July 2026

Figure Skating podcast. An interview with Mark Hanretty. He’s best known for his 12 years on Dancing on Ice, as well as for his positive and accurate commentary covering skating events worldwide. We discuss his career in skating, his views on doing commentary well, and the Hanretty skate camps. 1 hour, 1 minute.

A full transcription follows:

(AM: Allison Manley, MH: Mark Hanretty)

AM: And welcome back, skate fans. Welcome to the Manleywoman SkateCast. I’m your host Allison Manley, and this is episode 90 with Mark Hanretty. You likely know Mark best through his voice. He’s a regular commentator for Eurosport and for the ISU. Or you might know him from the show Dancing on Ice if you’re listening in from Europe. But Mark has a deep history in the sport, in case you’re not familiar, so let me dive in.

Mark is a Scottish ice dancer and represented the United Kingdom with his ice dance partner Christina Chitwood. They were two-time British medalists. They competed at the 2009 European Championships and also at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships. In 2012, Hanretty won the Young Artists Showcase, which was a choreography competition in the United States. And a year earlier, in 2011 he’s been a regular on the British show Dancing on Ice.

American fans might be most familiar with Mark’s voice, as he is a popular commentator for most events during the Grand Prix season, and he keeps it classy and insightful. He works as a coach and choreographer based mainly in Sheffield, England. However, he takes his Hanretty skate camps all around the world. And we had a lovely conversation.

So let’s dive in. This interview took place on July 18, 2026.

MH: So this is the the garage, which is the commentary hub.

AM: Well, I love that you have family photos up in the garage.

MH: Well, I’ve tried to make it like a little more homely for me, being on the commentary.

AM: Oh, that’s great. So this is your commentary space? Wow.

MH: Because we had to find somewhere that was quiet. Because you know, obviously, it’s through the night so often. So …

AM: And it’s not even sound … like you don’t even have soundproofing up there. You’ve just got your brick and … yeah, amazing. I love the behind the scenes!

MH: Keeping it real!

AM: It is keeping it real. NBC is giving their people, you know …

MH: Oh my goodness, they have researchers, and I have me myself and I. And a garage.

AM: I love it. It’s very real and very authentic. Well, I will get to that. We will ask all those questions, and let’s go. You ready?

MH: Yay! Yep.

AM: Yay! Hello, Mark Hanretty!

MH: Hey, Allison. Thank you for having me.

AM: Thank you for coming on. I’m so excited to be able to do this. It was a pleasure meeting you about a month ago when you were here in Chicago. So … it’s always extra fun when I get to know somebody a little bit first before I interview, yeah.

MH: Well, hopefully you like what you met.

AM: I did!

MH: Depends (laughter).

AM: Although I will tell you, if you don’t mind me sharing this story, you met my boyfriend that night at the party that we had the night before the workshop, and he had never seen what you looked like at all, and he turned to me during the event after he met you, and he said, “I don’t know why, but I was expecting a 60-year-old man.”

MH: I think that’s kind of cool. I kind of like that having a distinguished elder voice. Yeah.

AM: So you were you were a surprise to him when when we all walked into the party, he’s like, “Wait, what?”

MH: Well, that’s also good though that I didn’t then look like a 60 year old man. So that’s good.

AM: He’d only ever heard your voice on my TV.

MH: Lots of people … I can meet people in different aspects. Like, “oh, you’re the voice!” Yes, I have a face.

AM: Well, all right. I have so much to ask you, and I really appreciate you hopping on at what is 5:00 in the morning your time, 11 p.m. my time. So amazing what technology can do for us across the pond. But let’s get started. So, what is your most embarrassing skating-related moment on-ice or off-ice?

MH: Well, so you’d pre-warned me with this question, and so then I racked my brain because I’m sure had you asked me that question at various different intervals throughout my skating career, the answer would have been different. This sounds like such a cop out, but now I have experienced so many of them that it takes a lot for me to get embarrassed.

I would admit, though, that the one that did spring to mind … I, for those that don’t know, I worked on a TV show called Dancing On Ice, whereby we had celebrity partners that we skated with for three months and then performed with live on TV. And one year, I was skating with this most amazing woman. She was a DJ. I adore the human that she is, and she’d been through so so much. She was … she’d been through a huge amount. She was a cancer survivor, and she had a stoma bag, and she was competing in her first show, and I fell in a mohawk on live television. And there I was skating with somebody who’d been skating for like three, four months, and she’d never danced, she’d never performed in any way, she was kind of body shy. And she smashed out the park. And I, as a professional skater, fell on a mohawk. That was kind of mortifying, and actually, I don’t think I watched that video back ever, nor do I want to.

AM: I mean, yeah, mohawks can be hard.

MH: Mohawks can be hard. Yeah, no, just I actually think it wasn’t even the mohawk. I think it was like a step wide. It was it was something and nothing, and a professional skater shouldn’t have found himself stacking it on live TV on that. There was no excuse.

AM: But we all know ice is slippery, and we have seen plenty of our peers do exactly the same.

MH: Yeah, I have. Yeah, there are a few others. I also was … by another celebrity partner, I was tripped up live on TV and dislocated my shoulder live on TV, but that was kind of cool insofar as my shoulder was right out, and they had to sort of pause the show, and it was live television, and it was a bit dramatic. And then I went backstage, and I was … just because I was so embarrassed, and the adrenaline was going crazy, and so we got the shoulder back in, and then I went out and skated again, and it seemed to garner me a lot of respect. So retrospectively, it was it was kind of cool.

Yeah, I remember being in the physio bed afterwards, and my phone was on volume, and it was going like ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. And I think I amassed significantly more followers at the time.

AM: Wow, wow. Well, there you go. So lemonade out of lemons.

MH: Yes, indeed.

AM: Right. Well, I understand that you got into skating because you were inspired by the great Torvill and Dean after seeing them at age nine, and you were so obsessed with them that you did school projects. You wore out your VHS tapes. So tell me … walk me through that.

