Last week’s Champs Camp had a different–and positive–vibe for Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, compared to other recent training camps. For the first time in several years, the duo are starting this season feeling ready, prepared, and, most important, healthy. Green and Parsons, who train at the Michigan Ice Dance Academy [MIDA] in Canton, are grateful to be in this position for the 2025-26 Olympic season. Because not so long ago, things were quite different. At Worlds last spring, the duo spoke with us about the challenges they’ve faced. 

An injury, and a choice

Back in late spring 2023, Green and Parsons were on a roll. The team won silver at the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed an impressive 6th at the 2023 ISU World Championships (their first Worlds). However, behind the scenes, injury problems loomed.

“I was getting quite a bit of pain in training in spring/summer [2023], as we were building the programs,” Parsons said. “I found out that I had bilateral labral tears [in both hips].”

The diagnosis cued up a difficult decision for Parsons. His options were to have surgery immediately–which might have led to missing part of the 2023-24 season–or to soldier on and try to skate through the season, with the help of physical therapy.

“I thought, at the time, that it would make more sense to compete, and not miss the season two years before the Olympics. We were trying to build momentum,” Parsons said. “In hindsight–which is always much clearer than foresight–I really should have just elected to have the surgery then and there.”

The decision took a toll. Green and Parsons struggled through their fall 2023 competitions, earning lower-than-expected placements.

“Some people tear their labrums and never feel pain, and are able to train through it. It’s a very common injury. Then for some people, it’s just very painful. For me, unfortunately, it was a very painful tear,” Parsons said. “It’s something I felt every day in training. It was a very, very hard season.”

In January 2024, Green and Parsons competed at the pressure-packed U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Over half a dozen talented U.S. ice dance teams were vying for only three coveted Worlds spots. Unable to perform to their usual standard, Green and Parsons slipped from their 2023 silver-medal finish to fourth place, and off the World team. It was a crushing result for them. 

“The free dance at Nationals was one of the most disappointing skates I can remember,” Parsons said. “As we were getting off the ice, Charlie [White, their coach] said, ‘Look at the ice, remember this moment, so that you can remember to never feel this way again.’ That image of the rink in Columbus will always be seared into my memory. All the emotions attached to it are something I never want to repeat.”

It was a low point. By then, Green and Parsons knew there was no avoiding the inevitable.

“Surgery is a scary word for any team,” Green said. “But when we got to the end of the season, it was almost a relief. Because it was really difficult emotionally for him to come to the rink every day in pain. To know that it’s going to be a tough day, no matter what. It made it really hard to do what we needed to do.”

The road back from surgery

Parsons had surgery in Vail, Colorado, and then did post-surgical rehab. He was off the ice for three months.

“The left side [hip] was the worst tear. They repaired the left side, reshaped my femur and pelvis, and then did PRP [platelet-rich plasma] injections on my right side,” Parsons explained. “The right side is technically still torn, but it gives me very little pain. I’m also very, very dedicated to my physical therapy [PT] regime now, which keeps it under control. That was a big lesson learned: Do not stop PT.”

While Parsons was recovering, Green kept herself busy in Michigan working on their programs for the 2024-25 season. The team had collaborated with their coaches and choreographer Jean-Luc Baker to choose the music for what became a hypnotic, intense free dance: “Spiegel im Spiegel” and “Dance Me to the End of Love.”

“Before Michael went to Colorado for surgery, we all got to experiment and feel out if we had a connection to the music. Then we decided, as a collective, this is the direction we want to go,” Green said. “The week after that, it was just me and Jean-Luc, experimenting and blocking out the program to have the bones of it for when Michael got back.”

Tanith White suggested Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” for the team’s 2024-25 rhythm dance. 

“It was one of those moments where you hear it and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is going to sound good onstage. We have to find a way to use this,’” Green recalled. She choreographed some of the dance herself. “It was really fun to experiment with setting up elements. I think I did the whole footwork [sequence] on my own while Michael was gone. It was fun to have something to show him when he got back.”

“To get back on the ice the first time, and have Caroline show me the midline [step sequence] that we were going to do, was quite a surprise,” Parsons said with a smile.

Green and Parsons both contribute to the choreography of their programs in different ways.

“Caroline is definitely the more out-of-the-box thinker when it comes to choreography,” said Parsons. “My contribution is what will work in terms of body mechanics, movement- and line-wise. Combining that, we get really cool abstract or experimental shapes that still feel complementary. Because, at the end of the day, it has to be comfortable enough to do consistently in the programs.”

