about

The Skating Circle is owned by Ranait (Renny) O’Connor, a competitive masters freestyle figure skater and learn-to-skate coach.

Renny was obsessed with figure skating as a child. She flew through the ISI learn to skate levels in the 90’s. Because of family circumstances she had to step away from the sport at 12 years old. At 26 with a corporate job, she found herself living a few blocks away from a local ice rink. Her childhood coach encouraged her to pursue skating again as an adult, so she gave it a try and put together a program for ISI 2016 adult nationals. At 27, she decided to pursue more serious weekly coaching from a local Olympian and technical specialist, and learned about US Figure Skating adult-track opportunities as well as the International Judging System. She started on her journey of learning many spin features and jump combinations, learning difficult steps and mastering skating skills, and maximizing element GOE for USFS IJS-based competition.

Fast-forward to today, Renny has worked with many amazing professionals - current and former judges, technical specialists, national champions, olympians, show skaters, and learn-to-skate coaches with decades of experience. She is a five-time (2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2026) USFS adult national championships qualifier at Adult Gold and Masters Intermediate-Novice freestyle and ISU International medalist in Masters Freestyle and Artistic. Renny has learned how to build her spin repertoire, pieced together level 3-4 combinations with positive GOE, and increased element GOE for her protocol sheet to be a competitive qualifier at Masters Intermediate-Novice level into her mid-30’s. She is a Senior staff member at the Skokie Skatium ice arena near Chicago, IL and moderates the 24k+ member Facebook group called Adults Skate Too.

As a non-traditional adult competitive skater on a budget, Renny strongly believes in providing more accessibility, diversity, and fun to figure skating as well as supporting a strengths-based approach to the sport. Sometimes this means looking at all of your element options and not just the obvious, most common ones - the purpose of our Libraries digital downloads. This also means you have to celebrate community and the small wins - the purpose of our tossie collection.

In her corporate life, Renny works in healthcare technology management with an MBA from University of Illinois Gies. She loves to organize complex systems and information to better the human condition, and has learned to leverage the strengths of her teammates and networks to support her goals including the work of The Skating Circle. The Skating Circle is also supported by a network of consultant-friends to bring our products to life.

Near Chicago and interested in figure skating lessons? Contact me using the contact section, or email theskatingcircle@gmail.com.