MH: They when they were returning to compete in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, it was big news in the UK. You know, Torvill and Dean are such icons and legends in the UK, so it made the news. And I remember watching, it was like 6pm BBC News, and I remember asking my mum like, “What’s you know, what is this? What are these people?” And effectively I kind of decided before I’d ever skated or had skates on my feet that I was going to be doing what Torvill and Dean do. And so I pestered my parents relentlessly for lessons.

I actually, I watched obviously that Lillehammer Olympics, and I was so aggrieved and so frustrated that they came third. I thought it was a huge injustice, and nine-year-old Mark was just livid. And it took my parents a long time before they then took me to skate, and then that was it effectively. But my parents, that said, my parents they weren’t skating parents, and they didn’t think it was a good investment of my time and energy. Which, to be fair, is wise insofar as there aren’t a huge number of skating opportunities ordinarily in the UK. But I’m just really fortunate that I’ve managed to carve a career out of it.

But yeah, I was going … I knew I was going to skate before I skated. I knew skating was going to become my life before I had skates on my feet.

AM: Wow! So you just-how long was it between by the time you saw the Lillehammer Olympics and you were able to take your first steps on ice?

MH: I am pretty sure … I feel like it was my birthday. I think I went … so Lillehammer Olympics would have been like February. My birthday’s in late March. We went for like a public skate session, but I don’t think I was 10. I started getting lessons, so quite some time. And then one of the things that I’m always really conscious of is that my parents … I come from quite an academic family, and they, I think I skated like two or three times a week right up until I left until I completed high school. Which obviously isn’t, you know, a competitive amount of time. And so that used to be frustrating to me because I knew that to be competitive theoretically I had to be training five, six days a week multiple times. But retrospectively you know you never know how things will pan out. But I’m pretty sure that that’s served me well insofar as I haven’t burnt out yet.

AM: Yeah, yeah.

MH: There’s still time.

AM: There’s still time. Well, and you were able, you know, to carve a nice career out for yourself. I mean, how far away was the rink for you? Because I don’t think there are a lot of rinks in the UK.

MH: No, so I used to … again, it’s funny you mention this because I actually just was asked to do a speech at my son’s school, so I was recanting my own history. And I used to get … again because my parents just … they were busy, I was one of three siblings. my parents both worked … and so I would get the bus to the ice rink. So from the age of 11, I was getting on a bus. But I’m 41, and just the concept of even my 13-year-old now getting on public transport … I don’t know if this is the world that we live in, or we’re perhaps scaremongered more into thinking that you know the world is a scarier place. I’m not sure, but I couldn’t consider our kids doing that.

And yeah, at the age of 11, I was on public transport, and then, then I think about 13-14, I changed coaches, and that meant a bus and two trains. And so then again, the the concept of that is kind of fascinating to relive. That I was getting all that you know amount of public transport just to be able to chase ice, yeah. So the second rink was further, it was like an hour. Well, it was like an hour and a half by public transport.

AM: Well, just just to make to to give you some context, I just was recently re-listening to my podcast interview with Rohene Ward …

MH: The most talented skater on the planet!

AM: … and he was taking the bus by himself, starting at age eight.

MH: Oh wow, interesting! That’s really interesting. It’s so interesting. I mean, Rohene, I have actually never skated with Rohene, but I know so many friends that have toured with him and done shows with him, and he is widely regarded as the most talented skater that I think has ever graced the planet. It’s just really interesting to hear all these snippets of stories, and you know, so often those that are successful have had adversity and challenges, or self-propelled.

AM: Yes, very self-propelled for sure.

MH: And it’s so interesting that because I think that there’s so much, like as a parent now, where I want my children to have more autonomy. I want them to be more, you know, self-controlling of their outcomes, and yet there’s a part of me that thinks that, but then rationally think, oh no!

AM: Yeah, I know! The world is a big scary place.

MH: Yeah, true.

AM: All right. Well, you obviously must have been pretty good naturally in order to come up the ranks the way that you did. I I know that you did singles first before you got into dance. So how did you get into dance?

MH: So I did singles as you mentioned, and I was working. I could land all my triples apart from triple axel. And when I finished school, so my parents had made this caveat that I had to like finish high school, and then they would pay for me to skate for one year, and then after that, I would have to go to university. But in my head, I was like, “I’m not going to go to university. I’m going to skate.” And I think when I’d started to train more, so it’d been like 17, and you had been shortlisted for a Junior Grand Prix, but on my triple lutz and triple flip, I was like pre-rotating a bit, and I got some tendinitis in my right ankle. But I think the stars just kind of aligned because at the time I remember watching Evgeny Plushenko competing in maybe one of his first Worlds, and I think Evgeny’s like a year, two years older than me, or around the same age, and he was doing quad toe triple toe, and I couldn’t land my triple axel, and I just remember thinking, “hmmm.” And then I was injured, so I couldn’t jump at all. And I probably had more of a propensity to skate ice dancer-ish. I was a bit more … my style was quite ice dancer-ish, for want of a better term.

But they didn’t really do ice dance in Scotland, so I had to relocate. And also, you know, I think for many skaters to leave your coach and to you know leave your life was a big concept. So that’s kind of effectively the injury is what nudged me to something that I maybe should have been doing anyway. And then I moved to Nottingham, the National Ice Center, in Nottingham originally, and I had a partner as a Junior for a year or a few months, and then switched and skated with an American skater, Christina Chitwood, and we skated under Sandy Hess, who some will know from having coached Melissa Gregory and Dennis Petukov, Renee Roca, who I know you’ve interviewed. Yeah! And Jimmy Young. Jimmy Young was our main coach, who coached many, many, many, many British champions.

AM: So you did mention at the beginning of that that you said there’s not a lot of skating in Scotland, and yet we had the Kerrs. Sinead and John Kerr, and I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing that correctly. Is it Kerr or Kerr?

