By Tristan Brown-DeVirgilio
Campus News
Editor’s Note: The subjects in this article are siblings of the author.
Oona Brown, 18, and Gage Brown, 20, are a USA ice dance team. With over 18,000 followers on their team Instagram account, millions of views on a YouTube video of them skating in Bryant Park, and competition experience in countless countries and U.S. states, Oona and Gage are a picture of success. They have taken a unique path to get where they are, at least academically. Perhaps we can learn something from the duo and their journey.
Since they began, Oona and Gage have been skating now, continuously, for about 14 years. They began skating at ages 4 and 6, respectively. They started skating individually before becoming a team.
Oona and Gage come from a large family; they are from a family of seven children, and are fourth and fifth in the lineup. All the children in the family have skated.
Also, they are or were home schooled, their mother being their teacher. Neither of them yet attend school in a classroom setting. Oona currently still studies, during her time at the ice rink each week.
Over the years, the duo has trained countless hours and have taken many tests and participated in countless competitions around the world. They started practicing first as a pairs team in 2015, when they were around 11 and 13 years old, respectively. They switched to being an ice dance team the following year, in 2016.
Oona and Gage represented Team USA for the first time in 2018, at the Bavarian Open in Oberstdorf, Germany. Since then, they competed in many different countries, including Armenia, England, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Russia, Lithuania, Finland, and Hungary. In addition, they have competed in various states in the U.S., including Texas, California, Maryland, Utah, Missouri, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Michigan. As well as competing, Oona and Gage also perform at non-competitive shows within the U.S., and in NYC and Upstate New York.
Some of Oona and Gage’s biggest accomplishments include winning first at their first Junior Grand Prix event of the 2021-22 season, in Courchevel, France; winning gold at the 2022 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia; and moving up to the Senior level of ice dance, in May of 2022.
Three of the team’s biggest goals right now are to place (first, second, or third) at a U.S. Figure Skating Championship; compete at a World Figure Skating Championship at the Senior level; and to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Currently, Oona and Gage train five days a week in Dix Hills, New York, in addition to two days per week of physical fitness training.
Most recently, the duo came back from the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championship in San Jose, California, in late January of this year.
As mentioned above, Oona and Gage were or are home schooled. Gage has concluded his schoolwork; he does not have assigned class material. Gage eventually hopes to earn his high school equivalency diploma, and perhaps also an associates’ degree, or higher. However, he does not feel ready for college just yet. He says, “…I don’t feel like I’m [intellectually] there.” In preparation for achieving his academic goals, Gage envisions studying at home, potentially taking online classes, “to get [him] up to standard.”
Oona currently still studies. She does much of her schoolwork, assigned by her teacher, her mother, while she is at the ice rink. She is mostly self-taught. Of her work she does about “half at skating, half at home.”
Oona is also of age to attend college. But, similar to Gage, she does not feel as if she is ready to for the responsibilities of a student. She’s not unhappy to be continuing her skating career and saving any college for a later date. She is happy to gain “more experience” from skating before doing so.
It is widely believed that travelling is the best way to learn. And for good reason. When one travels, they are often confronted with many challenges: different cultures, new languages, unfamiliar food, different social rules, unknown infrastructure, not to mention the forethought that goes into planning and preparing for a trip.
Oona and Gage have no shortage of experience travelling. Indeed, they have traveled more than most people their age, having visited many countries in Europe as well as several states in the U.S. Much of this travelling they do alone, sometimes accompanied by a coach.
Of travelling, Oona says, “It’s easy; we’re used to it.” They have enough experience, and have made enough mistakes, that travelling is now more enjoyable to them than stressful or uncomfortable. “It’s fun.”
Besides travelling, Oona and Gage have learned many practical skills throughout and as a consequence of their skating career. A small list can be summarized as follows:
- Financial responsibility: budgeting for trips (lodging, food, transportation, leisure), and accounting for yearly expenditures and income
- General coordination and planning: managing and updating their website, social media; booking and scheduling trips, including accommodations
- Communication skills: public speaking through interviews, interacting (virtually and otherwise) with supporters, including fans and donors; writing newsletters and updates
- Coping with stress and pressure: namely, through competing and performing
- Ritual and discipline: consistent training and exercise, conscious diets, good sleep, and largely self-motivated education
Oona and Gage have not followed a traditional educational path. Nor have they followed an orthodox or easy path in their sports career. Yet they have attained a certain and admirable level of success, and they continue to progress.
Arguably, the duo has gotten an education from their sport, outside of bookwork, and perhaps an education with more applicability to their lives.
What’s a lesson? Perhaps one does not need to follow an orthodox or entirely socially accepted path – the traditional academic path, for example – to make something of his or herself. In this sense, perhaps Oona and Gage are an example to follow.
Where can people learn more about Gage ad Oona? Their team Instagram account is @thebrownsofficial_. Their website is www.oonabrownandgagebrown.com.
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