Figure Skating Jillian L. Martinez
Editors note:Madison and Barbara Chock would like to wish readers and their families a very happy Mother's Day!
Ice dancer Madison Chock and her mother, Barbara Chock, are everything to each other. According to Madison, her mother has always been a strong focal point in her life and the person to whom she goes for everything. Barbara feels much the same towards her daughter.
"She really is the best," Barbara began.
"I'm an only child, so keep that in mind," Madison interjected with a laugh.
"I don't know what I would have ever done without her," Barbara said before taking a pause. "She makes us so proud, and she works so hard with all of her accomplishments. You know, it's hard to put into words."
Madison Chock was a toddler when her mother first took her to their local mall for ice skating. What started as Barbara toting Madison around on her tiny rental skates turned into Madison taking group lessons a few years later.
"It started with group classes [before she was in kindergarten], then private lessons, and then it got more serious," Barbara said. "Pretty soon it worked its way up to five days a week, six days a week… Oh boy!"
Longtime fans of the sport, particularly of Michelle Kwan, Barbara and her husband, Wes Chock, were thrilled their daughter had taken a love of skating.
"I have been fortunate in my life to be surrounded by other strong Asian women," said Madison, who is of Chinese-Hawaiian descent on her father's side. "So, seeing someone like Michelle Kwan -- who looked like me -- achieve her goals and dreams made it so much more real that I could achieve those things and go after what I wanted."
Just like her role model Kwan, Madison was destined for greatness. Barbara explained Madison always had "something special."
"I could tell by the way she floated across the ice, there was something different," Barbara said. "I told Wes and [Madison's] grandpa, and I was right."
While Madison and Barbara both enjoy drawing, painting, cooking, and shopping, their grace appears to be an inherited trait.
"My mom is also very graceful. She used to do ballet," Madison explained. "I've never seen her dance, but you can tell in her fluidity, the way she holds her hands, and carries herself. Maybe that's where I get my balance and love of dance."
Despite having early success with singles skating, Madison instantly fell in love with ice dancing and decided to change disciplines. However, in order to help her chase her dreams of becoming an elite ice dancer, Barbara and Wes chose to leave their home in California and move to Michigan.
"I was 12 at that time, and that is a lot of faith to put in a 12-year-old," Madison said. "I'm very fortunate to have such incredible parents who have sacrificed their time and their hopes to succeed at my dream.
Besides their home, the Chocks left family, friends, and their jobs behind in California. For more than 15 years, Wes and Barbara stayed there and only recently moved back when Madison and her partner Evan Bates decided to train in Montreal. Not long after moving to Michigan, the Chocks received life-changing news: Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer.
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"I think the diagnosis was harder for my mom than she ever really disclosed to me. I didn't see the hard parts of it because her treatments were mostly in Texas," Madison said. "But, I remember when she was home, she was fighting and she was so strong. I was in awe of the resilience she had, and every day she kept pushing through it.
"I knew it was going to be hard for her, too, but I didn't want her life to be disrupted by the whole thing," Barbara shared. "We wanted to keep her life on an even keel so that she could continue with her skating and not be too worried about what was going on with me."
In an effort to keep Madison's life stable, family and friends flew in from Hawaii, California, and Boston to help take care of her while Barbara traveled to Texas for chemotherapy. Since being in remission for almost 15 years, Barbara has had the opportunity to see her daughter compete at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia (2014), and PyeongChang, South Korea (2018).
"You see them step out on the ice [at the Olympics] and your heart swells up in its chest. It's overwhelming and brings tears to your eyes knowing her dreams have been achieved. Not once but twice," Barbara said. "It's a lifetime dream come true for the kids. And for us to know [all the sacrifices were] worth it.
Madison agreed the best part of having her parents join her at the Olympics was sharing all of the special moments with the people who made it all possible.
"You don't get [to the Olympics] by yourself," Madison said. "I got there because of my parents. I wouldn't be anywhere without my parents."
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