MH: Yeah. And Sinead and John actually they were wonderful because at the time that they did train, they trained and they had their lessons in England, and then they travel home and self train in Scotland and Edinburgh, and they would actually be training at the same time as I was doing singles. And they met with me for lunch one day when I was kind of ruminating the concept of it. And they were incredibly supportive, and they’re really, really good humans. But they did train in Scotland, but they were self-training and then going and outsourcing their education elsewhere. But they’re super cool people.

AM: Okay, what was it like competing against them?

MH: Wonderful. They were really good. They were really good, kind of … you know, when you see like team, the Team USA team, and you see the kind of maybe like an Evan Bates is kind of like the you’ve got some of the older, more experienced skaters who look after the younger ones? It felt like they were like the perfect people to to share a team with. And actually, when I did Worlds, I roomed with John. Really good, good souls. Unfortunately, I think you know I was never close enough. Like they were 3rd in Europe, 5th in the world when I did Worlds. So we’re never like it was never awkward with us being close in competition. That’s for sure!

AM:
I mean, and what do you feel held you back from being in the top 5 or so? I mean, knowing that was it really just the lack of ice, the lack of training opportunities?

MH: It’s a really good question. It’s one that you know I consider often now because I do still coach. I mean, I’m all over the place, and I don’t coach … I’m not in the rink enough to be anybody’s coach because of commentary and because of various different commitments. But the question as to how to make homegrown world class talent is one that I consider often, and I think as to why then I didn’t go on to become, say, a World medalist, hypothetically speaking, a few things that are tricky for any less-developed skating nation is just the environment. So we were like the big fish in the little pond.

So I remember I did, I loved skating so much, and I think I was fortunate to have enough natural ability to have … I do believe that I have enough natural ability. I’ve seen other World medalists that make me believe yes, that could have been me in another set of circumstances. When it’s sort of cyclical, isn’t it? Because if you’re not in a world class environment, then you’re not exposed to it on the daily basis. So therefore, it’s harder to somewhat self-motivate. And I didn’t have the resources to go and train with an Igor Shpilband or, you know, [Marina] Zueva or one of those elite high level top tier coaches at the time. And you know there’s no discounting the fact that it is an extraordinarily expensive sport.

So there is that, but then also, for me, there was a there was a horrible amount of politics at the time when we were competing. There was some just just hideous political stuff and national judges doing silly things, and so I was just scunnered, I think … it’s a Scottish word. I remember it was just that I can’t face this anymore. This is ridiculous. Like the sport was … the political aspect of the sport had made it impossible for me to consider staying. And also, sometimes you’ve got to consider it’s illogical to compete. It’s so expensive, and then you put your life on hold. And what are the rewards? And I think for me, I had done one World and European Championship, so I could say I am a World and European Championship competitor. And I knew that financially, I didn’t have the resources to train in an environment practically that was likely to take me to say I was a World medalist. Did I have the talent potential? Maybe did I have the work ethic? Yes, I do think I had that. But I didn’t have those resources. So it was kind of like, well, what am I going to do? Do five more Worlds and come, you know, come 10th at best? You know, it just didn’t justify it.

AM: No, that’s fair, and I think it’s an interesting conundrum because, you know, when I look back on the history, and you’re not the first British or you know Great British … sorry, what’s the term I’m looking for?

MH: Yeah, British!

AM: British? Okay, thank you, British skater. I’ve asked this question to. I asked the same question of Chris Howarth a while back. You know, England has such a long tradition of top-notch skaters, like you know, going back to John Nicks, and then John Curry, Robin Cousins, you know, Chris himself, Torvill and Dean, of course. But in the past like 30-40, years, it’s been sort of a smattering, right? Jenna McCorkle, the Kerrs, breaking through … Lila and Lewis, you know, Fear and Gibson. But it hasn’t been a powerhouse, even though you have this history of amazing Gold medalists.

MH: Yeah, I think you know, and for me, there was like Arnold Gerschwiler, the coach of so many greats, you know, in the 70s and 80s. And then Gladys Hogg was this powerhouse coach, I understand, for ice dance, where we had so many world medalists in ice dance right up to obviously ending with Jane and Chris. And now subsequently it’s only been those that have had success have had the financial resources to train in hotbed environments.

And so you know … but then arguably, then I think, well, theoretically, then I have the knowledge now because of the commentary work that I have done and my obsession with the sport, I’ve been able to amass enough contacts and enough education on the sport at the elite level, that well, you know, hypothetically speaking, well, why aren’t you then trying to cultivate that kind of environment work in the UK yourself? But again, resources are always an issue because for me, I think I could I do that yes potentially, but I think I would have to pull my whole life into it to make it possible, and I’ve you know, simultaneously to me doing professional stuff, I’ve got a wife and kids. And so then that kind of governs. You know, we’re doing this at five a.m. in the morning so that I can be daddy for the rest of the day before I go off and do other stuff. And so that I think prevents me from giving to the sport in the UK to develop a world-class training environment, because I think you know it’s like anything, you know, to be elite elite elite, it needs to be all-consuming and you know totally take over your life.

AM: And I also think it’s not a one-man job. Like I don’t think it’s your responsibility? I think it’s like the larger community responsibility. Yes, it’s it takes a village, if you will. Yeah.

MH: Too true. Yeah,

AM: I also should have mentioned Cecilia Colledge was an early genius skater back in her day. You know, she was a big medalist against Sonja Henie.

MH: And arguably better than!

AM: Yes! You could absolutely make that claim 100%. So all right. Well, how did the opportunity to join the cast of Dancing on Ice come your way once your competitive career was over?

MH: Well, it was actually after it’s World’s 2010 and so my partner, my competitive partner, Christina, was from the U.S. and she she married a British guy, but we didn’t … she didn’t get passport in time to put us in contention for the Vancouver Olympics. So that season, it was just a horrible, messy situation. But we did get assigned Worlds anyway. After Worlds, we had intended to continue for another season, and we went to Christopher Dean, who was touring with Dancing On Ice, to ask to choreograph our next season’s free dance. We thought that you know that would be a great experience, and it might also help sort of politically for us to have a big powerhouse name behind us.

