Spins, swizzle and wipeouts: Keely Arthur brushes off her skates for a lesson at Polar Ice House

By Keely Arthur, WRAL reporter

Before following her dreams of becoming a reporter, a younger version of WRAL's Keely Arthur had something else in mind – competitive figure skating.

So with the Winter Olympics in full swing in Beijing, Arthur and photojournalist Lauren DesArmo hit the rink to interview and attempt to emulate skater extraordinaire Kristy Hemstreet.

Hemstreet – a coach at Polar Ice House – appears to fly, spinning, jumping and nailing those sudden stops.

The Michigan native started skating at the age of 3, a level of dedication she says is normal among Olympic wanna-bes.

"Scott Hamilton started when he was 9, and he won the gold," she said.

Hemstreet and Arthur stuck to the basics in their session on the ice.

First came a move called the "swizzle."

"Start with your heels together, bend your knees," Hemstreet coached. "This is probably the first move any skater – future Olympian or not – learns."

After that, Arthur tried a two-foot spin, a ski move and the waltz jump.

First Hemstreet showed how it is supposed to look and reminded Arthur that for figure skaters practice makes perfect.

"Olympians are probably practicing literally all day, 6 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m.," she said.

"They say it’s over 20,000 times that an Olympic skater falls down and gets back up," she said.