"Skating Mom Ruth Eldredge"
6.0 Skate -- Winter 2002

[I] sat down with Ruth Eldredge at "A Skating Tribute" at Madison Square Garden.  Mrs. Eldredge talked about the early days with Todd, as well as his career today.

Q:  What was it like at the beginning?

RE:  Back then, on the Cape, it wasn't skating-intense; it was a recreational thing, more public skating.  Patch and freestyle didn't exist very much.  We actually didn't have a full-size rink.  When Todd started to skate, we just had a studio rink to skate in.  Of course he was five and half, so that was plenty big enough for him.  It wasn't until another year later that the other rink across the street was built, a full-size rink. 

It was really the Boston Skating Club that was more skating-oriented.  That's where we traveled two days a week.  When we weren't there, we'd often travel to Cohasset, which was quite some distance as well.  We didn't skate at home very much, because there wasn't the ice surface, or the availability of patch and freestyle. Boston Skating Club was oriented around that kind of thing.

Q:  How do you know that a 10-year-old is ready to leave home? 

RE:  I think I felt that (he was ready) because he was so motivated -- so driven -- to skate and to succeed.  He just loved skating.  He would come in to me in the morning -- I'm still in bed -- and he'd bring his skates in to me.  And he's five and a half!  Actually, I thought it was just going to kind of die down and he'd get bored, but we did that every day.  We'd skate public sessions every day from ten to twelve and then he'd go to kindergarten.  Change his clothes in the car.  Eat his lunch in the car.  Go to kindergarten in the afternoon.  It wasn't 'I don't want to skate today.  I want to play football with Scott'.  It just never happened. He never wavered from it.  I think because he was so involved at such a young age, it's just something he really, really wanted.

Q:  What is it like having a skater go away at such a young age?

RE:  It was very difficult because we had spent five years so close, from the age of five and a half until ten when he did leave.  It was almost a twenty-four hour a day thing because we traveled so much together, and John and my other son were back home all the time doing their thing.  But Todd was insistent upon wanting to do it because he wanted to go to school on a regular basis.  He was doing that at home, but he was missing two days of school to go to Boston. He had to make up a lot of work, and it got to be kind of a hassle.  

When he went to Philly, they scheduled his school around his skating, so it made it a whole lot easier for him to be sort of more "normal", so to speak. I certainly didn't want him not attending public school.  I felt that was very important, so in order to keep him in that kind of an environment I thought this way he could at least go to school and skate. Actually, we didn't think he'd stay, to be honest.  He wasn't even ten.  We thought he'd be too home sick, which I think he was, but he wasn't going to admit it because he wanted to skate so badly.  We just didn't think it would last, but it did!  It's still going, twenty years later!

Q: What's the best advice another skating parent has ever given you?

RE:  I don't think anybody gave us any advice, actually.  There was no one at home to give us advice.  I think if they had told us how costly it was going to be, and what we were getting into, we might have thought twice about it.  I think a lot of things that happened with Todd and his training and with us -- we just happened to do the right things at the right time.  I don't know why. 

He had a good coach at home and then that coach stopped teaching, and referred us to another coach who taught him for a little while.  The transition (to Richard Callahan) kind of just fell into place.  Todd has never had a whole array of coaches, and I think that's key.  I really do.  I think kids get too many different instructions, and I don't understand how anybody can decide which one of those is correct.  I think if you can find the right coach to begin with and it works out personality-wise, then it will work.  But changing coaches all the time -- I haven't seen good results in that, to be honest. 

Q:  What kind of support can and did you give?

RE:  As far as Todd's concerned, I think the most amount of support for him that we could give is to love him, to care, and to stand back and let him and the coach do their jobs.  I think a parent has to trust that they made the right choice.  Todd always made the choice for a coach, and I never influence that choice.  I told him all along do whatever you want, whatever you feel you are comfortable with -- that's fine with me.  If you want to change and go to somebody else, that's fine. 

You have to give them credit for knowing their sport, for knowing their ability and their choice in coaches, and their ability to work with that coach.  I think because we allowed that to happen and didn't interfere -- maybe wanted to at some point -- but just sat back and let it happened happens, and it worked out.