And so we … the tour that he and the cast were doing, came to Sheffield where we trained, and during one of their lunch breaks, we we popped over and we said hi, and I saw the kind of behind the scenes of Dancing On Ice, and … I don’t know what it was. I remember one day going back into the rink, and I … Allison, I adore skating, and I was you know infatuated by skating, and I would always be, you know, the first one to turn up, and I’d be on the ice first. And one day, I went to the rink and was like … we did a group class and I remember just saying to the coach, “I’m just going to get off.” And I went off, and that was it. I was like, “I’m done.” And then with what the catalyst? I don’t know if the catalyst was seeing Dancing on Ice and that experience, but then I sent an email just to connect and say, “Listen, actually, I don’t think we want you to choreograph a program, but I’m kind of interested in that concept of joining the cast next year. And then that was that. And I was really fortunate that then Chris facilitated me getting a job on the TV show, and then that kind of took my life in a completely different trajectory.

And fortunately, because skating … because the political aspects of the sport and the not nice sides of the sport were really sad and hard, I’m then really incredibly grateful to Dancing on Ice because even though it wasn’t real skating — because skating with celebrities or skating with anybody that’s been skating for a matter of months isn’t sort of real skating by the standards that we define it by world class skating — it did give me the opportunity to skate and have fun and have a purpose and have something to work towards. And it was just the most amazing, unique life experience.

AM: Wow! And you did it for how many seasons?

MH: I did 12.

AM: 12. During those 12 seasons, you got to skate with actors, politicians, a Pussycat Doll singer, and even a Paralympic sprinter.

MH: Yeah.

AM: How did you manage having to work with partners from such disparate backgrounds and some who could not skate at all?

MH: I think now, especially because we’re going to step out of that now, and I can look back … you know, that job was just such an amazing life experience, understanding humans and different humans, and yet knowing that we’re all sort of connected and the same. Because, as you mentioned, I skated with somebody who was blind, skated with somebody who was, you know, an international sort of superstar with the Pussycat Dolls. I skated with, you know, a politician who would be involved in passing laws, and so the disparity of of those different humans really helped me to be a chameleon to try to help people A) learn to skate. But also what was more significant about that job was not teaching somebody how to do backwards crossovers or choreographing simple routines, but it was just about making somebody feel good, feel empowered, and feel confident enough to go and put themselves out there in a medium of movement that they were not really great at, insofar as you know, we all know in the skating world that you can’t really be good at skating in you know four or five months. We made them look like they could! But my job was more more making them feel empowered, and and just to work with so many different people was just, I suppose … yeah. That’s that’s probably really shaped me as as a human as well.

AM: I would also think it makes you an excellent coach because you really have dealt with the breadth of experience.

MH: Well, actually, it’s funny. You know, I do various different skate camps, but I was doing something recently somewhere. Can’t remember what I was, which camp it was that I was at, and I was doing a piece of fun choreography at the end, and they were saying, “Oh, it’s difficult, and oh, we’ll look terrible.” And in my head, I thought, “Listen, I’ve made people that can’t really skate, that are blind, look like they can skate and look good.” So I have a very niche remit of being able to make people look more respectable and nice than their maybe resume dictates.

AM: I’m so curious about this because you probably were … I feel like a lot of male ice dance coaches have to live with this in the day to day when you’re working with a female partner who’s not as skilled. Like your risk for injury is higher, right? Like, was there any worry for you working with people who were probably leaning on you pretty heavily physically?

MH: Yeah, I mean certainly for the female professional skaters, they had the harder job insofar as they generally, with the male celebrities, were dealing with much heavier mass proportionate to them. And actually, you know, sometimes thought that the female pros, their job was incredibly challenging because they would have somebody that was sometimes double their weight leaning on them.

For me, actually, there was one time, as I mentioned, that the celeb … she was nervous and she took an extra step and she took my feet from under me, and that, as I say, dislocated my shoulder live on TV. But again, looking back retrospectively, all things for a reason. Maybe I subconsciously manifested it because at the time I was tied into the contract, but my wife was pregnant. She was due to give birth the very next day, and I didn’t know how I was going to get out in case she went into labor because I was down in London. So being tripped up and having your shoulder dislocated live on national television is not something I would recommend to anybody, but it did mean that I got home! And so I was there for the birth of our son. And then another time, one of the celebs, yeah, my shoulders had an issue with one of the celebs again. But generally, I was I was pretty fortunate. But again, that’s a little bit due to sort of self maintenance and self care as well.

AM: Well, yeah, there is a lot of self care and maintenance, I’m sure. So it must have been such a wild full circle moment for you when you did eventually get to skate with Torville and Dean on the show. I can’t even imagine like the whole reason you got into it in the first place, and here they were!

MH: Yeah, it’s it’s bizarre. And again, having just delivered that speech at my son’s school, and they’re asking, I was to recount some of my experiences, and obviously, you know, thinking about them doing Olympics, and then I have this lovely picture I’ve posted on Instagram. One of the last shows, I think it might have been the last time Jayne and Chris skated on the TV show … we obviously did the tour beyond the TV show, but their last ever performance on the TV show, and there’s a picture of them taking their bow, and I think they might be looking at each other. But I was … there were a lineup of the pros behind, and I just happened to be the pro in the middle. And so there’s Jayne, Chris, and then me, my face. You can see me in the middle, smiling, looking at them. And I thought, “gosh, you know the significance of that young boy that started skating. My whole life has been shaped by the inspiration they provided, and here I am at the culmination of their career.” Super, super cool. And like now, I genuinely just call them friends. Like I, you know, I could call them up and and chew the fat with them if, you know, time allowed it. Which is wild, really, when you think about

AM: It is wild. Yeah, think the number of people you have in your cell phone that you can call up, right?

MH: I do, and it is very broad. Like the contacts that I have are diverse at very least.

AM: How did you get into commentary?

