Welcome to Not Your Average Athlete

A newsletter about self-improvement, health, wellness, and living the uncommon life.

Me speed skating on the Lake Placid Olympic Speed Skating Oval (Jordan Craig/ORDA)

Welcome!

Here’s everything you need to know about Not Your Average Athlete.

My Mission

My name is Christie. I’m a figure skater, speed skater, and writer from the Olympic town of Lake Placid, NY.

My weekly goal is to share advice on living an uncommon life.

I create this by living authentically and athletically - dedicating myself to doing what I feel compelled to do and making time for movement and outside time every day.

It’s not what you do that makes your life uncommon; it’s how you live it.

What does that mean? To me, living an uncommon life means doing everything possible to reach your potential and live on your terms.

It often means ignoring the conventions that society, family, friends, and peers have handed down.

You don’t have to be like anyone else. It’s better if you’re not.

I’ve been living this way for several years after years of doing what I thought was expected of me. By avoiding ‘normal,’ I fell into the trap of doing the same (unhelpful) things repeatedly and expecting different results.

I’ve learned a lot, and I want to help you live your own uncommon life, whatever that looks like for you.

I hope if you spend enough time reading, you will

• accept your unique self

• understand your strengths and weaknesses so you can make better decisions.

• determine what you actually want and take small steps towards that goal.

• find authentic meaning and well-being through fitness without thinking you need to spend all day in the gym

• determine what diet works best for you and adopt it WITHOUT driving yourself into disordered eating

• realize the ‘old ways’ of living and working don’t work anymore, and learn to carve an independent path for yourself

• learn there is no ‘right way’ to live and pursue your best life, regardless of whether it fits society’s expectations

I chose ‘Not Your Average Athlete’ because it describes me well.

I consider myself an athletic nerd. I also have ADHD and find it difficult to rip myself away from my phone and my writing (in that order). Even though I enjoy exercise (when it’s not too dull) and living well, I don’t make it my entire personality.

I’ve also dealt with a variety of mental health challenges, including depression and anxiety, and have found my way through it.

Diet, exercise, and having a purpose are the three simplest ways to overcome them—something I had to learn the hard way.

I’m not here to tell you the only way to be happy is to have a six-pack or eat macrobiotic; after years of living in the extremes, I’m now advocating for a more balanced approach.

Consistency will be a lot more effective than going keto for two weeks and then giving up because it gives you mood swings (been there).

If any of this resonates with you, I’d love it if you’d consider subscribing!

Now, here’s more about me.

My journey

I’ve been writing online since 2021, but my professional writing career started in 2008.

Since then, I’ve written for countless regional, national, and international publications.

But it all started with a blog.

Remember 2005 when blogs were the ‘new’ hot way to share your life? I started one called Lake Placid Skater, and despite having a painfully earnest delivery, writing about an incredibly niche topic (figure skating and speed skating in Lake Placid, NY), and making the template bright pink, I soon earned thousands of domestic and international views weekly (it was especially popular in ‘skating countries’ like Russia, South Korea, and Canada).

It was then that I realized the power of writing online.

People cared what I, a perky teenage ice skater, had to say. That was odd but also empowering. Maybe I could do this writing thing for real.

Granted, I know they were mostly following Lake Placid, which, as a two-time Olympic site, is still very important to people in the skating community.

But I also like to think I was giving people a view into an uncommon life, and they responded.

I spent most of my time skating and participating in skating events, and eventually started home-schooling so I could train in two sports instead of one.

In 2008, I started a charity skating party on our outdoor speed skating oval and met the newspaper's then-editor, who profiled me for the weekly paper.

I pitched a figure skating story idea, and he told me he would consider publishing it if it was acceptable.

At 18, I had started my writing career.

I wrote for free for the first few years until the editor realized I wasn’t getting paid and encouraged me to submit my invoices.

So, my paid writing career began at 21.

Continuing to blog as Lake Placid Skater, writing for the Lake Placid News, and building a brand simultaneously, I became known as ‘Lake Placid Skater’ to my blog readers. Sometimes, I would meet them out in the wild, and a reader would say, ‘Are you Lake Placid Skater?’

Having a persona without trying to create one was so weird and fun.

After several years of pitching and writing skating stories, I was designated ‘the skating correspondent’ at the Lake Placid News. I started my column, ‘Meet the Skaters, ’ which profiles elite skaters whenever they come into town. I worked for, then covered, Stars on Ice shows when they came to Lake Placid annually. I interviewed Olympians in various settings, including in their luxury sedans, sitting on load-in carts in rink hallways, during intermissions of ice shows, and on the phone while they zipped through midtown in a limo.

I regret never interviewing Michelle Kwan or Brian Boitano, although I interviewed almost every elite skater in the past several decades.

