HomeFeaturesFeatures › Q & A with Olympic Ice Skaters, Maia and Alex Shibutani - Page 3


Clip from their YouTube channel, The Shib Sibs.

AFM: If you had to pick a different sport or other occupation, what would you choose?

Maia: I think that it is hard to say at this point, since we have been in this sport for so long, but I just know that, for me, I am very grateful that figure skating combines so many different aspects. It is both extremely athletic and technically challenging while also having more of an artistic and creative side. So, going back to when I was four, it’s difficult to say if there was another sport that I would have chosen instead, but I do know that thanks to figure skating we both have an interest in storytelling.

AFM: How do you guys like to unwind after a competition?

Alex: *Laughing* We definitely go home, sorry bad joke. *Laughing* We try to have to have a nice meal together, which is one of the nice benefits of having family on this tour. We catch up with our parents, obviously. At the Olympics, we didn’t see them as much as normal, because in the athlete's village you are very separate from family and friends, but it is definitely nice to catch up after a competition when you have been focused so long on preparation and obviously the stressful environment that competing produces. But, yeah, we really enjoy competing, so there’s not like a huge unwind that needs to happen after every competition.

Maia: Yeah because competing is really what all the work is for. So generally, we just enjoy the opportunity to travel the world and perform for audiences all over.

Alex: And not that we need a vacation, but we don’t get any. So it’s not an ordeal that needs to be recovered from at all. It is just genuinely an awesome experience.

AFM: What are some of your hobbies away from the ice?

Maia: Alex is a huge sports fan. Social media is a big part of our experience as athletes, but also just as people.

Alex: It has been great to be able to meet people from all over the world through our experiences in this sports and we have fans all over the world that really support us so social media is a really good way to keep them updated with what we are doing. We are traveling a lot. I think we have been in a different city every day for the past two months. So, that has been exciting. I am into photography. We have our YouTube channel, so we try to stay active on that. We do have a lot of interests. Skating, like Maia mentioned earlier, combines a lot of different components that we are interested in, so when we are not skating, it’s not like we have nothing to do.

The Stars on Ice tour is coming to the Valley this Friday, May 11. To see Alex and Maia and the rest of the amazing artists do their thing, click here