MH: So the the commentary came about … I …like I say, I did one Europeans in one Worlds, and the … I think it was particularly the Europeans that we did, the commentator they had their facts wrong, and they said stuff that wasn’t very nice. And so that’s disappointing because you know I was a total skating geek. As as you mentioned, I would watch videos on repeat. So when I then came off the ice at Europeans and people contacted me from back home and were saying, “Oh, the commentator said X, Y, and Z,” I was like, “Oh, come on, that’s so sad.” You know, you work so hard, and then they they say that stuff? So that my personal experience of being commentated upon was was not nice.

And then subsequently, or also actually at the same time, I remember when I would be listening to commentary, quite often, I’d be like, “Ah, these people don’t know the rules.” And at this time, the system we were working with this new system, and I was living, sleeping, eating, breathing that, and so I was “au fait” with the rules. So then, when I’d hear the commentators who were of a different generation that didn’t, you know, they were not living it. But I just remember thinking, “have you read any of the updates? Like, do you know this stuff?” So that, you know, and then I was younger and fired up, and I used to get annoyed. And then I remember actually during Dancing On Ice, the commentator that came in did the TV show — which was not real commentary, but they were there — and I just I was much more ballsy when I was younger, I think. And I just went up and I said, “you know your commentators, you could do with them reading the rules,” or I think something of that nature. I was probably more polite than that, but anyway, I said that.

And then the the chap just said, “Well, can you do it?” I was like, “I don’t know, maybe.” And then I naively just went and did some commentary for Eurosport, and I must have done a decent enough job that they kept bringing me back. I think I must have been trialed without knowing it, and then I kept being brought back and brought back, and then I did some World championships for Eurosport, and then the World Feed requested me. Somebody from the World Feed requested me, and then more and more people sort of seemed to hear my commentary, and then it just kind of snowballed. And then I was asked to do the Junior Grand Prix by the ISU, and we’re at where we’re at. So I just do whatever I’m asked. I’ve got no kind of … I don’t know what I’m doing next season. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll get asked to do stuff, but like no kind of official contract, and I’ve never kind of officially been told how to commentate.

AM: Really? Because that was yeah, that was my next question. Because I know from having spoken to a couple people here in the United States, NBC not only gives their commentators researchers, but they also have, you know, someone sort of in their ear telling them to talk more or talk less … you know, they’re they’re given a lot more direction. So I was surprised to hear that from you that you you’re sort of … you’re not … you’re actually given sort of free reign.

MH: Yeah! I mean … that said you know I’ve worked with different people. So I’ve worked with a few people that were like broadcasters that I’ve kind of learned from, or they’ve maybe passed tidbits of information and advice to me from. And obviously, having listened to, you know … I remember when I was skating, like late 90s, skating wasn’t on TV much in the UK, and I had this friend from the states who would send me video cassettes of some of the pro-am stuff. And so I’d hear Dick Button and Peggy Fleming and Sandra Bezik, I think Tracy Wilson a bit. And so I would hear these voices like, and I’d you know listen and listen and listen. So I think I’d subconsciously and unconsciously studied, you know, some of these amazing commentators. But I hadn’t had, you know .. I certainly do not … I’ve never had a researcher. When I hear about the indulgence of somebody saying you get a research, they have a researcher? I’m like, you get somebody to give you notes. I spend hours trying to get notes!

AM: And honest to God, I feel like — just to turn the tables on me for a second — I would be amazing at that job! I would love to be the researcher job! So if you ever get a budget for a researcher, please call me.

MH: I’ll let you know! Amazing.

AM: I’m like, “why doesn’t NBC hire me? I’ve been doing this forever.”

MH: Yeah, you should. You should reach out.

AM: So who was your favorite commentator growing up when you were listening to the Dick Buttons and the Sandra Beziks and everything?

MH: Well, I think I I think it’s important to acknowledge that my understanding is that commentary by its very nature was different. Human society, culture by its very nature was different then, so there was more of a critical and sort of self analysis. I know that you’re a huge fan of Dick Button, and he’s an absolute legend. And his voice is epic. Some of his comments are epic, and I think probably because I revered, you know, those pro-am events and watched them endlessly, that’s probably shaped me stylistically. Like I have a nice layback, probably because of Dick Button, you know!

AM:
But I’m also not sure he’d be able to get away with some of the stuff he said today, right?

MH: And I wouldn’t want to be that. And I think also, you know, it’s a different entity for me because, you know, I’m not an Olympic champion. So for me, it’s never meant … I don’t want my comments to ever be about me. It’s not about me. It’s about celebrating people and celebrating skating. So I’m all for celebrating skaters and skating, but just I’m like a conduit for that. I just happen to be a guy that asked to do it, and and is a geek about the sport, and you know … so yeah. But that said, when you ask me about who my favorites were, you can’t help but admire the gravitas of those voices. And Sandra Bezik, like she’s like just got the most amazing voice. And I think … I don’t know. I just you know when I think back to those videos, I just think, oh, those people were so cool. Like wow!

AM: And how much notice are you given? So, if you, if you know the Grand Prix is coming up in the fall, how much notice does whoever it is, if it’s Eurosport or the ISU, how much notice do you have?

MH: Well, for the Junior Grand Prix, I know this will be my fifth year of covering the Junior Grand Prix, and that’s already like in the … I know that that’s happening.

AM: You’re doing your homework now.

MH: I actually, I’m not actually started. What I will do is I’ll print off the entry list as soon as the entry list is released. I’ll print off the ISU biographies and then I’ll start stalking them all online to try and get some tidbits.

For Senior Grand Prix, that’s normally a little bit later, and that’s from a production company. So that’s not through the ISU. There’s a company that the ISU have that then take control of the production of the broadcasts, and so I just have to wait and see. But fingers crossed, and then I’ll just do as much research as I can because I think I owe it to the skaters to represent them as best I can. I think that for me personally, I feel like it’s so important that we celebrate humans, and I think that you know we can just see from the last Olympics, you know, people fell in love with some of the humans like Alysa [Liu] and Ilia [Malinin], and so you know, for me, the more we can celebrate humans, then hopefully people can connect with them more, not just the sport. The sport’s been around for hundreds … well, 1896 was the first World Championship. So the sport’s going to survive. But if we can connect more people with the humans, then that might attract more viewership.

