Moeller Fights Through Adversity to Nab Figure Skating Gold

Jordan Moeller, a 15-year-old national gold-medalist figure skater and a Richards High School sophomore, was fighting through a difficult time several years ago.

He wasn't landing his jumps. His spins didn't seem quite right. He was off his game.

"It was a mentally weak year for me," Moeller said, pointing back to 2008. "I couldn't really bounce back very easily, and it just kind of carried throughout the whole year."

Moeller needed an answer. He had worked too hard and given too much of his life to his sport not to break out of his funk.

The Answer to the Tough Mental Year

Ice skating, a sport in which undivided attention is placed on the competitors, became difficult mentally for Moeller two years ago.

"In an individual sport, it can be fairly lonely," Martha Moeller said. "It's not like basketball or football where you have a team and you can be there for each other."

Moeller, who doesn't like attention focused squarely on him, found an answer to his frustrating mental year in the form of a book — The New Toughness Training for Sports. His coach, Kori Ade, gave it to him, and the book helped him turn around his career.

"It felt like there was a weight lifted off of me," Moeller said. "I felt a lot less pressure."

Ade said Moeller started to take the mental side of the sport more seriously. Moeller turned his weakness into what is now his greatest strength — his ability to bounce back after a tough skate.

"Keep moving," he would tell himself. "Get back up."

He used that resiliency and won the intermediate men's gold medal at the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championship last December. As he stood on the top spot of the podium on the ice in Ohio and received his medal with the crowd cheering, he came to a realization. His hard work paid off.

"I was really excited," Moeller said. "Obviously, it was a good experience. It was a good feeling."

He was ready for more.

How a Future Gold-Medal Winner Started

Moeller started skating when he was 4 years old, but only because his sister skated. "He didn't want her doing something that he couldn't do," said Jordan's mother, Martha Moeller.

As he grew older, Jordan's parents slowly realized he had a special talent for skating, and not just by watching him on the ice. "We could go to the local Wal-mart, and he'd be jumping and spinning on the way into the store," said Jordan's father, John Moeller.

"Other people were telling me (I had talent) before I knew it," Jordan said.

Moeller first started skating competitively when he was 9.

"I think he enjoys just being out on the ice and being able to do the jumps. He loves the jumps and the spins," Martha Moeller said.

"Competitions are my favorite of everything we do," Jordan said. "It's kind of a way to express yourself."

Moeller started to practice, often at the expense of other parts of his life.

"You don't really get to spend too much time outside of (ice skating)," he said. "It's kind of your life."

Looking Toward the Games

While Moeller has developed into a premier junior figure skater, his parents say the sport's impact on his character development has been just as rewarding.

"His ability to relate to other kids and to adults is great," John Moeller said. "Whatever he does in life, I think he's going to take a lot from this."

One trait Jordan Moeller has learned is discipline, as he practices two hours every day. Despite all the hours he puts in on the ice and all the travel time it takes him to trudge to and from Northbrook where he trains at least four times a week, he is still an honors student at Richards.

Moeller says his goal is to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. If he's going to reach that goal, he will have to work on what he says is a weakness – his stamina.

And he can rely on his newfound mental toughness and resiliency to help him endure all the tough training that lies ahead.

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