Courtney Kuhn: The edge that changed everything

Courtney Kuhn’s skating story begins not with ambition but with shade. Growing up in Cape Town, her family sought refuge from the midday sun at GrandWest. Her brothers skated while she watched from the side. Then, at four years old, she stepped onto the main rink for five minutes at the end of a session.

“That five minutes changed everything,” she says. “I begged my parents for lessons for three months straight.”

At four and a half, she started private coaching. Years later, that early fascination would evolve into a path no South African skater had walked before.

In 2008 and 2009, American coaches David and Carole Schulman visited Cape Town to run training courses. They saw potential and encouraged her family to take her to the United States for further development. Colorado Springs became her training base, placing her inside a high-performance environment few South African skaters had ever experienced.

“I suddenly realised how big the skating world really was,” Kuhn says. “Olympic-level coaches and international athletes surrounded me. It opened my mind to what was possible.”

Then the world closed.

During Covid, Kuhn’s passport expired while she was training in the United States. Embassy closures left her unable to return home for 18 months. It was isolating and uncertain. But her coaches pushed her to treat the disruption as an opportunity.

“They told me, ‘You cannot waste this time. Let’s use it to grow your skating in new ways,’” she says. “That is when I started working seriously on ice dance.”

Ice dance demanded a different kind of skating. New blade usage. New body alignment. New edge control. She stripped her technique back to basics and rebuilt it from the ground up.

“It was frustrating at first,” she admits. “I had to re-learn how to skate. But once it started clicking, I fell in love with dance. It made me a better skater overall.”

Olympic medallists Sir Christopher Dean and Ben Agosto encouraged her transition into dance. What began as a solution to remain competition-ready during lockdown became the discipline that reshaped her career.

“Solo dance felt like a space where my strengths could really shine,” Kuhn says. “It focuses on skating skills, musicality, interpretation and control. It is not about throwing yourself into the air. It is about mastery.”

That decision carried historic significance.

Kuhn became the first South African, the first African skater and the first skater from the southern hemisphere selected to compete in an ISU Solo Dance event.

“When I saw South Africa next to my name on the international start list, I got emotional,” she says. “I realised I was not just skating for myself anymore. I was showing that African skaters belong on these stages too.”

She finished in the top ten at every ISU Solo Dance event she entered. Consistency, she says, came from obsession with fundamentals.

“I believe in building strong basics. Edges, turns, posture, control. If your foundation is solid, everything else becomes possible.”

In 2024, Kuhn entered the first Solo Dance event ever held at South African Nationals and won gold.

“That medal meant a lot,” she says. “Not just because I won but because it showed that solo dance can have a future in South Africa.”

Her training remains precise and demanding. On-ice sessions focus on edges, turns, step sequences and programme run-throughs. Off-ice work includes ballet, conditioning and recovery.

“Dance is detailed work,” she says. “You spend hours fixing tiny things most people will never notice. But that is what separates good from great.”

Building a new discipline in South Africa has required persistence.

“There was no blueprint,” she explains. “I had to advocate for myself, learn the rules and trust that the path would open as I walked it.”

Home remains her anchor.

“No matter where I train, South Africa is my base. My family keeps me grounded. They remind me why I started.”

Her mentors have shaped her along the way. Logan Giulietti-Schmitt built her technical dance foundation. A biokineticist guided her injury recovery. Dean’s advice stays with her.

“He once told me, ‘If you are not falling, you are not testing your edges enough’. That stuck.”

Kuhn hopes her journey encourages young skaters to see alternatives beyond traditional singles.

“You do not need to follow the same path as everyone else,” she says. “Sometimes the path appears only when you are brave enough to step into it.”

She wants SAFSA to continue building technical knowledge in solo dance so future skaters arrive at international events prepared and confident.

Looking back, she is proud of starting over from scratch, rebuilding her skating and stepping onto international ice carrying her country’s name.

“I did not take the easy route,” she says. “But I found the right one.”

And sometimes, that is the real victory.