AM: Well, I will say that one of my favorite commentators is Chris Howarth, also of Great Britain. So I wonder, is there any rivalry there between you two, or no?

MH: I don’t … I hope not! I don’t know! I think … I mean, Chris Howarth. He is, you know, an absolute legend, and he, you know, he’s been commentating. He has so much experience, and he’s so good.

AM: He’s so good. Yes. I will seek … I will absolutely seek you two out for listening to you rather than our homegrown commentators, 100%.

MH: Interestingly, people often tag me online and say they wish they had heard, you know, whatever we were saying instead. But because it’s geoblocked and I don’t use a VPN to hear, so I actually haven’t really heard the current US commentators. But anyway … with Chris, I suppose I suppose effectively there’s some competition insofar as either I’m covering an event for … either generally it’s either been me or Chris or maybe like Ted’s [Barton] done a couple, but we tend to be now taking the role of commentator. So I suppose in that regard there’s an element of competition, but he’s so good that I’m happy that if I’m not covering it, that somebody is that is celebrating the skating and the skaters.

AM: Yeah, yeah. Has the Scottish accent ever been an issue for anyone?

MH: Sometimes I see online people say … normally, it’s caveated with a kind of nice, like, “Oh, we really like him. We can’t always understand him.” But I think my … I don’t know. I don’t get to go home to Scotland too often, unfortunately. But whenever I do go home, I realize my accent is very diluted. It’s very mild and weak comparative to what it was. So perhaps I’ve subconsciously tried to train it to be more audible and coherent, easy to understand.

AM: Personally, I love it, but I think I can see how for some people it might be harder.

MH: Yeah, I mean, maybe it’s a blessing that I don’t … maybe it’s something that people … maybe it’s helped me. I don’t know.

AM: So I, you know, at the top of this Zoom call, you were … here you are in your garage, you know, surrounded by wonderful photos of your family, and you’re not in a formal studio, right? So, how are you doing this remotely? Do they provide you with a big monitor and they … does someone come and hook it up for you, or how does it work?

MH: Actually, weirdly for the Junior Grand Prix — maybe three years ago, four years ago, maybe it must have been the first year, I can’t remember — but early on there was an Italian production company and Roberto Mussy flew out. I picked him up from the airport, and he came and he gave me this laptop, and he connected some stuff, and he was here for a day, and then I took him back to the airport, and they just connected with this laptop. I had to buy some equipment, but now we’re good to go.

I actually, as I mentioned to you, Allison, I haven’t used it since last commentary, and it wasn’t particularly successful, so maybe need to relook at that. But there’s nothing, nothing particularly fancy. And as you say, I’m just in the garage, just you know, trying to manage life. And this is the the pictures are just up on the wall because for you know quite a few weekends throughout the winter, it was nicer to have some photos, then just be with the garden tools!

AM: I love it. Well, how do you compensate when you’re not in the arena and you’re doing it remotely? Obviously, you understand from being a skater yourself that speed and presence in an arena are very different in person versus on camera. How do you compensate for that as a commentator?

MH: I think probably because I’ve had such a good fortune of attending so many events, and obviously studying so much skating and watching so many videos that I have probably a good gauge and pitch for the crossover between where it can be different. But also it’s important to note that for all commentators, as far as I know, all commentators — maybe not like [Tatiana] Tarasova and some of the the Russians because I do see them rinkside — but if I’m at an event, I’ve got to commentate on what’s happening on screen. So I can quite often … so all the World cChampionships that I’ve been to … at Worlds it’s good because they have a commentary booth which overlooks the the rink. So you you know you can see what’s happening down below. But our job is really to commentate on what’s happening on screen, and I think that some people are surprised about that. But there’s no point in us commentating on something that we can see in-venue because it might be a different camera angle than those that are watching at home, so therefore it’s important to just not to talk about what is seen.

That said, being in-venue offers you the opportunity to go to practices, offers you the opportunity to, you know, chat with some skaters, some coaches, and get intel. So certainly, being on site is better given the choice. But effectively, I would be commentating on what I see in front of me at home as I would if I’m there. It’s the exact same pictures that I have to talk over.

AM: Interesting. Okay. All right. Well, I love your commentary as I said. You always keep it super classy, positive, and respectful. So I I love that and keep doing it because it’s great stuff.

MH: Thank you.

AM: But let’s pivot. What are you looking forward to most in this next season of Ice Dance? I know they’re bringing back a compulsory.

MH: Interesting question. I hadn’t even thought about it. I haven’t really given it brain space. Like, what am I looking … what am I looking forward to seeing? I think it’s very divisive. I mean, ice dance is divisive anyway. It’s conscious, right? Oh my goodness! I see. You know, you can’t please all the people all the time because certainly online I think if you like one team, then you make enemies of another team’s fans. But one thing that I am conscious of is that the removal of compulsory or pattern dances … I understand why that happened in the same ways I understand why figures were removed from competition too. I can understand the rationale of that.

From a personal perspective: for many years, in between when I was doing Dancing On Ice or commentary, I would return to Sheffield Rink where I coached, and I would, I would almost always every Thursday that I was there skate with Maureen. Maureen Shepard. And Maureen Shepard was an 82 year old when I last took her for a lesson, and we would put her through the Viennese Waltz, or we try and do the Tango Romantica, and we’d be basically walking it through because she was in her 80s. But there was a language of movement that we shared. So I was like a 30-year-old something. She was 80. Or equally, then you know, if I go and do … when I’ve been doing shows, and a different cast member came, and it’s like, oh, let’s do Starlight Waltz. And there was a language of movement that united and connected us. And I think that was such a beautiful thing that was … you know, didn’t matter what country you skated in. Didn’t necessarily matter the standard of the skater, the gender of the skater. You you’d know, right? Let’s do …

AM: It was a shared vocabulary. Yeah.

