friends were able to come out and support [us]. Normally, they’re not able to because competitions are so far. So to be able to perform in front of them was really nice. Even though there was pressure being on home ice, it felt more like a showcase than an actual competition.
As the defending OUA Senior Silver Solo Dance gold medalist, it’s no surprise you came in first in the same category this weekend. Tell us a little about that.
B: The person who was behind me was a little close for comfort, but I was still able to skate to the best of my abilities so I was really proud of myself.
If you had to tell us one thing about yourself that people don’t know what would it be?
B: I am part of the McMaster Musical Theatre and it’s really fun to be part of something outside of school and skating. (MMT upcoming show “Company” is Feb. 22)
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E: I don’t like chocolate, but my go-to sweet treat is anything sour.
Lastly, what are your goals for this season?
B: I am hoping to defend my title as OUA champion for the Senior Silver Dance and to continue to just skate the best that I can.
E: For the team, our goal is to come top three at the OUA championships in February, and for myself, I hope to come first in my solo dance event.
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Next up, the McMaster Figure Skating team will head to the University of Toronto to take the ice.
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At this year’s Ontario University Athletics Figure Skating Championship, Belvina Mao of the McMaster women’s figure skating team captured the gold medal in the Senior Silver Solo Dance event. The second-year Kinesiology student brought home one of five medals that helped the Marauders to a fourth-place finish.
First stepping on the ice when she was two years old, Mao fell in love with figure skating immediately. But as she grew older, the weight of competing while transitioning to post-secondary education became too much.
“I started training when I was six and I just fell in love with it,” said Mao. “I stopped skating in the twelfth grade just because I got so tired of it. But when I came to Mac and I saw that there was a skating team, I decided to try out and I fell back in love with the sport.”
During the season, the team typically trains for three to four days a week for two hours in preparation to compete at two different invitationals in the province, leading up to the OUA championships. Teams are awarded points based on their individual, pair and group performances, and the school with the most points overall wins the OUA Figure Skating Championship title.
This year, thanks to their 88 points, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues took home the gold. The University of Western Mustangs came in as a close second with 84 points, and the Brock University’s Badgers finished in third with 48 points.
Although the Marauders were just three points shy from a spot on the podium, OUA all-star Mao and the rest of the team were still pleased with the outcome.
“Coming in fourth place at the OUA championship is something that we were pretty proud of,” said Mao. “Overall our team is pretty strong. We have a lot of really good skaters but the other universities do as well so the competition across the province can get quite tough.”
Although there is a lot of tough competition across the province, for the Richmond, B.C. native, skating at the university level rather than the competitive level as she did back in high school is definitely worth it.
“The varsity atmosphere is very different than the high-level competitive one,” Mao said. “It’s a lot more laid back and I feel like I do it purely for fun. You’re going to go to every competition anyway, so you just skate your best every time and have fun on the team.”
Being able to have fun again is part of the reason she has been able to perform so well. Her gold medal performance not only won her conference all-star honours but also McMaster Pita Pit Athlete of the Week recognition.
“I was pretty excited when I found out I got Pita Pit Athlete of the Week for winning my solo dance event at [the] OUA [championships],” said Mao. “I was pretty confident going into it, so I was very happy with my performance and the end result.”
Being the best at her event does not come easy for Mao. If there is one thing she has realized is key to her success, it is learning to balance being a student-athlete at this level.
“As a student, we’re already super busy with a difficult academic regime, so when you add skating, you have to find the time to fit in all of the training required,” said Mao. “So my time management skills have to be there to be able to recuperate properly from it all.”
With her second year coming to a close, Mao still has a lot of time to only get better as an individual skater and as a part of the team.
“I’m hoping to get at least one triple jump back, which is something I haven't been able to do since the twelfth grade,” said Mao. “And hopefully within the next two years, McMaster will place in the OUA championships.”
Although the season may be over for Mao and the Marauders, the race to place in the OUA next season is already underway. The new season holds a lot of opportunities for the team to not only get better, but to continue to fall in love with figure skating.
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By: Emile Shen
Gwendolyn Eadie once toured with Disney on Ice across North and South Americas as an ice dancer. These days, she still laces up her skates for the McMaster Varsity Women’s Figure Skating Team, but you can also find her in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where she is a PhD candidate.
Eadie began her undergraduate career at Simon Fraser University as an English major. Her interest in math and science was present throughout her childhood, but it was not until she took a first-year astronomy class that her interest developed into an academic pursuit.
Eadie credits this development to her astronomy professor. “When you have a teacher that is really inspiring and can convey the material really well… if you have an innate interest, then when you have a prof that can bring that out of you, that’s when you hope you can go into that field.”
“The turning point was when I wrote an English paper about the Hubble Space Telescope. Maybe English wasn’t the right thing for me,” she reminisced.
Now in the third year of her doctoral studies, her work focuses on calculating the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy.
To many of us, conquering the weight of our day-to-day responsibilities is enough, never mind the mass of a galaxy. But Eadie, who has developed her own statistical model for calculating the weight of the Milky Way Galaxy, finds reassurance from studying the ever-expanding universe as it reminds her of the relativity of our issues in the grand scheme of the solar system, and beyond.
Even with all of this, competitive figure skating is still part of her life.
“It’s something I love and it’s completely different from work—it gets me out of the office and it gets me socializing with a whole different set of people, so it just keeps me really happy to keep doing it.”
The figure skating team consists mostly of undergraduate students so Eadie is also seen as a role model within the team. Sometimes, she offers her teammates free physics tutoring in her downtime. Eadie wants women to break down barriers in academia and beyond, believing in the importance of role models. When asked to name her role models, she lists her mom first and foremost.
“I think seeing [my mom] growing up really broke down those walls. Why can’t I go into science and do astronomy? There’s no reason why I can’t.”
Motivation can be hard to tap into when stress kicks in, but Eadie believes it is important to keep devoting time to our passions.
“Don’t stop the things you love doing… It’s a part of who you are and it’s good for you.”
Photo Credit: Aaron Springford
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