Mia Provenzano Becoming a Local ‘Ice Princess’
By MIRANDA ENZOR
Managing Editor
SUPER SKATER: Mia Provenzano is only nine-years-old and has already earned awards at every competition she’s competed in during the past year. Her next competition will be the Tulsa Spring Spectacular, to be held in May. Provenzano became interested in ice skating after watching the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Courtesy PHILL GRIGGS
Winter is slowing fading away. The days are growing longer, the trees are stretching towards the warmth of the sun and the chill of this year’s weather is finally beginning to dissipate.
But for nine-year-old Mia Provenzano, daughter of Jim and Michelle Provenzano, finding a patch of ice any time of the year is a must.
She’s an ice skater.
Most mornings well before the sun rises and the coffee perks, Mia and Jim can be found at Oilers Ice Center where Mia takes skating lessons. After just over a full year of skating, she has garnered multiple awards from area competitions and is in the Basic Eights program at Oilers Ice Center, designed for skaters seven-years-old and up.
Jim says when Mia was only three, she sat in front of the TV watching the 2002 Winter Olympics and was completely fascinated by the skating competitions.
“For the next year, she kept talking about how she wanted to skate,” he says. “So for Christmas in 2003, we got her some skates and in January we started her with lessons.”
Mia says she also loved to watch ice skating movies like “Go Figure” and “Ice Princess.”
After receiving her skates, Mia took lessons for about eight months before deciding to stop. But her love for the sport didn’t go away so easily. Until she started skating again in January 2007, Mia still talked about learning to ice skate.
And now?
“We’re getting ready to join the Tulsa Figure Skating Club,” says Jim, “which is actually one of the largest clubs in the country. Tulsa has a very large skating population, which I didn’t know until we started skating.”
In the upcoming months, Mia will also participate in Tulsa Spring Spectacular competition where she hopes her hard work over the last year will pay off. Last year at the Spring Spectacular, Mia took home a second place prize.
“The hardest thing is trying to learn moves and not understanding how they go,” she says. “My favorite part is doing the jumps. My teacher says I’m pretty good at them. I like doing footwork. One of my favorites is a waltz jump.”
When asked to demonstrate the waltz jump, Mia jumps up and immediately gets into position. Gliding into the jump, however, proves to be much more difficult in tennis shoes on a tile floor, but her knowledge and attention to detail as she explains the move step-by-step reflects her dedication.
“There’s one called a spiral,” she says when asked what move she’d like to learn next. “I can do it forwards and kind of do it backwards, but I’m not supposed to yet because I’m not at that level.”
And although her dad Jim isn’t out there on the ice, he enjoys cheering his daughter on.
“For me, it’s fun watching her skate because I have no talent skating,” he laughs. “It’s amazing to me that people can stand up on that thin blade.”
While Mia says the Olympics might be fun, for now this nine-year-old is happy just having fun out on the ice.
“I want her to learn life lessons,” Jim says, “learn how to stay with something and know the work and effort that it takes. And I want her to have fun. The biggest thing is for her to know there are things you can do that are hard, but they can be fun too whether it’s skating or whatever she wants to do.”
For more information on lessons at Oilers Ice Center, visit www.oilersicecenter.com or call (918) 252-0011.
Updated 04-04-2008
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