MH: A shared vocabulary. And so, yeah, that that to me, the fact that that has gone or or went is just incredibly sad. Thinking that there’ll be a whole load of skaters that don’t know that movement.

Now, obviously it’s coming back in in a way that I think is positive, and I think it will probably … well, I think for many, it’s easy to switch, or has been easy to switch from singles to dance because now ice dance has good skating skills. You know, the skating skills that are judged and given score in ice dance are the exact same criteria as in singles and pairs. So recently, we’ve obviously seen many successful single skaters make the transition across with relative ease. If you know the Golden Waltz, though, is a whole other beast. And so perhaps that might make ice dance more ice dance again. And it is a whole skill.

AM: But what is so difficult about the Golden Waltz in particular that you you think is going to be kind of separating the elites from the amateurs, if you will?

MH: It’s the just the the the hold really. It’s so much about the hold and the the complexity of the steps themselves, but the holds with which they’re done, and the timing and the tempo. So the Golden Waltz is tight; so you’re in you’re in more waltz hold, and it’s just so much harder to skate with somebody in your space like that. And you know, skating skills, the criteria for skating skills — for as I say, ice dance and singles, it’s the same: power, speed, flow, and glide — are big buzzwords on the judging criteria. And so that’s why I think over the course of the last couple of Olympic cycles, ice dancers have understandably choreographed with much more openness of hold because it’s much easier to create speed when you can push out and you’ve not got somebody in your space. Whereas the Golden Waltz requires you to have somebody right there in front of you, so it’s going to be really … it’s much harder to skate with speed, flow, and glide in that way. So you know that’s a skill set.

And it’s it’s almost a shame in a way, you know … for the last Olympic cycles, you’ve had teams that still were from the pattern dance era, the compulsory dance era. Like, you know, Evan [Bates], Piper [Gilles] and Paul [Poirier], Charlene [Guignard] and Marco [Fabbri]. They were skaters that grew up doing compulsories and doing pattern dance, so they will get it. Whereas you’ve got others that are newer to the discipline that didn’t really ever have to do. I’m sure, like Emilea Zingas — she’s an amazing skater! Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she’ll absolutely soar doing it. But I don’t imagine Emilea has had to, you know, learn the Rocker Foxtrot and learn every compulsory dance en route to you know her Senior international career. So it’ll just be interesting to see how you know people are facing that challenge.

AM: Right, right. Did you have a favorite compulsory when you were competing?

MH: Tango Romantica! I really like Tango Romantica.

AM: Why?

MH: Because I think you know … one of the things that I used to like doing on Dancing On Ice as well is to be a character. And I think if I wanted to like psychoanalyze myself, I’m always like quite positive, quite jolly, and quite upbeat. So I used to like doing tango because it was the green light for me to be like …

AM: Be fierce!

MH: I actively have to be fierce and aggressive, a little bit borderline aggressive. So I used to really love doing tango.

AM: OK. I’ll remember that for next time you’re in Chicago. I’ll keep that in mind.

MH: Yeah, get tango.

AM: You are a vegan athlete.

MH: Yes.

AM: So, were you competing as a vegan, or did that come later?

MH: No, actually, that that did come later. And I mean, I grew up in a carnivorous household, whereby I was led to believe that I should be having certain amounts of dairy for calcium and certain amounts of protein. But I watched the documentary Cowspiracy, and then there was another one What The Health, which analyzed elite sports people on a plant-based diet, and then it also showed some of the animal agriculture business and industry. And I basically saw something and then felt like “oh my goodness I can’t now not be vegan.” So I didn’t go out of my way of wanting to be vegan. I just find myself seeing some information that led me to go to that place. And so now, yeah, I’m proudly and passionately vegan. But I’m also joined by Novak Djokovic and so many amazing elite sports people, and I certainly am healthier and probably stronger than I ever was when I wasn’t vegan. But I mean, you can be a really bad vegan too. Like you can eat fries and donuts and be vegan. You know, I am mindful of my nutritional intake.

AM: I think Megan Duhamel is vegan as well, right?

MH: Megan … I think Madison Hubbell was as well. But yeah, I mean, Megan’s really passionately vegan. I’m trying to think. Loads of sports people, Lewis Hamilton … you know, lots of elite sports people, and certainly … yeah, the studies. I suppose you can read for every study that you can read that’s pro-plant based, you can read a study that’s going to say, oh, you need protein in your diet. But for me, yeah … just the concept of you know, I wouldn’t go out and the the animal agriculture industry is pretty grotesque, and it’s all money-based, and a lot of the animals that people are eating are not either looked after very well or fed with much goodness. So it’s just … for me, it’s not good energy to put into your body. So that’s where I’m at.

AM: I think that’s fair. All right, thank you. Well, so I was fortunate enough a month ago to finally attend a Hanretty skate camp. I will tell you, I’ve been skating a very long time. I rarely do these kinds of camps with a celebrity skater because I just personally find them to be a very expensive meet-and-greet, and you don’t really get a lot out of it. And and I’m not going to lie, I was not going to sign up for your camp, but I had three people who were like, “you have to do this one, Allison. You’ll really love it. You’ll love it. And I did it. And I loved it.”

MH: Yay!

AM: And I got so much out of it. I think partially because you know people that I knew that you and I are mutually friends with were organizing it and did a really thoughtful job making sure it was just a good solid day of activities and it was it was well-planned. But I got so much out of it. I really do hope you come back to Chicago to do another one! Tell me how those got started and how many you do a year. It seems like you’re traveling quite a bit doing these camps.

