Robin Cousins MBE

24th February 2023

I started skating by accident. I was walking in Bournemouth with my mum aged 5 and saw some wonderful photos in a window.

They were from the ‘Glamorous and Exciting Ice Follies’ there was no show when I pulled my mum into the doorway but a public session was happening and safter some persuasion I found myself on the ice. One of the teachers there told me there was an ice rink being built in Bristol (my hometown) and so, a few years later when the rink was opened, I asked for a skating lesson for Christmas. I remember loving the learn to skate classes, because I could show-off what I was learning!

I was bitten by the skating bug as a child in my learn-to-skate classes and 55 years later, I still love it as much as I did then.

I enjoyed competitions but I really loved performing more. My first skating teacher Pamela Davies told all her pupils, ‘it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it’ and that mantra, that I learned in my very early skating days I want to pass onto all you young skaters now. Also, it helped me to win British, European & World Championship medals and the title of Olympic Champion. That was my proudest moment, winning the Olympic Gold medal in Lake Placid, USA in 1980

The ice rink seemed so HUGE when I was young and I loved that I could whizz around and didn’t have to be like anyone else on the ice. I liked spinning and seeing how long I could keep going before I had to stop. I also used to go very fast across the ice and sometimes jump high into the air before I really knew how I was supposed to land!

There should always be some joy in what you do when you skate, whether you’re starting out in your first class or training for the Olympics. Remember why you want to put your skates on and enjoy the process – especially when it doesn’t seem to work as you want it to. We all learn at different paces and there is no single, right way to make something happen. That’s what so wonderful about ice skating. You can do your own thing and always keep doing it just for you!