Julie Letai

Hobbies	Playing the drums. (teamusa.org, 28 May 2019)
Injuries	In July 2020 she required surgery on her knee. (Skating ISU YouTube channel, 01 Apr 2021) She underwent knee surgery in 2018, and returned to training in October the same year. (Athlete, 05 Dec 2019; teamusa.org, 28 May 2019)

Reason for choosing this sport

As a child she went to the ice rink to watch her older siblings skate and wanted to join in. She initially got involved in figure skating before her mother enrolled her in classes at Bay State Speed Skating Club. "What I really liked was skating around super fast. I had a substitute teacher one time, and they let us go from end to end of the rink as fast as we could. And I remember just raving to my mum about how much I loved doing that. My mum looked into it and was able to find Bay State. Bay State has a lot of loyal members. Former Olympians would come to coach at the club and they impressed me. Any advice they gave me meant the world to me."

Most influential person in career

Coach Wang Hongyang. (Athlete, 05 Dec 2019)

When and where did you begin this sport?

She began skating at age two. She took up short track in 2007 at Bay State Speed Skating Club in Massachusetts, United States of America, and started focusing on the sport at age 16.

Sporting philosophy / motto

"There is always room for improvement." (Athlete, 05 Dec 2019)

www.facebook.com/julie.letai.5
twitter.com/julie_letai

Other information

FUTURE PLANS She hopes to pursue a career in healthcare once her sporting career is over. "I'm definitely leaning towards a health track. I've been interested in global health. I think travelling and everything, that's inspired me to pursue a career where I can think of the world as a whole, rather than just be contained to the United States. I think there's a lot of problems that should be treated more as a global issue, rather than just each kind of country fending for themselves." (wgbh.org, 25 Jan 2022)

Name of coach

Stephen Gough [national], CAN