Warwick Skater Enjoys Team Time Post Pandemic

WARWICK, RI — Events, public life and competitions have returned after the pandemic’s nearly three-year pause, including Emma McCartney’s participation with Team USA at the Nation’s’ Cup theater on ice skating competition at Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA April 16.

Coached by Sarah Dinardo and Kate Louth, the team is comprised of 17 skaters from all over Rhode Island and South Coast Massachusetts. 

McCartney and her fellow competitors placed sixth in the youth division of the the Nations’ Cup & Adult Gold Cup.

“They did two incredible programs. Their long program on Saturday was flawless, but the competition was tough. They placed sixth overall,” said Natalia McCartney, Emma’s mom.

The prestigious international theatre on ice competition is held every other year. Even that biennial schedule still meant the team had to wait a year longer than usual to compete this last time, as their last competition together was in 2019, just before the pandemic.

That year the team succeeded in the novice competition to compete in their field in France, where they placed second in the world. They would have gone back to the nationals in 2020, but that was cancelled during the pandemic and the team wasn’t able to compete together again until the summer of 2022 for a qualifying round.

McCartney has been a member of the team for eight years now. She’s mainly interested in the competitions, being part of the team, and enjoying that. She isn’t entertaining olympic skating ambitions.

Nevertheless, the team usually does a good job during the competitions, she said, and her usual goal is focused on being part of the team as its doing its best work.

“I hope we have a clean show with no falls and everyone does the best that they can do,” McCartney said the week before the show. There is a solo competition, she said, where she aims to be accountable to herself.

Long term, she said, her ambitions are not as an athletic professional.

“I’d like to become a lawyer,” McCartney said.