Skater Stories: Ashley Cain
Most figure skating fans know her as a two-time U.S. national champion in pairs, but to me she'll always be Elsa.
Ashley Cain won U.S. national championships with pairs partner Timothy LeDuc in 2019 and 2022. They took bronze in 2017 and 2021. They won silver at the 2018 Four Continents Championship, and were part of the United States’ gold medal winning team at World Team Trophy in 2019.
Even before her successful pairs career, Ashley racked up medals in singles, taking silver at the junior level at nationals in 2012, and winning bronze at the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy and the 2014 Nepela Memorial.
Ashley has a case full of medals (actually, I don’t know if she literally does, but she’s won a lot is the point), and yet the first thing I will think of when anyone brings her up is Elsa. Back when I first started sharing Disney on Ice videos regularly on Instagram, Ashley was one of the first skaters in the cast to follow me. She was touring with “Disney On Ice: 100 Years of Emotion,” taking on the principal role of the Queen of Arendelle.
After years of chatting with her online, we finally got to meet in person at the Cranberry Cup, and she took some time before last week’s Summer Sizzler to talk with me about her skating journey, her time with Disney On Ice, and what it meant to bring Elsa to life.
Q: Normally I start these by asking what made you want to get started in skating, but you come from a skating family. So I'll tweak it a little bit. At what age did you know that you wanted to follow in your parents' footsteps?
A: I guess starting at two. I was quite young to even make the decision, but I remember getting on the ice the first time. I was around four when I started competing, and that's when I think I really knew that I wanted to skate. I wanted to be like the older girls on the rink and skate around the ice and wear the pretty costumes. But it really wasn't until I was on Team USA, which was like around when I was like 12, 13. And that's when I realized I could actually make this a career. It could become a bigger part of my life. And that's exactly what I wanted it to be. And my parents had a lot of experience in this sport and got to have a lot of huge achievements, and I wanted to see how far I could go. And that's when it really started was like dipping my toe into the development teams and then eventually getting on TDA.
Q: Obviously, two years old, that's really young, so you probably don't have too many memories of that, but what do you remember just about the feeling of being on the ice at that young of an age?
A: I was a kid that liked to eat the snow. So I do remember eating the snow, but I think also the community. I loved being out there and hanging out with my friends and learning new things, especially. I had a lot of energy as a kid. I still do, but attention wise, I was kind of all over the place and it was a place that I could really focus in and use up a lot of my energy and to try and learn new things.
Q: And how much did your dedication to the sport change when you realized you could make a career of it?
A: I became more focused and more structured. I think that was the big thing. I realized it wasn't just an after school thing that I wanted to do. It was something that I wanted to make a whole career out of, but I wanted to become a full athlete as well. And it came down to time management and scheduling and making sure I was treating my body right on ice and off ice, eating well, all of those things that really make you complete as an athlete.
When I was going into high school, I had to start doing online school because there wasn't really time that I could go to regular school and then do the hours that I needed for skating. So I feel like when I started doing online school, that was when it really became a huge focus in my life, and this was something that I could try and go far in.
Q: You competed in pairs early on, then you were in singles for quite some time. Then in 2016, you went back to pairs. What made you make that decision?
A: TIM [LeDuc], honestly. In 2012, my partner and I split and I did singles for about four and a half years, and Tim had actually gone off to do cruise ship shows. And so I got a call from Mitch Moyer, the High-Performance director at the time, and he said, 'Timothy would like to come back to competitive skating. Would you be willing to have a tryout with them?' And I was a little hesitant at first because I hadn't done pairs in so long. It had progressed so much, and I didn't even know my body could do it anymore. And I just sat for like a couple hours with myself and was like, 'If you never try, you'll never know.' And so I called up Timothy, and then they were there. We had a tryout for like a day and a half. And then by the next week, Tim had moved there and we started our career together.
