At the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, Starr Andrews was nearly off the ice following her free skate when she noticed something in her path.
She bent down and quickly picked it up before she could fall over it, and realized it was a drawing from a young fan on a piece of cardboard.
It included the message, "you inspire me."
"It touches my heart, really, that people look up to me," Andrews said. "I remember looking up to skaters when I was younger, and I think it's so cool that I'm one of those skaters that people look up to."
In Greensboro, Andrews tied her career-best finish at the senior level, placing sixth, bettering her eighth-place finish in 2019.
"It's an improvement," Andrews said. "I definitely could've done better. Of course, you can always do better. But I definitely think it is an improvement on last U.S. Championships, for sure."
She was particularly proud of her short program, set to "You Lost Me" by Christina Aguilera.
"It was a really good skate for me," Andrews said. "I felt calm, I felt prepared, so I just had to go out there and not doubt myself or put anything in my mind other than, 'You're ready.'"
In seventh place following the short program, Andrews was less pleased with her free skate, though it helped her climb a spot in the overall rankings.
"In the beginning I was a little shaky, and that made me mess up on my toe," Andrews said. "But then I had to get myself together and keep going and keep pushing, and put all my energy into that program.
"You just have to leave (mistakes) behind you. If you dwell on it and you're not focusing on the next element, you could end up messing up even more."
Andrews will next be competing at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2020, held March 2-8 in Tallinn, Estonia. Moving back down to the junior level means a shorter free skate, and Andrews will cut out the choreographic sequence in her free skate to get her program within the time requirement.
Andrews last competed at the junior level at the Golden Spin of Zagreb in December, where she placed second. After Zagreb, she put her junior program aside as she trained for the senior competition at U.S. Championships, and returned to her junior program after more than a month at the U.S. World Junior Team Camp immediately following.
"The choreo's in the beginning of my program, so it's easy to just take out of my program and go straight to the jumps," Andrews said. "And the choreo's like a minute, so it takes off a pretty good chunk of time.
"I just have to be prepared for whatever happens, and never relax. Always stay on."
Despite the shorter free skate, competing at the junior level is far from a day off.
"Not at all," Andrews said with a laugh. "They're all doing quads, so I have to keep my game up."
Two-time reigning U.S. champion Alysa Liu is currently the only U.S. woman to complete a quad in competition, but Andrews says it's a skill she'd like to add to her repertoire.
"I definitely think about them, and I definitely want to work on them and land them and put them out in competition," Andrews said.
This season, Andrews had two Grand Prix assignments, finishing eighth at NHK Trophy and fifth at the Internationaux de France – her career-best Grand Prix finish.
Her only prior appearance at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships was in 2017, when she placed 12th after winning the U.S. junior silver medal.
"I've competed a lot internationally this year," Andrews said. "So the more experience I get, the more I know what to do and what not to do. So I think I've learned a lot from that this year, and it's definitely going to help in the future, in the long run.
"I feel like I've progressed from last year, and the programs are better than last year as well, as well as my stamina. So all my competitions this year were definitely better, and I'm improving, so that's what matters."
Andrews heads to Estonia hoping to skate two clean programs, but the perennial fan favorite knows that there's more to skating than just impressing the judges.
A big part of it is for the fans who draw her pictures she holds in the kiss and cry.
"It's so motivating when the crowd cheers," Andrews said. "It keeps me pushing, and keeps me performing. It lets me know that they're enjoying it. And that's what counts, that they enjoy it."
