As Sally-Anne Kaminski recalls, there’s no feeling like stepping out onto an ice rink and hearing the words “representing the United States of America.”
Kaminski, digital marketing manager at Milwaukee-based 7Summits, is an international synchronized ice skating champion who glided into the competitive sport at age 10, about two years after she started skating.
Her first two years of synchronized skating led to her first national championships competition, at which she scooped up a silver medal, and eventually to the 2001 Prague Cup where she competed and succeeded as part of Team USA with a synchronized skating group based out of Barrington, Ill.
“Very few athletes get to represent their country, and I was lucky enough to do it at age 16,” said Kaminski, who together with her teammates captured silver in Prague.
Following four years of synchronized skating at Miami University in Ohio and national wins during three of those years, the Whitefish Bay native took a four-year hiatus before continuing her synchronized skating career with an adult team out of Buffalo Grove, Ill.
While Kaminski retired her skates this past March, she couldn’t quite compel herself to leave the ice altogether. Since June, she has been helping coach five youth teams through the Wisconsin Edge Synchronized Skating Club, the club that first drew her into the sport at age 10.
“It’s really where my synchronized skating career started, and now it’s come full circle,” Kaminski said.
The progression from competitor to coach is a natural one for Kaminski and allows her to continue a passion that defined so much of her childhood.
“I’m sucked in for life,” she said.