The duo also had to change their approach to lift training due to Parsons’s surgery. One of their in-house fitness trainers, who runs a Pilates practice at their rink, was a helpful resource for Green.

“She’s a classical Pilates instructor,” Green said. “To have that really specific focus on the proper technique, and what [muscles] you’re engaging and when, has totally changed me. I feel like a completely different skater. It’s such a mindful practice. A lot of what we do is so intense that it’s nice to unwind and focus inward.”

Brooke Castile-O’Keefe, the 2007 U.S. pairs champion, also coaches at MIDA and played a key role in helping Green and Parsons regain and improve their lifts. 

“Brooke is incredible at pushing us to hit these new positions off the ice, and she’s really good at giving us strength exercises to improve our ability to hold positions,” Parsons said. “A lot of credit has to go to Brooke for our lifts.”

“She has such an emphasis on strength [for] female skaters, and she’s very imaginative in terms of lifts,” Green added. “She’s found a way to meld the world of pairs and ice dance. We were thinking of how we can leverage our strengths in lifts, which is something we’ve struggled with a bit. A thing we do really well is counterbalance positions, which require strength on both ends. It’s an interesting way to play with balance and tension.”

“I think Caroline is one of the strongest girls I’ve ever seen on the ice. Why not use that as an advantage in lift positions?” Parsons said.

Growing up together (and banking marbles)

Dealing with an injury can be difficult for any skater. But Green and Parsons’ long history as friends and partners helped them overcome.

Green, 21, and Parsons, 29, have been partners for six years, but have known each other much longer. The two skaters, who are both from the greater Washington, D.C. area, spent a decade training in the same ice dance group in Maryland with coaches Andrei Kiliakov Sr. and Elena Novak.

Parsons competed with his sister Rachel; in 2017, they won Junior Worlds. Green, meanwhile, competed with her brother Gordon; they were 2019 U.S. junior champions. When both of their siblings retired in 2019, Green and Parsons made the decision to team up.

“Not only did we have the same technique growing up, but just being around each other and being in the same community creates this emotional and personal compatibility. We’ve been a part of each other’s lives for so long,” Green noted. “I knew Michael as a person, not just as a skater.” 

“So much of a partnership–both in and out of skating, but specifically in skating, in this context–is built on trust,” Parsons observed. “Our sports psychologist likens it to a marble jar. You put marbles in; you take marbles out. Because we already knew each other, to a degree, and had trained together for a long time before we started skating together, I think we had already banked enough marbles to get a good start in our partnership.”

Green and Parsons revealed how their siblings–and former partners–feel about figure skating today.

“My sister Rachel left the sport at the best time for her,” Parsons said. “She’s a much happier, healthier person outside of the sport. I think that she misses parts of skating. She occasionally gets on the ice down in Florida [where she lives]. But I think there’s a lot of really hard elements to competing that I probably won’t miss, either, when I’m done.”

It’s a bit different for Caroline Green’s brother, Gordon. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who’s a stronger competitor than Gordon. When the time came, he was so laser-focused, so locked-in,” Green recalled. “He’s been finding other ways to channel that energy; he went straight from college into law school. But he loves watching and analyzing when we’re skating. I don’t always like to watch [events] I’ve competed in, so to get his perspective on the programs–now that he has a little more separation–gives me a lot of insight. I think he’d make a really good judge. Whenever I’m home, we always end up watching figure skating somehow. We’ll watch, like, a random team event from 2010.” 

“Rachel and I are the opposite,” Parsons said. “When we’re together, we almost never watch skating. If it were a big event, like Worlds or Olympics, we would watch. But I can’t remember the last time Rae and I sat down and watched skating together.”

Finding inspiration off the ice

Parsons and Green cherish their bond with their families and visit when they can. But Michigan is home for the time being, and both skaters have found their niche there.

“I think the move to Michigan was exactly what we needed,” Parsons said. “I’ve really grown to love it. D.C. is so different from the Midwest. It’s adjusting to walking down the street and having someone say, ‘Good morning. How are you?’ and actually mean it.” 

One of Parsons’s favorite hobbies is working on his car, an old BMW that he’s been gradually restoring. He also enjoys biking and aspires to do a single-day bike trip across Michigan at some point. (“Probably not until after the Olympics,” he said.) 

