Spotlight on Mitchell Friess, Senior Men’s competitor debuting at 2021 U.S. Nationals

On the outside, always looking in / Will I ever be more than I’ve always been? / ‘Cause I’m tap, tap, tapping on the glass / I’m waving through a window / I try to speak, but nobody can hear / So I wait around for an answer to appear / While I’m watch, watch, watching people pass / I’m waving through a window, oh / Can anybody see, is anybody waving back at me?
(Lyrics from “Waving Through a Window” from Dear Evan Hansen, written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)

Utah native Mitchell Friess, 23 [more about him on his training group’s website] (link will open a new window), was 15 years old when he qualified for the 2013 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Intermediate level, along with his younger sister, Amalia, 12, who competed in the Juvenile Girls event. In the seven years since then, he placed 6th and 5th at the Novice level; 7th, 6th and 5th at the Junior level; and 6th and 5th at the Senior level – all at the Pacific Coast Sectional Championships (top 4 in each of the 3 Sectionals make it to Nationals). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Figure Skating organized a U.S. Championship Series virtual qualifying competition for Senior and Junior level skaters in which only a long program (free skate portion) would determine the qualifiers for the 2021 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nineteen Senior men recorded programs at their respective rinks and the skaters with the top 9 free skate scores, as determined a few weeks later by a remote judging panel, would qualify for Nationals. Mitchell Friess placed 9th.

I reached out to Mitchell after I watched his stirring free skate program to “Waving through a Window” and “For Forever” from the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen (that I also had enjoyed the previous year when he missed qualifying for Nationals by one placement) and he agreed to answer a few questions via e-mail before competing in Las Vegas (Championship Men’s short program is Saturday, January 16, and the free skate the following day). I wanted to give him the opportunity to share, in his own words, a little bit about himself as well as to amplify his journey of perseverance in finally making it to the “big show” of the National Championships on his eighth attempt.

I was elated when I learned that I qualified. There was a sense of relief but also excitement. I had been trying for so long, and had seen my competitors and teammates qualify year after year and move on without me that I felt stuck in a rut. For a long time I wasn’t sure if I would ever qualify again, or if I should even be skating. That definitely hindered me emotionally and physically. Last year, my coaches and I worked a lot on changing my mindset and approach to skating. I was going through a very tough time and skating became less of an escape and more of a chore. By Sectionals, as you saw, we had changed things and in my eyes I succeeded even if I didn’t qualify. That competition was the turning point for me as I started to see being successful in this sport was still possible for me. And then this year, with the pandemic, I wasn’t sure if I would get the chance to try for a spot at Nationals. After the movement to a virtual format for the qualifying competitions, we felt like we finally had a direction and so we started training for that. After a whole year of “maybe”, hearing that all the training we did paid off was extremely exciting.

I’ve been with Amanda and Karel Kovar since the beginning. They have taught me everything I know. We have had our differences, but in the end they are both great coaches and people who will be in my life forever. I’m incredibly grateful for everything that they have done for me.

I am Chinese American. My grandparents on my Mom’s side came from China. I believe Friess is German.

I started skating when I was about 5 years old. I didn’t start taking private skating lessons, with Amanda and Karel, until I was about 8 or 9. I started skating because my grandmother really liked it. It was one of the things that we would always watch on TV with her. I told my parents one day that I wanted to skate and they found Learn-to-Skate classes for me and my sister.

Because my sister skated as well, my parents were probably much more involved with skating than the average parent. They would always help out at test sessions, local competitions, ice shows, and with the Wasatch Figure Skating Club [Ogden, Utah] in any way they could. But they never thought it could go this far for either me or my sister. Academics were always the priority in my family. And there have been many times when we have disagreed on what kind of role figure skating should play in my life. For example, they have their own idea on what it means to be successful in this sport and on how to get there. But I know they support me and want me to pursue something that I’m passionate about.

My short program music was initially picked out by Amanda for either my last year as a Novice or my first year as a Junior. We ended up not using it because it didn’t quite fit, yet. This year, we were looking for something similar to my music from last year, “Unsteady” by the X Ambassadors, but would be fresh and different. We revisited “Ghost Town” by Adam Lambert because it kept the electronic pop music from “Unsteady” but was a little bit grittier.

This is my third year skating to Dear Evan Hansen. We completely changed the program for my second year skating to it so the program itself is really only 2 years old. This music was recommended to me by my choreographer, Alex Chang. He picked it out specifically for me and I trusted him to be able to pick out a piece of music and choreograph a program that would fit me. Since then I’ve come to love the music and the story it tells and I agree with Alex that it fits me very well.

I’ve started playing the piano when I started skating (which was a coincidence). So music has been in my life for as long as I’ve been skating and has grown just as my skating has grown. I’ve always been musical and playing an instrument only added to it. I think the most influential thing that playing the piano did for my skating was establishing a connection to music. To be able to play a piece well, you have to understand the emotion behind the music. That easily translated to skating.

I currently do not have any plans about using my degree [Biomechanical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2019]. I see myself being involved in the STEM [Science Technology Engineering Mathematics] world at some point, but that’s probably a few years away still.

The short answer to balancing college and skating was that I didn’t balance the two. My skating suffered and my grades suffered because I was trying to do both. To be fair, I was pursuing success in a very difficult degree and a very difficult sport, both in very competitive fields. For people who want to do both, I would say take your time. Finishing college in 4 year is becoming increasingly less common. And adding skating or other competitive sports on top of school is only going to make it take longer. So be patient.

When my rink shut down because of the pandemic, I was still able to skate. We worked very closely with the administration at the ice sheet and they let us skate. So while the rink was closed to the public, we still had ice time, albeit very limited and with heavy restrictions. The other aspects of my life slowed down but I was fortunate to never be unemployed. This provided a unique opportunity for me to turn even more of my focus onto skating, something I had never had the chance to do before.

Skating will never leave my life. I can’t see myself without it. One day I’ll probably coach or perform in shows. Or I might try competing in ice dance, like Daisuke Takahashi did earlier this year. But I would find it hard to leave this sport completely behind.

I cannot wait to skate at Nationals. I cannot wait to show what I’ve been working toward for my whole life. My goals are to perform my programs like I know that I can and just to enjoy this experience.
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POSTSCRIPT: On February 2, 2021, Mitchell shared [this 3A practice clip on his Instagram] (link will open a new window) – “This jump, triple axel, is the product of sheer determination, countless attempts, hours of practice time, and some excellent coaching from Amanda Kovar, Benjamin Miller and Ann Eidson. From qualifying for the National Championships to landing this jump, this past year has shown me why I love this sport and why I still have more to prove.”