by Jacquelyn Thayer
Gretchen Donlan and Nate Bartholomay, matched in July, kicked off their competitive career together under less than auspicious circumstances.
After an initial assignment to November’s Ice Challenge, the team had to decline in favor of ankle surgery for Bartholomay in late October to repair a disc and remove bone spurs, forced by a degree of swelling Donlan likened to a “grapefruit.”
“I was trying to wait until after the season, but it got so swollen that I couldn’t fit into my skates,” he said. “So I had to make a decision to do it earlier.”
Injury delay meant the team would make their major debut at January’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships — an intense proving ground given the greater shared experience of most in the field, even for a former national silver medalist and pewter medalist. The outcome was a seventh-place overall finish — Marissa Castelli & Mervin Tran the only other new team to rank ahead — including a good fifth in the short program with a clean skate.
“We thought it went really well,” said Bartholomay. “Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of time to fully train, and there were a lot of different things that we had to change because I had just had ankle surgery and couldn’t do many jumps or skate very much. Gretchen did a great job pushing through everything that she had to work on. Overall, we think that our Nationals was a good experience and good exposure, and we look forward to really pushing it next season and really showing off more of our strengths.”
The pair received further reinforcement with an assignment soon after for Challenge Cup in The Netherlands in mid-February, an event for which the goals were simple: establish the technical minimum scores necessary for eligibility for next season’s major international events and gain some exposure before an international panel. The outcome: gold in a field of six and respectable debut marks, including a TES of 27.86 in the short and 50.62 in the free, both easily clearing this season’s minimums.
And in certain respects, that missed time in the fall played its role in the team’s more recent achievement. While awaiting her partner’s return, Donlan focused her energies on conquering one solo hurdle.
“Jumps, jumps, jumps, jumps,” she said. “Those were definitely the weakest element in my repertoire, so it was kind of good timing, I guess. It really feels like I worked and improved a lot on my consistency and technique, so that when Nate could get back on the ice, I felt like I was a little step ahead of where we were before the surgery.”
Still, that limited training time was a complication compounded by the newness of the pairing. The team had only three months together prior to Bartholomay’s surgery, teaming up after former partners Andrew Speroff and Felicia Zhang left the competitive ranks.
“It’s always pretty difficult to learn someone new and to figure out your own timing — there’s not a specific timing involved, you just have to get on the same page with each other,” said Bartholomay. “But Gretchen and I really have been working hard to adapt. I was with Felicia for three years and she was with Andrew for five, and we really kind of just split the difference with a lot of our timings, and I think it’s made it a lot easier.”
“Mr. Peterson and all of our coaches, they really meshed our training together,” added Donlan. “I didn’t feel like ‘I have to learn to be Felicia’ or vice versa. Every element is a combination of both of us — I think it’s why we were able to get these elements as quickly as we have.”
Packaging was a key component of that integration process. With Donlan known for her balletic style and Bartholomay a more athletic power, finding music and choreography that most effectively highlighted the duo as a team was a central goal for coach Jim Peterson. The answer came in a set of a programs particularly removed from Bartholomay’s previous comfort zone: a short to Neil Diamond’s “Dear Father” and classical free to Debussy.
“We’re skating our long to Clair de Lune, and I’ve never really done a program that’s paced that way,” said Bartholomay. “I’ve always started slow and built towards the end, and this song is very slow, very calming and it’s more of a performance feel.”
It’s an experiment they feel has been successful.
“One of the best parts that we feel we found in each other is that in the past, I’ve been not very graceful, and I think Gretchen really pulled that out of me in both of our programs,” said Bartholomay. “And vice versa — I think the strength that I have and the power in my skating has really drawn that part out of Gretchen a little bit as well.”
“I think that Mr. Peterson and all of our coaches did a great job with meshing both our strengths and having us have our own look,” said Donlan.
And beyond the programs and the technical grind, the pair’s attention to partnership has come down to simple compatibility.
“Andrew and I had such a great relationship,” said Donlan, “and whatever partner I was going to hopefully train with next, I was hoping I would have that same bond and mutual respect and have fun training with them just as much as Andrew. And I just feel so lucky that I really feel like Nate and I do connect in that way, and no matter if it’s a hard training day or easy, things go well, things go not so well, we always end with a smile because we know we’re both putting in 110 percent no matter what.”
“It’s still developing, obviously — we’ve known each other for a long time, since we started in pairs, but being a partnership on the ice is a lot different,” added Bartholomay. “We’re always on the same page and we always push each other, and I think that’s what’s going to make us have a successful career together, and a long one.”
For Donlan, the new pairing has meant more than a change of partners, with the Boston native pulling up stakes to settle in the sunnier Ellenton, Fla., where coaches Peterson, Lyndon Johnston and Amanda Evora guide teams including 2015 U.S. bronze medalists Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea. The radical shift is one Donlan considers “awesome.”
“I feel so lucky and fortunate to have now trained at two places where I really love the people and really love training every day with a great partner,” she said. “Of course, it was hard leaving everyone that I knew and loved, all my family up in Boston, but everyone at Ellenton is so welcoming and very sweet. I felt like I joined a family when I came to Florida, so it was a much easier transition than I ever had hoped for. And I’m not missing that snow in Boston,” she added with a laugh.
Though the former Boston University student does, she’ll note, miss the collegiate schedule, one element of the Florida move still pending. “I am going crazy without school,” she said with a laugh.
Both partners work in their available hours — Bartholomay as an on-ice instructor and skate technician, Donlan at a restaurant and, in her “favorite job of all,” as an academic tutor to some of the younger skaters at the rink.
“All the girls are so awesome to just watch grow up and if I can help them with their schoolwork, then that’s great,” she said.
That positive attitude and outlook in a larger sense is one both partners are carrying through their everyday efforts, maintaining their expectations with an eye towards the future.
“It’s still pretty new, we’re trying to just figure it out as we go, pretty much day by day in terms of just taking one thing at a time,” said Bartholomay. “It’s been working out so well so far.”