Green lives in an apartment near the Canton rink. Parsons opted to live a half hour away in downtown Detroit, where he enjoys the city’s thriving music and art scene. 

“There are like six DJs who live in my building, so sometimes it’s hard to sleep,” Parsons said. “But there’s so much cool music and art. It not only enriches my life outside of skating, but also informs my artistic decisions.”

Creativity, both on and off the ice, is a touchstone for both Green and Parsons.

“As a kid, I loved creating art so much. I was always involved in drawing, painting, music,” Green said. “So, to be able to basically do ice dance as my job is such a blessing. I think if I couldn’t create, I would go insane.” 

Last summer while Parsons was recovering, Green took off-ice dance classes and choreographed a floor dance routine for a fundraising event. Green’s piece featured some of the other MIDA ice dancers.

“I rallied all the skaters in the rink to come join it,” Green said. “I really love merging the worlds of dance and skating. That’s not the case for everyone. For some people, the ice feels like home, and dance outside of that is a little scary. It can be hard to be vulnerable in that other way.” 

Green is a big fan of Broadway musicals (which led in part to the team’s selection of Sunset Boulevard for their gala program). She also enjoys knitting and crocheting.  

“I did a lot of handmade Christmas gifts, including a scarf for Tanith. Their son Charles is a big Minecraft fan, and I made him a little Minecraft beanie hat, with [Minecraft] creepers on it,” she said.

Parsons, meanwhile, writes poetry and songs. He finds inspiration in many places. 

“Whenever I go home to DC, one of my absolute favorite things is to take a Saturday morning, before it gets too crowded, and just sit in the National Gallery of Art, usually in the Impressionist wing,” Parsons said. “That is one of my favorite places in the world.”

Desperately seeking songs (the right ones)

Parsons reflected on how art interacts with their sporting life.

“When something resonates, I try to keep it and remember it, especially pieces of music. Nothing makes me cry as easily as the right piece of music at the right time,” he said. “I think that’s part of being human. Why not bring that into our skating?”

Green and Parsons are deliberate and intentional in their music choices. They look for pieces that speak to them authentically, or allow them to create movement in a certain way. But they also seek music that will evoke a strong reaction from audiences. 

“What we like to focus on in our free dances, especially, is creating and controlling the space,” Parsons said. “‘Dance Me to the End of Love’ and ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ are pieces that give you space to move and breathe in a multitude of ways. The Ezio Bosso piece [for their 2021-22 Martha Graham free dance] was the same. I think it sounds great on the ice because there aren’t too many moving pieces to it. There’s enough to keep you fully emotionally invested, and that’s it.”

Finding music for their programs is an ongoing effort. The right mindset–and moments of serendipity–also play a role.

“We like to get ahead, while the [competitive] year is still going, so there’s not that pressure of a time crunch–like, we need to get a program done in the next four weeks,” Green said. “When you listen to music with that goal in mind, everything seems like it can work, but nothing seems like it can work. And it gets really stressful. So we like to be exploratory throughout the season. Sometimes that’s when we’ve gotten some fun discoveries.”

Their experience in Boston

The duo rebounded from Parsons’s surgery with a satisfying comeback last year, earning a bronze medal at the 2024 U.S. Championships and a second trip to the World Championships. Both relished the opportunity to perform for the home crowd at TD Garden in Boston. It was an exceptionally high-stakes competition, due to the impressive talent level in the event and the pressure to qualify countries’ Olympic spots. Green and Parsons rose to the occasion, placing 9th and earning their best scores of the season. They said the tough times of the past few years prepared them for the challenge. 

“Without having that experience–without going through a really hard, frustrating season where we didn’t reach our expectations–we wouldn’t be in a place where we could enjoy every moment of this [Worlds], which was such an intense, high-pressure situation,” Parsons reflected. “We are equipped, I think for the first time in our careers, to enjoy this moment. Whereas, if you put us in this moment two or three years ago, there’s a much higher chance we would have bent under pressure, or let one mistake derail an entire program. We didn’t have a clean free dance [in Boston]. It was not our best skate of the season. But we’re very proud of it. We put down a performance that left us feeling good about moving toward next season. We could only do that because of how hard last season was, and the lessons that we learned.”

As they look forward to the new Olympic season, Green and Parsons can’t wait to show the best of themselves this coming year.