In his final competition before retiring, Keegan Messing turned in the performance of a lifetime to capture the silver medal at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs.
Messing is our Alaska Athlete of the Week.
Messing shined at The Four Continents, a highly regarded event. He posted personal-best scores in his freeskate (188.87) and overall (275.57) to earn his first medal in an ISU international competition.
Messing, the competition’s oldest skater at 31, landed two quads and a triple axel to ignite the crowd. Afterward he skated a lap around the rink and high-fived everyone in a front-row seat.
“I am beyond stoked for how I skated today. This is my first ISU medal, and it took me 28 years of skating to get here,” he said, the father of a toddler and a newborn.
It was the best performance in a long and decorated career for the two-time Olympian, and he said it made him wonder if he should stick around one more season.
“Honestly, getting a PB score, winning my 1st medal, I was definitely sitting there (thinking), ‘I almost don’t want to hang up my skates yet!’, But then I stood up and I remembered why. I’d love to take my family on plenty of adventures with my body still intact.”
The Alaska Athlete of the Week is selected by a panel each Monday.
Have a candidate in mind? Email us your nomination: info@alaskasportshall.org.
Also receiving votes: Pheonix Copley, Isaac Updike, Hunter Merrick, Sonny Prosser.