"A Grateful Heart Is A Magnet For Miracles" And Emily Chan (OLY) Is Grateful!
I sat down with Emily Chan after she and partner Spencer Howe competed at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games in pairs figure skating.
My question was simple. What goes through your mind when you take the ice?
"When I'm standing on the ice, I think about opening my heart and really expressing my gratitude for being there and for the audience. And just everything that we've been through." - Emily Chan
Gratitude, at the highest level of competition, is a performance strategy. When Chan steps onto the ice thinking about the audience and everything she and Howe have overcome to get there, she's shifting where her attention lands. Injuries, interrupted seasons, months of training apart. All of it becomes the reason she's present rather than a the weight she's carrying.
"Everything that we've been through" isn't a small phrase either. Howe underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder, delaying the start of one season. Then Chan faced a severe concussion of her own in the pre-Olympic season.
She carried a mantra through the ups and downs.
"A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles."
Having now interviewed the mindset of 25% of the 2026 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team, this focus on gratitude echoed by Chan is a repetitive theme. The athletes who make it through the hardest seasons, whether it be surgeries, setbacks, or years where nothing goes according to plan, tend to be the ones who genuinely love what they do. Yes, the process.
Chan could have focused on technical cues, breathing patterns, or a specific jump combination when she took the ice. Instead, she brought love and gratitude for a moment she’s dreamed of for decades.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich, and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Emily Chan is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!