Q:  When he started competing on a higher level, what's it like to sit in the audience?

RE: Even at the intermediate level, before he got in to novice, it was pretty intense. You knew how much he wanted to skate well, and how disappointed he is or was if he didn't do what he could do, regardless of what it was.  Todd seemed to just grow into everything he did.  From the intermediate to the novice.  He won that title, and then junior and senior.  I guess as skaters get further along, it is more intense because there's more at stake.  The World Championships are at stake, the Olympics, the National titles, all those things.  For us it's more nerve-wracking for us because you're not in control at all.  For him to be happy with his skating is all that we wanted.  When he wasn't, it was tough.

Q:  Do you watch or do you hide in the bathroom?

RE: It was only once I didn't watch, and that was one year when he was injured and spent so much time every day in therapy.  I just couldn't deal with it.  It was like "I can't watch this Nationals" and I didn't.  We went through all of this, he skated great, and I missed it all -- I was out in the parking lot.  I said I'll never do that again, and I didn't.  I never, ever did that again.  I always watched.  I couldn't not watch.  I never understood some of these parents that go, take part in everything, and then don't watch their children skate.  That's the fun part of it, I think, even if it's bad.  You've got to be there for the ups and the downs.  You can't just be there when they are great.

Q:  What goes through your mind on the warm-up?

RE:  If he's having a good warm-up, it's great, but then you think 'the warm-up was great--I just hope he continues'.  If he's having a bad warm-up, I get a little frightened, I guess, and a little nervous about what's going to happen.  We've been there so many times and he'll have a great warm-up and not skate that great, or have a lousy warm-up and skate phenomenal.  So over the years you learn that warm-up really doesn't mean much.  It's kind of like practices.  Practices so often go terrific and then the performance may not be great.  Practices could go awful for a week, and then he skates great.  I can't say that's we've experienced many poor practices before competitions, only when he was injured.  That was tough.  At (the 1992) Olympics, when he had the back injury, that was hard because when you know they're injured and they can't perform to their ability.

Q:  Do you ever have input on costumes or music?

RE:  Actually, half the time we don't know what he's going to skate to!  I will call him or he'll call me and I'll say 'how are your programs going'.  We don't talk a lot about skating, only because I don't want him to think that I'm grilling him all the time.  Is he skating well?  Is he doing this jump or that jump?  I don't think he wants to hear that from me.  

Sometimes I'll say kiddingly 'have you got your long or your short music?'  Sometimes he'll tell me, and other times he'll say 'you'll see!'  When we go to a competition, we have no idea what he's wearing.  We have no idea what he's skating to.  It's kind of fun actually, because it's the first time you see it. 

Q:  What advice would you give to the parent of someone coming up in the sport?

RE:  It depends on the child.  If the child is intelligent enough to be able to select the right coach-- I mean some kids can't, they are too young.  It just worked out for us.  I didn't know anybody or anything about skating.  I just happened to pick someone I thought was good.  And that went to somebody else who's better and then someone else who was better than that.  I left a lot of that up to Todd, too.  Probably because he was the skater and the caliber that he was and had the attention span that he did, he could figure out for himself if this was working for him.  Maybe some kids at an earlier age aren't able to figure that out.  Maybe you have to do that for them.  I didn't have to do that.  He pretty much knew what he wanted to work from at a very early age.  It was really very interesting. 

Todd's been with Richard now for twenty years.  They've had their ups and their downs. It's like a marriage.  They can't always agree on everything.  Todd had the choice to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.  He knew we supported that decision.  I think that's key, actually, to support their decision, as long as you see things are going correctly.  If they are going in the wrong direction, I think you have to step in.  They really didn't.  We're just lucky.

Q: What was your best moment?

RE:  '96 Worlds.  If they hadn't changed the Olympic schedule, that would have been Olympics, and as far as we're concerned, he's an Olympic champion. 

What I appreciate most is the fact that Todd can use his skating to produce so much money for benefits.  It's just so incredible.  It's really phenomenal what skaters can raise by doing something they love.  That's what I love about it.

Contact me at Toeloopy Web@aol.com.

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