Posted September 30, 2019
When Denver Online High School student, Beck Strommer, skates onto the ice this season for his short program, he’ll be skating to “Believer” by Imagine Dragons.
“It personifies like being yourself, and being strong, and not being worried about what others think of you,” Strommer said.
And those traits are exactly what we hope every Denver Online student finds: the ability to be themselves.
“There are jumps and there are spins, but really my favorite thing about skating is the artistry behind it. I love being able to tell a story and using my body and skating to the music,” he noted. “I love to portray a character through the music. I just really love the characterization and the artistry behind it.”
Strommer has big plans for his skating career.
“I’m focusing on taking my jumps and spins and skating skills and my performance ability all to the next level. I want to get onto team USA, and from there we will see where I go,” he said, maybe even trying for the Olympics.
At a recent competition in Salt Lake City, he earned a personal best score, giving him a fast pass to sectionals. He said, “The score that I got put me at sixth in the country for my level,” an accomplishment that he most definitely had to earn.
“I get up at 6:30am every morning; I’m on the ice by 8am,” Strommer described. “Skate for an hour, go home, do schoolwork, come back, skate more, work out, and then do more school work. I have a busy day.”
He also does off-ice training. He said, “I do some form of off-ice training about an hour every day. So that could be traditional working out, or that could be working on jumps off-ice. I do a ballet class once a week.”
Training roughly four hours each day, his schedule necessitated a schooling option that allowed him to pursue his figure skating passion. He said, “Denver Online High School was really just the best option for schooling. They were really flexible. They worked with my schedule.”
That’s what Denver Online aims for: providing students with the flexibility to pursue both their education AND their passion. Because when students find what truly moves them, we know that they can be unstoppable in pursuing even the biggest of dreams.
“People don’t see the tears, and the joy, and everything behind skating,” he said. “They just see the amazing performers, it’s a lot. It’s a difficult lifestyle, but I clearly love it.”