Greencastle, Ind. - Taking early inspiration from her father, Dr. Bridget Gourley, a dedicated and long time staff member at DePauw, has found her love of ice skating as a way to push herself, connect with others, and find new confidence. For Gourley, skating was easy with her dad having experience as a hockey player and figure skater himself, but she quickly found her own passion for it.

"Our next door neighbors used to make an ice rink in their backyard. So right after the first snow, my dad took me out skating, and I loved it. My parents bought me skates. I liked it, I was out there all day." Gourley said.

Even though Gourley started skating at a young age, she wasn't immediately thrust into a competitive space. As a high schooler she had some lessons, but didn't end up competing until later when she was an adult. But once she started skating more often, she fought through a series of tests to achieve a high accomplishment for herself.

"I've done my most competing interestingly as an adult, and after I got tenure at DePauw, U.S. Figure Skating has a series test structure, and I took all of the ice dance tests to earn the test structure U.S. Figure Skating gold medal in ice dance." Gourley said.

While Gourley skates in more than just dance categories, she enjoyed the dance format most as it played well into her skillset, but it also offered unique experiences when interacting with other skaters.

"My skill level is most accomplished in dance, which I really enjoy, and it's also very social, because I can go to any rink in the country, and if somebody else knows the 'Argentine Tango', we should presumably be able to skate together." Gourley said.

Gourley saw her reinvigorated enthusiasm for skating as a balance and positive outlet as she was teaching, but she's also found connections she'll never forget with people through a shared love for the sport.

"I feel like I have some lifelong friends from skating, and I have friends all around the country, both people that I have competed with/against." Gourley said.

Gourley also finds support and encouragement from those friends. The ability to tell her friends accomplishments she makes in the sport that would go over the heads of non-skaters is something she attributes as a strength of sport communities.

"Find a community that you're doing it with. Like for me, I don't have anyone else in Greencastle that skates or that I go to the rink with, but I know when I get there, I have my community, and I'm excited to see them. All of us have many communities. Those of us who are athletes have our community of our sport." Gourley said.

Gourley remarked that the difficulties of skating along her process to achieve her goal of obtaining gold gave her some frustration, but that she didn't want to leave anything on the table.

"It's like anything. They're gonna be days where you're having a great time, right? And then there are days that are frustrating. You're trying to learn some new aspect of it, and it's not going well." Gourley said, "But if I had given up, then, you know, I would have given up on my dream only because there was this one really hard thing. And so what I told myself is, after you pass, if you don't want to do it anymore, that's fine… I guess it's instead of just walking away in frustration at that moment, because you'll regret it later, right?" Gourley said.

Along the way practicing became an essential aspect for Gourley to perfect, as there is nowhere to hide on the ice. All the attention is set on the performer, but practice then becomes a reminder of confidence in herself to rely on her own skill.

"I'm talking myself through if I need this to be just like practice, because I tend to get performance nerves. You know, that is the one thing about skating, either like, if you're doing the freestyle, you're the only one out there. All eyes are on you, and you know that." Gourley said, "I have to command the entire space, or my partner and I, have to command the entire space, but all eyes are on us, so I have to just tell myself, 'Just like you did it in practice. You know, you can do this.'For me, I have to try to tune out some of that and just find myself within myself."

In order to achieve that reassurance, Gourley is very specific with training and runs through her practices as if they were her performance. Down to the last detail.

"When I practice, I can't say, oh, I'm just going to do this small chunk, and then I'm going to do this small chunk. There has to be a lot of practice where I've done it from start to finish. Literally, I'm going to stand at the boards, pretend my name was announced, and skate to my starting position. Take my starting pose. Do the whole thing. Take my ending pose." Gourley said.

This confidence to be on the ice and handle the pressure to perform began to have other benefits for Gourley as she continued to teach, or in other high pressure aspects of her life.

"Over time, I noticed it coming into my classroom. In my teaching, I used to get a lot of anxiety about having to be in front of the class, or, as I've taken on different roles on the campus, having to stand up and speak in front of all of my colleagues at a meeting, or speak in front of the board of trustees or something like that," Gourley said, "... having done it in skating, gave me a place to sort of tenant be tentative and learn to do it."

Overall, Gourley views her experience as an ice skater as a journey that has benefitted her physically and helped her gain confidence in her ability to perform under pressure. 

"I think that is so true of sport generally, and why I think it's so valuable," Gourley said,"... for all individuals, but particularly women, because they're often told to be in the background, to have that moment, to gain confidence in who they are, both to be able to perform when they need to perform, but also to understand there is no single performance that defines us as an individual and defines our worth as an individual."