As a Team USA Figure Skater, two time National Medalist, and entrepreneur with two patents for inventions, Pooja Kalyan has achieved a lot at the young age of 17!

Kalyan has been skating since she was six years old. Her most memorable moments so far in figure skating have been her National medals where she earned bronze at the Novice level and silver at the Junior level. Being a member of Team USA, her ultimate goal is skating at the 2022 Olympics!

Not only is Kalyan extremely talented, but her creativity has also earned her two patents. “I hope to continue my businesses in the future,” she says. One of her companies is called ReBind. ReBind, a product that Pooja started developing when she was in 8th grade, is a sideless bag that allows the user to carry notebooks, binders, or books in a more easily accessible fashion. She is currently searching for a manufacturer to professionally produce her bags and is developing a website to market and sell her product.  The other is the FreeHand Plate which allows one to hold a drink and plate in one hand. 

Pooja's product ReBind.

Kalyan attends Stanford University’s online high school, so the recent COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t affected school much for her. However, when it comes to skating, the virus has thrown off her training schedule. “I wasn’t able to skate during the height of COVID,” she says, “Until the end of May, I wasn’t really skating at all”. She also hadn’t been skating much in the winter because of an injury. In the meantime, she has gotten an opportunity to work on choreography, her schoolwork, and to look into colleges. Although this was a nice break, she said, “I’m happy to be back skating”. 

Because figure skating is a predominately white sport, Kalyan mentioned her struggles in finding appropriately colored performance wear. “Over the years I’ve noticed that I’ve had a lot of trouble finding, in particular, nude mesh for skating dresses that fit my skin tone, so much that I actually just stopped trying to wear nude mesh.” She also has trouble finding gloves and tights to match her skin tone because it is hard to match. “It’s not light at all and it’s not really dark either," she explains, “Luckily, Aurora Tights has achieved that goal of trying to find tights for different skin tones which is really great but in the past, I couldn’t find tights that actually matched my skin tone”.

Pooja is pictured performing at the 2018 US Figure Skating Nationals in the Junior Ladies event, where she became the 2018 USFS National Junior Ladies Silver Medalist and won her second national medal (her first national medal being the 2017 USFS National Novice Ladies Bronze Medalist). 

We are beyond excited to announce that Pooja will be performing in our Perform in Color Showcase on August 17th! She will be skating to Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. “It’s a really powerful performance and piece of music,” Kalyan says. The performance is about her love for skating and the ups and downs that go along with it. It also expresses her emotions towards the sport and shows her overcoming struggles in the sport.

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Get your tickets to the showcase before it's too late! Go to https://performincolorshowcase.splashthat.com