Nov. 12, 2012
Jonathan Toman
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UCCS has 11 Division II sports, along with a variety of other intramural and club sports. But the university also has a champion figure skater.
Agnes Zawadzki, a freshman psychology major, doubles as a figure skating champion. Zawadzki is originally from Chicago, Ill., and has an older brother who is married and has two children, 8 and 2 years old.
Zawadzki came to the community for her skating career, and her brother’s family recently followed, also moving to Colorado Springs.
“The Springs has an amazing training center, and it has recently been named a U.S. Olympic training site,” said Zawadzki in explaining the move.
As far as why she decided to attend UCCS, Zawadzki said, “I chose UCCS because it’s not a long commute from the rink and home and because I wanted to keep a balance between my skating career and school.”
Zawadzki’s success has been a long time in the making, as she has been ice skating since she was 5 years old.
“My mom’s friend took her daughter to group skating classes, and she decided to sign me up. Ever since that day, I fell in love with skating,” she said.
More recently, Zawadzki became the 2010 National Junior Gold Medalist to go along with her silver and bronze World Junior medals.
Further, in 2011, she placed fourth at her senior debut at nationals. In her return in 2012, she improved one spot and took third. In September, she won her first Senior International in Salt Lake City.
Zawadzki also has a study abroad trip planned for this November and left Nov. 6 for her Grand Prix in Moscow.
“This is my busiest month out of the year,” Zawadzki said. “I’m gone for a week, come back for a week, then leave again for my second Grand Prix in Miyagi, Japan.”
Despite the busy travel schedule, Zawadzki does get a break: “Our nationals are in January, so I have a little bit of down time to get prepared for that.”