00:00For Alan Lessig, dreams don't come with an expiry date.
00:05We can change the world just by skating.
00:08Age won't stop him from doing that.
00:11At 72 years old, he's still out on the ice.
00:14That's my metaphor for life now.
00:16It's like, here I am on these skinny little blades
00:20on a slippery surface,
00:23and trying to make do and trying to do it right
00:26and trying to be graceful as I'm doing it.
00:29That's what life is about.
00:31Here's how Alan found his way into figure skating
00:33after a devastating arthritis diagnosis.
00:36Such a severe case of arthritis, I couldn't do anything,
00:39and I thought that was going to be the rest of my life.
00:42How an incident in the US turned him into an LGBTQ rights activist.
00:48He literally said, you picked on the wrong queer boys.
00:52And how he's now competing as one of the oldest skaters
00:56at international tournaments.
01:09Alan is celebrating his 72nd birthday,
01:12together with many friends from the skating community.
01:17Happy birthday to you.
01:22They're currently in Bavaria for a competition.
01:26All these people come from around the world, show up here.
01:30We wind up hanging out in cafes and oar hikes
01:35and wandering in the mountains.
01:37It's just this place that's in some ways a little bit magical.
01:46There's a long history of skating, of skiing here,
01:53that's just built into Oberstdorf.
01:55So it's really kind of a fascinating, unique place, I think, even in Germany.
02:00But certainly for adult skaters, this is the place.
02:05And then we have this amazing ice competition.
02:08Some 500 skaters from 30 countries take part in the adult figure skating competition.
02:15The annual event is considered the unofficial world championship for amateurs.
02:21Many of those competing once thought figure skating wasn't for people like them.
02:26Here, they finally get their moment.
02:35It's Alan's fourth time here.
02:38Just before his first practice session of the morning,
02:41he pictures himself performing his program.
02:49You can visualize what you're supposed to do before you do it.
02:55It often can help you do what you're supposed to do better.
02:58And if you can't visualize it,
03:01then you know the parts that you're stuck in that you have to practice.
03:07Figure skating is physically demanding.
03:10But it's just as much a mental challenge.
03:17Usually every morning I meditate for about 40 minutes.
03:24If I don't meditate, I can't start my day.
03:29As a Zen Buddhist, meditation centers him on and off the ice.
03:35When I finish, I'm just ready for the day.
03:38And ready just to take things as they come during the day.
03:43Not react to them strongly usually.
03:55The adult skating community is one big family.
03:59Proud, ambitious and eager to show what they can do,
04:02even if it doesn't always work out.
04:14Well, there's a three jump combination in the beginning.
04:20And I often don't do the last jump right.
04:22So competition is in six hours, seven hours.
04:26What I have is what I have at this point.
04:37Achieving goals is part of what makes skating satisfying for Alan.
04:42But it also gives him something more fundamental.
04:45I think I've realized how important it is in your life to do something that you really love to do.
04:50For me, this is the combination of feeling...
04:55There's something about being on the ice and skating that's almost like flying.
05:01It's not walking, it's not running, it's not pushing weights.
05:04Even though I'm using all those skills, it just feels like flying.
05:09And so when you just get a really smooth ice and smooth skate...
05:15And a couple of times in my program, I just think,
05:18Oh my God, this is so nice.
05:19It just feels so good.
05:22And, yeah, not everyone has that in their life.
05:29Two weeks earlier in Berlin.
05:31Alan has been living here since 2021.
05:35He came to Europe in search of new challengers and found a new partner and new friends along the way.
05:49He was already in his late 40s when he took up figure skating after being diagnosed with arthritis.
05:59During that time period, yeah, I felt really, really bad and awful all the time.
06:05And then once I started getting my body back, yeah, I had just decided this is my one chance.
06:13Like today is my one chance to do something.
06:16He learned to skate.
06:18But it sparked more than athletic ambition.
06:21One incident in the US turned him into an LGBTQ rights activist.