I think the first time that we did lifts together was when we realized it was something that could work out really well. It just felt right. We talked a lot about the synergy that we had at the beginning of our partnership, which allowed us to progress really fast.
Q: Obviously you found Timothy right away when you switched back to pairs, but as a taller skater, how difficult was it to find a partner throughout your career and do some of the stuff that some of the smaller pairs skaters were doing?
A: SINCE I had last done pairs, I grew. And I was already a taller pairs skater in novice and juniors, so being tall wasn't really new in pairs for me, but I had grown by the time I skated with Timothy. I actually didn't really have it in my head that the height would hold us back at all. And I think that's because Tim had such confidence in us as a team and never questioned my height or my body, and neither did the team around us. Our coaches never made us feel like something was impossible because of her height. And I think that's what really helps. Obviously, the criticism came from outwards, outside of our team, and so that's what sometimes caused the insecurities for us, but what we really tried to do was change those insecurities into strengths, and focus on our minds and what could make us unique and really set us apart because of our body bodies kind of matching a little bit more than maybe other pair teams.
Q: What did it mean to skate with Tim, who was not only an amazing skater, but also a pioneer and a real inspiration to the LGBTQ+ community.
A: IT was amazing. We both just supported each other throughout our career so much. It's kind of wild that I think that around 18, I was thinking about stepping away from this sport and the fact that I got to go on about almost like six more years of competing and accomplished a lot was really amazing. And the fact that I still get to skate, I think as a testament to how those years of my career went and the joy that I still have for the sport. But I'm really proud of Timothy for always staying true to themselves. And I think that that's what made our partnership so special was we were always who we were going to be. And when we stepped onto the ice, we really tried to own that and skate with that, and that really carried us through our partnership.
Q: This is a really broad question, but what did it mean to you to represent your country at the Olympics?
A: OH, it's everything. I think about that often, even when I'm hearing the national anthem as well. When you get to hear it standing on a podium, it’s a huge honor. But to also go out and march in the Opening Ceremonies when they announce the United States of America and you're marching alongside so many other athletes that have gone through the same things to be doing that, is really incredible. I live with a lot of honor and it's something that just getting to wear like the red, white and blue, and the USA across your back is like, from that first day that you get your jacket in the mail and are at a team camp. Like, it's a huge moment for so many athletes.
Q: Unfortunately, you went from the high of the Olympics to the low of the injury at Worlds. And I've noticed in going back, you posted a really emotional video shortly after Worlds. What was going through your mind at that moment, not just in the moment of posting the video, but the aftermath of having to leave the ice like that.
A: IT was really scary. I think just so much was unknown, and I was in a foreign country and all of that, but the doctors took such good care of me. My family took good care of me, so I was in really great hands, but as an athlete to have had something within your grasp and then it was gone was really hard to go through for both of us.
The first thing that needed to happen was for me to get better. And that took a long time. It was actually the longest injury I needed to recover from. It was about two months long, two months before I even stepped on the ice, which was like the longest amount of time I'd never taken off. It was weird. And I just didn't really know what to do with myself, but it was a really bad concussion, and I needed to find a way that I could step back into the ice.
It took a while to step back into the ice and not feel the trauma of the events that unfolded, but day by day, session by session, I was able to build that back up. And then when I got the call from Disney On Ice about joining the tour, that gave me something to work towards. And so I think that that is what really got me skating and moving again was having a goal to work towards again and kind of going back up too.
Q: What led to the decision to join Disney On Ice?
A: MY parents toured for about 10 years, and I knew I always wanted to do it. It was just kind of about when, time-wise, right? And after Worlds, I wasn't doing anything, and I didn't know if I wanted to still compete. Timothy had retired, and so we obviously weren't going to skate anymore together, but I didn't know if maybe I wanted to try competing again, or if I wanted to just coach or if I wanted to do something completely different, I wasn't quite sure.
