It’s time for Rocky to go back to his nest; Montclair State has a new campus celebrity.
After she spun into the final pose of her free skate, Olga Mikutina knelt down, letting out a small laugh as she dug her hands into the ice. A sense of pride, yet disbelief, overtook her face. She was at the Olympics. She nailed her routine. She did it.
As Mikutina skated off the ice, she turned to the camera with one simple message.
“Thank you all so much,” she said as she blew kisses to the viewers. “Thank you for all your support.” She put her hand on the golden cross necklace dangling around her neck and skated towards the boards.
Elena Romanova, her coach of 10 years, danced and clapped by the kiss and cry, itching to celebrate with her student. Mikutina thinks of her like a grandmother. She embraced Romanova with open arms, sighing in relief.
“These performances were [some] of the best in my entire career,” Mikutina said. “It was also special because I felt so many emotions, which I didn’t feel at any other competition, not even at the first Olympics.”
Sitting with her coaches in the kiss and cry, she hugged tightly a plush monkey gifted to her by her physiologist. Marta the Monkey kept Mikutina company during her two-week stay in the Olympic village, thought by her physiologist to bring her luck.
Her hard work paid off. Mikutina recorded a season-best score of 185.59 points, with season-high scores in both of her programs.
She said in an interview after the games, “I felt very supported, very welcomed. And that gave me extra power, energy, and also, of course, a little excitement.”
Now, back on campus, Mikutina’s presence lights up any room she is in. From taking pictures at the IT Desk where she works, to a “Welcome Home” party at the campus rink, she has had the chance to soak it all in.
“People here on campus, they treat me [extraordinarily],” she said with a smile. “They give me a feeling like I’m a celebrity. Some of them recognize me and want to take pictures.”
Her Instagram has grown over 3,000 followers since the start of the Olympics. Even after all of the recognition from her classmates and the support from social media, Mikutina stays humble.
“I was glad to see that people now can be part of my journey.”
Mikutina had an abundance of support with her in Milan. Kids from her skating club in Austria cheered loudly from the stands with posters, and classmates from Montclair State flooded her DMs with congratulations. But one supporter stood out among the rest.
“My biggest support is my mom,” Mikutina said. “She’s always by my side, and she helped me in this competition to relax and stay grounded.”
The Olympics give athletes the chance to meet their fellow elites from all over the world as well. Mikutina gushed over the other skaters in her practice cohort, most notably Bronze medalist Ami Nakai and Silver Medalist Kaori Sakamoto.
“I was lucky I had my practices with very cool skaters,” she said. “I exchanged pins with Kaori [Sakamoto]. This [was] my favorite moment of the entire Olympics, [also] in my highlights.”
Her pin collection is to be revered, with her small Olympic lanyard barely hanging onto around 70 pins total. Mikutina met athletes from Spain, Great Britain, Ukraine, Japan and the United States, among others, and traded pins with her fellow Olympians.
Now, Olga looks to the ISU Figure Skating World Championships in late March.
“It’s always a joy to compete,” Mikutina said. “Even if it’s not an Olympic stage, it’s still going to be a very big stage with a lot of people in the stands looking to [watch] my beautiful programs.”
While her eyes stay focused on the current competition season, they can’t help but wander towards the 2030 Winter Olympics in France. Still, Mikutina does not want to jinx the possibility of a return.
“I want to go there, but we will see how everything goes,” Mikutina said. “Four years is a long period of time, and it’s a very risky sport…But you never know what will happen next. I’m trying to stay positive. I think it is possible to qualify and go again. I have motivation, and I would love to.”
