It’s not exactly a well-kept secret that an entire team lies behind every athlete who stands on an Olympic podium. Among the coaches, families, medical professionals, and others, physical therapists constitute a key part of that team. They provide medical expertise, hands-on help, and — not least — moral support.
“[Physical therapy] is incredibly important,” says Valentina Plazas, a pairs skater on the U.S. Figure Skating national team who trains at Arctic Edge in Canton with her partner, Maximiliano Fernandez. When Plazas was dealing with a chronic back injury a few years ago, U.S. Figure Skating sent her to a local physical therapist at the University of Michigan’s MedSport clinic at Domino’s Farms, Kristen Schuyten.
“She changed my life,” Plazas says, describing how much she’s appreciated Schuyten’s detailed explanations of how the body works, which has helped her avoid injury. These days, her back is strong and healthy. (In fact, at press time, she and Fernandez were preparing to compete at the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in January, which serves as a key factor in Olympic team selection.)
Schuyten found her way to her profession — and eventually to U.S. Figure Skating — through her background in dance. The doctors and physical therapists she encountered during her decades of dancing didn’t understand the unique demands of the performing arts — or even that she was an athlete.
At MedSport, she’s become the clinic’s performing arts rehabilitation program coordinator, training other physical therapists in best practices for treating dancers, figure skaters, gymnasts, cheerleaders, musicians, and vocalists at all levels. In 2015, she won Michigan Medicine’s Learning Catalyst Award for Outstanding Staff Educator for her work.
Because of that expertise, an ice dancing pair (who later became Olympic medalists) sought her out over a decade ago for off-ice personal training. Not long after, in 2013, U.S. Figure Skating asked her to join its volunteer medical coverage team for national and international competitions. Over the years, she’s provided care for skaters at events across the globe, from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics to the upcoming ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Prague this spring.
She’s seen national team members and Olympians in her home clinic, too, sometimes watching them grow up from “very young” skaters, she says.
Close to and far from home, southeast Michigan figure skaters swear by her support. “She’s been a huge part of our training, especially in the international portion,” Fernandez says. “She helps us feel confident in ourselves and our body. … She knows the human body better than anybody.”
For ice dancers Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski, her presence at the 2025 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Hungary helped them work through aches and pains to win the silver medal. “She always makes me feel very comfortable, especially because I get very nervous [for] anything medical,” Tsarevski says. At press time, the pair were also set to compete at nationals.
Schuyten finds building relationships with the athletes and being part of their journeys to be “really inspiring” and one of the biggest perks of the job, though she notes she’s just “a blip on the radar sometimes.”
“It was their hard work that got them there,” she says, “but as someone who really wants to help people do their best and help them feel better if they’re injured and get them to meet their goals, being able to see that come to fruition is amazing.”
And those relationships go beyond the sport. Years later, those first ice dancers Schuyten worked with choreographed lifts for her wedding dance and attended to see her and her husband (fellow PT Phil Schuyten) perform it in person. She keeps up with many others she’s met throughout the years as well.
“It’s been a really cool thing,” she says.
The 2026 Winter Olympics open Feb. 6 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; figure skating events take place Feb. 6-19, broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock.
Homegrown Talent
Metro Detroit has become a hot spot for ice dance — and figure skating more broadly — serving as the training home of these Olympians.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates (Novi Ice Arena): 2022 fourth in ice dance, gold medal in team event; 2018 and 2014 competitors. In January, the duo became the most decorated ice dance team in history by winning their fifth consecutive U.S. title and their seventh overall. The record was previously held by Michigan natives Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won six U.S. ice dancing titles.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (Detroit Skating Club): 2022 bronze medal in ice dance, gold medal in team event; 2018 competitors
Maia and Alex Shibutani (Arctic Edge in Canton): 2018 bronze medal in ice dance and team event; 2014 competitors
Meryl Davis and Charlie White (Arctic Edge in Canton): 2014 gold medal in ice dance, bronze medal in team event; 2010 silver medal in ice dance
This story originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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