Aimee Buchanan is in her final stretch of training before reaching her childhood dream.
“When I was four years old and I first started to skate I was like, ‘I want to go to the Olympics!’ My mom’s just like, ‘Ya, okay Aimee,’ like okay sure every little kid’s going to say that,” Buchanan said.
But this little kid grew up and did it. After 20 years on the ice, Buchanan will compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in ice skating.
“How excited are you?” asked NBC 5’s Kristin Dickerson.
“Beyond excited,” Buchanan said with a laugh. “I still can’t quite believe it, but I don’t think I will until I’m actually there.”
She grew up skating in Boston, then moved to Texas to train with ice skating coaches Peter and Darlene Cain, along with their team of elite athletes on the ice.
“So to come and skate with other skaters doing the same things that I’m doing, with like the same goals, I was like, ‘wow, like this is nice,’ like you can work off of each other,” Buchanan said. “Everyone always cheers for each other, if you’re having a bad day everyone tries to—instead of being like, ‘whatever,’—they try to help you back up and push you through the day.”
Even though Aimee grew up skating in the United States, at the Olympics she’ll be skating for Israel. She’ll be representing the country that she’s connected to through faith.
“So my mom’s Jewish, and since she’s 100% Jewish makes me 100% Jewish. And so in order for me to be a citizen, as long as your mother’s Jewish you can have dual citizenship with the US,” Buchanan said.
Buchanan said she’s also embraced becoming a citizen of Texas and our Lone Star way of life.
“Everyone is so nice, so, so nice. Very like laid back,” Buchanan said. “I’m very used to everyone like, ‘we gotta go, go, now, now, now,” very rushed. And now to have everyone kind of go with the flow and be happy about it, I’m like, ‘this is nice, I like these people,’” Buchanan said with a laugh.
Soon she’ll be side-by-side once again with her Olympic teammates as a proud Israeli, an American, and now a Texan.
“I use y’all a little bit,” Buchanan said laughing.
Aimee’s parents are going to Pyeongchang to watch her compete and NBC 5’s Brian Curtis will be there with them to cheer her on.