06:26In 2005, when he and his then skating partner wanted to rehearse holding hands, everything escalated.
06:33The manager came by and said, you can't skate here.
06:38You can't hold hands.
06:40You can't do that.
06:41And he said, well, you guys are dangerous.
06:43It's like, we're not doing anything dangerous.
06:45We're skating like the other people who are there.
06:48And he said, you have to get off the ice.
06:50At that point, we said, we literally said, you picked on the wrong queer boys.
06:58The pair took the case to court and helped push many ring operators across the US to change their anti
07:05-discrimination policies.
07:09For Alan, figure skating is also a way to express his emotions.
07:15Like at the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, where he dedicated a program to the love of his life.
07:27It was two years after my partner took his life.
07:34And so I wanted to do this in memory of him.
07:41My skating costume actually had a broken heart on it.
07:46And yeah, remembering it, even right now, it's bringing a little bit of tears to my eyes of remembering.
07:53But yeah, this is the other part of especially adult skating as we pull events out of our life and
08:03say,
08:03Oh, one way to heal from grief is for me to skate and remember him.
08:23Alan wants to get the very best out of himself.
08:26In Berlin, he trains with former Olympic figure skater Romy Kermer.
08:35She shows him how to bring emotion onto the ice and to build confidence along the way.
08:44Especially now, with what's happening in the world right now, it's just that much more important that I say,
08:51Yes, I'm a gay man and I'm a skater and this is what I love to do and I won't
08:57hide that.
09:00Back in Oberstdorf, just two hours before his program, Alan is getting mentally prepared.
09:06There's a friend of mine who said, there's no such thing as nerves, it's just energy.
09:11And so I'm going with that right now.
09:17For Alan, this is the most important performance of the year.
09:23The Amateur World Championship is an official international skating union event with the same rulebook as the pros.
09:44Friends come to show their support in the final minutes before he takes to the ice.
09:48Yes.
09:50Okay, great.
09:51Yeah, yeah.
09:52How are you generally feeling?
09:54Generally feeling good.
09:55Yeah, yeah.
09:56I'm so excited.
09:56And you?
09:57Yeah, I'm excited for you.
09:59Oh, well, good.
10:00Let's distribute the rules.
10:01I'll be the nervous one and you'll just enjoy.
10:03Okay, good, okay.
10:04Okay, I'll take that.
10:05That's what I need.
10:06That's what I need.
10:14No, I honestly never think about what could go wrong.
10:17If it goes wrong, it goes wrong.
10:20But I never think about that.
10:21I just think about what I'm going to do.
10:27Alan trained for six months for his free skate.
10:30He's just always been a really calm person.
10:33I think he's a Zen Buddhist and he does a lot of meditation.
10:39And that creates an awareness of when you're stressed out, you know right away.
10:45Like, your body tells you.
10:46And he's really good at sensing that, I think, and dealing with it right away,
10:51rather than letting it turn into, like, this, like a lot of us do.
10:54Hope and how much is there.
11:02From Germany.
11:04I have a gift!
11:06From G 무를 here.
11:10Sing прог chose.
11:15There's not moments from PSI.
11:19WWE, And youraucas ë”° maybe,
11:20If you don't think, it's all we know.
11:24After two minutes, he's successfully completed his routine.
11:32More important than any applause or his third-place medal is what skating taught him.
11:38What would he tell his younger self?
11:41Trust your instincts.
11:43You're looking at the world in a very new, fresh way that older people aren't.
11:48They're stuck, often stuck in their ways.
11:50You're looking at the world the way it is right now.
11:54And so trust your instincts about what's best to do.
11:56What you can do.
11:59Even when people are telling you the times are hard, the times are difficult.
12:03Well, what isn't hard? What is good for you?
12:06What can you make happen?
12:09And how do you live this life that you have?
12:12Because we have a life to live.
12:20We can't.
12:21I happen to make choices.
12:34You
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