Then I knew once I got back on the ice and I had so much joy for skating and so much passion still there. That wasn't gone. I knew I wanted to perform. That's when I received a call from Judy Thomas and she approached me about this tour that was going to be happening, and it sounded amazing, and I was like, 'I think it's exactly what I need to do. I need to go, and I need to perform, and I need to travel the world, and I need to maybe experience something new for a little bit.'
Q: What was the biggest adjustment going from competing to show skating?
A: NOT putting so much pressure on myself, I think. I came, obviously, from such a structured world that got me so far, which is amazing. And it's exactly what I needed to do. And the last two years of competing, I didn't get to be in front of a crowd [due to COVID restrictions]. So when I had stepped into being with Disney, for the first time again, I was in front of a crowd, and I was like, 'oh, wow, this is what this feels like.' It was almost like you forgot after two years. And then you hear people screaming, and you hear people clapping and just enjoying the sport for what it was. It gave me this whole new perspective on it that you could really just not have to be so hard on yourself and not have so much pressure on yourself all the time, but to just be very present and enjoy the moment and enjoy exactly why you started in the sport, which is just the love for it.
Q: What did it mean to you to bring the character of Elsa to life for the audience?
A: IT was amazing. Honestly, it was, like, two of the best years in my life, and the amount that I learned on tour is really incredible. And stepping out there and hearing, like, especially when we were in Brazil, was what I remember the most, when we were in Brazil and "Let It Go," I had to do it in Portuguese. And there was just like thousands of people, like, screaming at the top of their lungs, "Let It Go" in Portuguese. It was just like the most incredible feeling ever. And I started to cry and I was like, 'wow, this is you're having such an impact.' What our performance director always told us was, 'this is people's escape for two hours of the day. So give it your all and really perform your hearts out because you're giving somebody something, right?' You're this character and you are their escape from reality for maybe two hours. And so we always skated with that in mind. And I think that that's what always led us to be out there and be fully present and enjoying a little bit.
Q: I've been to enough Disney On Ice shows to know that the iconic moment is when Elsa takes the ice for the first time for her "Let It Go" solo. How would you compare the crowd noise for that to the crowd noise when winning a U.S. Championship?
A: OH, wow. Both are, like, just so incredible in their own ways. Fully. Obviously for winning a national title, you have that relief of like, 'oh my God, I did it. Like my dream is fully coming true,' but you also think about all of the people that have gotten you there and that have helped you along the way and that have really guided you and given you strength, when maybe you didn't have it. It's really an amazing feeling to just be so unbelievably proud of yourself when you do something like that.
And being on tour, you have so many, so many shows, right? You've got so many shows day in and day out, that you've kind of get that like... I don't know if it's like instant gratification, but you get that feeling kind of constant [feedback]. Whereas I would say with competing, you get it a little bit less because there's less competitions, compared to shows. So when I was on tour, it was really amazing to be like, 'oh, I am this for this person. I am this character, for this person, and I am going to bring it to life for them. And whatever this character means to them, then I want to be that for them.'
Q: You were known for portraying Elsa, but did you get an opportunity to play other roles?
A: WHEN you're on tour, you are part of the ensemble cast as well. So as well my track of Elsa, I was also in a lot of group numbers, which was also very new for me as well. Coming from the competitive background, obviously, you have your programs and that's what you're set for the whole season. But in the show, you're gonna have to learn all of the numbers so that you can be thrown into anything at any time. And I think that that makes you a really well-rounded skater. But also at the same time, you get to be understudies. So you get to learn so much character work, but you also get to learn how to perform to different characters. So, like I said, it makes you more of a well-rounded skater, but also a performer because you're constantly having to change from one to the next, how you can portray that character to the audience.
Q: Unlike a lot of the other princesses, Elsa is mostly a solo role in the show. What was it like to go back to that after having been in pairs for the previous six years?
A: IT’S interesting you say that, because I almost felt so strange at first doing it. But then people were reminding me that I had been a singles skater for so long and I had a really successful singles career.