Whenever there was a figure or speed skating event, I was there, often in multiple capacities - an athlete, a writer, an official, a sports club manager.

At the time, I thought I was good at multi-tasking.

Blogging and writing for the LPN led to great opportunities, including:

• Being a semi-finalist in a Microsoft blogging contest. I nearly went to the 2010 Olympics as a media representative. 

• Serving as a Video Journalist for a short-lived citizen sports journalism digital outfit before the IOC sued them for alluding to the Olympics with their company name (true story).

• Being cast as a skater in various ad campaigns and even an independent film.

• Auditioning for the rebooted Ice Capades.

• Being interviewed on the jumbotron at a significant international skating event and celebrated for my contributions to chronicling skating history.

• Writing for other national and international print/digital publications including US Figure Skating and the State of New York.

Perhaps the most remarkable outcome came in 2011, when I was 21, and The History Press contracted me to write the only comprehensive history of figure skating in Lake Placid, which I’m very proud of.

In addition to my writing, I ran a figure skating shop in Lake Placid with my mom. I directed (and skated in) ice shows and speed skating meets. I served as President of two sports organizations. I hosted charity skating events.

I was training in figure and speed skating when I wasn't doing all that.

I also continued attending school, graduating with an Associate’s Degree in Sports in Events Management (2008), a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (2011), and finally, my M.S. in Fitness and Wellness Leadership (2019).

Everything seemed on track for me to continue my career in fitness and sports.

• I hoped to get a job with ORDA, the state-run organization that manages the Olympic venues.

• I was teaching Crossfit.

• Our business was, if not thriving, at least limping along.

• I even won a gold medal on home ice in the 2019 International Figure Skating Competition.

At the beginning of my gold medal performance in 2019.

My life revolved around skating.

Then COVID-19 happened.

Just a few weeks before, in February 2020, I had been performing in an ice show celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Olympics alongside Olympians while also (of course) reporting on several events and interviewing Olympians past and present.

How could things change so fast?

With our business and the rink closed, I had to confront myself and my life honestly.

Without skating, who was I? And more importantly, did I like who I was?

I realized that I didn’t and that much of what I was doing in my life wasn’t working.

• I was trying to force myself to be someone I wasn’t.

• I was hanging with people who didn’t understand me or, in some cases, were using me.

• I was grinding away, trying to earn arbitrary volunteer ‘titles’ and working hard for free.

• I was still hanging in with our business, which had been struggling for years.

• I was doing most things for what they looked like (pride, ego) rather than because I wanted to.

• I grabbed every opportunity, whether it was worth my time or not.

• I was running away from my problems.

• I was making skating my entire personality.

Realizing all of this sort of prompted a mental health crisis.

But after the dust settled, I was relieved.

I had been burned out for years; I couldn’t slow down enough to realize it.

It wasn’t a bad life, but it had its time.

As was the case for many during COVID-19, I realized I wanted something else and began figuring out what.

And I realized that more than anything else, I wanted to write.

I have been writing since I was a kid. The writing felt more natural than even skating.

Just because I had become burned out with the niche I was writing about didn’t mean I didn’t want to write.

So, I finally plucked up the courage to start writing on Medium around 2021.

At first, I was writing into the void, which was a relief because I didn’t have to worry about people I knew reading it. Living in a small town, you worry about things like that.

Giving away any bit of myself, sharing my vulnerabilities, and being more authentic was terrifying, especially after over a decade of writing about other people and events. It felt strange to talk about myself. Who would care?

So, at first, I wrote pretty anodyne self-help and productivity articles.

But as I started incorporating more personal experiences into my posts, I started getting Boosted (which means your post is chosen to get greater distribution on the platform).

I’ve been Boosted 12 times—three times within the last month alone.

It was always for posts I thought no one would care about—I was writing what I was interested in—and the ones that felt the most personal and vulnerable.

I decided to start a Substack after seeing so many other Medium writers I admire beginning theirs.

The first was a reboot of Lake Placid Skater.

But I wanted to share my knowledge and write about general health, wellness, self-improvement, fitness, and sports topics.

So, I started Not Your Average Athlete.

I am fortunate to be participating in the Substack Campfire by

Tom Kuegler

and

Michael Simmons

this month, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

My promise

Inline skating.

I can’t guarantee that I will write every week, at least initially.

But I can promise you this:

• The newsletter may evolve, but I will always share what’s genuinely working for me.

• I will be authentic.

• I will be vulnerable.

• I will offer inspiration and life lessons.

• I will answer comments (I’d be excited to get them!).

Most importantly, I promise to take feedback. If there’s anything I write about that you particularly like (or don’t like), tell me! I’m still learning here, so I welcome your thoughts.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting with you soon!