MH: Yeah, so I’m I’m thrilled that you enjoyed it, and I … actually the the Hanretty skate camps was my wife’s kind of initiative. She has … she’s an ice dancer, and she’d done skate camps in Europe. So it was quite common that there’d be these European adult skate camps where they would go to beautiful European destinations and they would skate and ski. And so that was something that she had done. And my coach Jimmy Young used to do that, and still I think does in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. And so she had suggested … she obviously knew that in the UK, like I was, you know, was a World Championship competitor, and people in our little world would know of Mark Hanretty. And she said, “Why don’t you do your own?” And so we just hired some ice and advertised, and then it kind of grew. And then … we’ve been doing it for 15 years, and we host as many as we can. My schedule is always erratic, largely because of Dancing On Ice, and then commentary. But we just do as many as we can kind of muster. But we probably do about five or six a year in the UK, and we organize … like I book the ice, you know, take all the bookings, facilitate it. But then I am then asked to go to like Chicago or Abu Dhabi or you know Australia, I’ve done them, and then somebody else will take over the administration, and I’ll just come and and deliver the course.

But for me, I think I love people, I love ice skating, and I think you know I’ve obviously competed and coached elite level skaters, but then that Dancing On Ice experience of being complete beginners. You know, I’ve worked with people that are disabled, that can’t see … so I have, through the course of my various different experiences, shared skating with such a broad spectrum of people that I think that kind of serves me to help to deliver these camps. And now there’s nobody I haven’t met anybody that that scares me for like, how am I going to help them to ice skate? Because I feel like I can give a positive experience on ice with skates on to anybody. Or I can certainly try.

AM: Well, I think you do a bang-up job. I thought you had a very large group of very happy adult skaters in Chicago when you were here.

MH: Good.

AM: Yeah, I mean, is that is your teaching in those camps sort of similar to how you teach when you’re not coaching at home? Like the same principles that you walked through during the camps?

MH: Totally the same principles. And I think a lot of the it’s as we talked about earlier on in our conversation, for me, you know, why did I not go on to then become, you know, World medalist? And through those experiences, I thought I had to create some kind of hack so that a skater that doesn’t get to skate as often —because I didn’t skate that often — or is not exposed to world class has a clear understanding of how to improve to a world class degree, like a hack, if you like. And so that was kind of how the way that I coach was born. And then also I suppose like I maybe don’t give it enough credence, and thinking about it now makes me aware. But but I suppose Dancing On Ice also, although it was never elite skating, you had to make somebody improve really really fast. And so then that also helps fuel me to coach and expect people to be able to improve an exponential degree.

My current quandary is how do you create world class without a system that can be borderline abusive? Because we obviously know our sport — because it’s an early specialization sport, particularly for singles, the ice dance is different — but particularly for singles, it has to be an early specialization. And so often we then see that there’s a really negative and often quite abusive approach to help skaters to be improving at a fast speed. And that’s something that I would never do. I just I’m not here for that. That wouldn’t bring me joy, and I could go to sleep at night being aggressive and nasty and abusive to any young athlete. You know, that’s that’s my current thought process: is how do you create world class? I think then any coach that’s going to do it from a kind of positive approach has to be so all-consumingly into it to generate that world class.

But interestingly, I did see …I don’t know if you saw recently … one of my friends, Vanessa Bauer, who was a professional skater on Dancing On Ice. She just did some content creation with Gabriella Papadakis, and what I found very interesting was Gabriella is obviously an Olympic champion, you know, one of the best skaters in the world, and she has spoken about some of the challenges of being raised by her mother and in the sport, and and has articulated that it could be unhealthy on occasion. And then Vanessa, who looked almost as good as an Olympic champion, I think Vanessa did one Junior Grand Prix and then left the sport and acknowledged leaving the sport. She’s been quite vocal about the fact that it gave her an eating disorder. It was unhealthy. It was toxic and all the rest of it. But then she’s gone on and she’s done over a decade’s worth of professional skating where I have been a part of seeing that, and she’s been joyful in the pursuit of good skating. And she’s now looks truly world class. And so that’s interesting to me. It’s like, oh, I just saw two skaters recently, one of which was not in the competitive environment for 10 years, but now looks world class. So you can be world class if the passion is burning and the work ethic is strong.

AM: Well, and I think also if you feel liberated and you own it in a way, right?

MH: Yeah, yeah, so true, so true. Yeah, it’s just interesting concepts about the creation of of excellence. Intriguing.

AM: It’s a lot to cover in one workshop in a couple hours on the ice, right?

MH: It’s all so interesting, like because for me, even though I’m 41 now and I’ve got the pressure and responsibility of, you know, family and mortgage and bills, but I am not fit enough to do a four-minute free dance run through by any stretch. But I am a better skater now than the skater that was competing at Worlds, who trained every day, didn’t have wife, kids, mortgages, life stuff. But I’m better now, and that just shows to me well something in my experience or my brain has changed to facilitate me to be more world class in my movement than when I was theoretically training as a world class athlete. So just interesting concepts.

AM: I think some of it’s just maturity as well, you know?

MH: Yeah, yeah, and also defying the the concept of the aging process.

AM: Well, I think skating keeps us all young. That’s why I’m still doing it.

MH: Yeah, amen.

AM: Doing it a long time, and it also preserves our skin, right? Because we’re well preserved, all of us.

MH: Well, yeah, apparently. So, where was I? Was yeah, I was in Abu Dhabi recently, and I was joking. I said, “Well, if I’m a 41 year old man, if I can do it, then you know, pipe down and crack on with it.” And they said, “You’re 41?,” and I was like, “what are they thinking? That I look 61 or 21?” But fortunately, fortunately, skating is preserved a part of it.

AM: Well, all right. I’m officially out of questions for you, Mark. And please do come back to Chicago. Make it an annual thing. I will come every year.

MH: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for having me, and thank you for doing what you do to cover skating. And yes, hopefully our paths will cross again.

AM: Yes, I do hope our paths cross again because he’s wonderful.

So that’s it for episode 90 with Mark Hanretty. And until next time, may you feel empowered to make your skating world class. I hope you keep your skating so positive because skating is fun, and unless you can make it excellent, just for me, don’t skate to Carmen. Thank you. Bye.