It almost felt a little bit like imposter syndrome at the beginning. I had to work my way back. But then once I settled into it, then I was very comfortable. And I loved being able to, when I was out there, like just fully embody the character and take what was like fully internal in being and put right that out to the audience. And I think that that was something that really came back to me.
Because in pairs, which, I love this about pairs so much, you're working off each other's energy and you're telling a story together. Singles skating is a lot of bringing what's within you out to the audience. And so I think I was relearning that as well.
Q: You're coaching now, you're working with U.S Figure Skating, you're clearly keeping very busy. We saw all the skating videos over the summer, but do you ever get that urge to put on that "Let It Go" dress again and go out there one more time?
A: OH, my God, yes! I cried when I went to Disney on Ice the last time. Getting to watch, when you know what goes into the show, you know what the cast is doing behind the scenes, when you know all of that, it just makes it that much more special. And so when you're sitting there and you know they're doing that five-minute call or they're doing what's going on back there? It's really cool to know that perspective.
This last time that I went to the show, I was sobbing during the Elsa part. I was full on sobbing. It was something that I didn't know what happened to me, but I think because it was such an impactful time in my life where so much was uncertain for me. So much was new to me. Tour really gave me a family and a home. They held me so tight and kind of like built me back up those two years. I'm so grateful for the cast and I was on and the performance director that I got to learn from because they really did so much for me and I think that that's what I remember the most when I'm watching Disney on Ice now is just that family that you've built.
Q: You skated for Disney on Ice for two years. Your parents skated for Disney on Ice for a decade, but you somehow didn't make it to Disney World until very recently. So what was it like to go there for the first time, having been Elsa?
A: IT was cool. Actually, when we first walked into the park and we went up to the castle, the show started, and Elsa was like, the first one to run out. And I was like, 'oh my God, that's crazy.' And then my whole thing throughout the whole day was like finding Elsa all over the parks. Like the statues and the art things. But then I got to the [Norway Pavilion in Epcot] and Elsa had just closed, so I didn't get to meet her. So I hope to go back one day and meet Elsa from the park and have that moment, because I know it's really cool for a lot of Disney on Ice cast members to go to Disney World and then meet the characters.
Q: Now, if you're up for it, want to do a quick little lightning round here. Favorite move to perform on the ice.
A: Ooh, a spiral.
Q: Love that. Especially the Elsa spiral in "Let It Go."
A: That's my favorite!
Q: Favorite Disney song.
A: "Let It Go," of course.
Q: Favorite Disney movie.
A: Frozen.
Q: Favorite figure skating movie.
A: Ice Princess.
Q: There are six types of jumps in figure skating: loop, toe loop, flip, salchow, lutz and axel. Which one is your most hated?
A: Oh, most hated?! Oh my God! Okay, I don't have one that I hate now. I have one I used to hate. Like, actually hated it and would, like, shake going into it at one point. For some reason, I don't know why. But triple toe, I used to hate. And now I don't mind it. I think because on tour, a toe is really easy to do on the small ice. I got used to doing it on tour and I think that that kind of broke the scaredness.
Q: And last but not least, one piece of advice you would give to anyone starting out in skating.
A: Oh, my gosh. Uh, two. Focus on your own progress, not comparing it to anybody else's. Everybody is so unique in this sport, and you can get out of it as much as you want to. There's so many different avenues within the sport and to explore that. There's not just one track of success or what you think you're successful. There's so many different ways to get to that.
And also, I think if you can, watch skating more. Go to so many more things, watch it on TV and come to shows, go to Disney On Ice, go to local competitions and just support the sport. And even understand it more, because I think that that's just going to help your journey so much more to fully understand the sport and have an appreciation for it.
Ashley will be skating again in this year’s Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer event on Dec. 20 in Dallas alongside fellow former Olympians Mariah Bell and Polina Edmunds. You can follow her on Instagram at @icegirlash.
Love this thank you