Gracie Gold followed a long journey from skating class in Springfield to one of the sport’s best

Before Gracie Gold was a two-time national champion and one of the best figure skaters in the world, she was a standout student in a Springfield class for children learning to skate.

It only took two classes — well, one and a half, to be precise – for her to be noticed by teacher Amy Vorhess (now Amy Bujdos-Bifulk).

The instruction from Vorhess to Denise Gold, Gracie’s mother, was to get her daughter into private lessons immediately.

“Gracie took a second class and they just said — and this isn’t standard — but they said she was really talented and she could benefit from private lessons,” recalls Denise of a seven-year-old Gracie. “She started doing private (lessons) with Amy right away.”

This weekend in Boston, Gold competed against top skaters at the World Championships. After leading following the short program, Gold finished fourth for a second consecutive year.

Neat year, Gracie will return to Missouri as the reigning champion at the U.S. Championships, which are set for Jan. 14-22 at Sprint Center.

Gold’s journey to the top crisscrossed the region for almost a decade. Her family also spent time in Springfield, Ill., Kansas City and Chicago before she found her current training base in Los Angeles.

Early coaches in Springfield, Mo., included Vorhess and Max Liu, who had an impact on the measured, purposeful approach that Gold has become known for.

“I always give Max credit because he was very creative and he adored Gracie,” Denise Gold said. “He really fostered her drive.”

Yet Denise realized Gracie needed “something more” soon after she and twin sister Carly began skating at age 8.

So Denise found Randy Brilliantine in Kansas City. They made the trip twice a week before another change was needed. They started making a five-hour trip on a weekly basis to Springfield, Ill.

“We would go up every weekend,” Denise recalled. “Five hours each way. For two or three years we did that. We eventually moved there because it was too much.”

Gold was oh-so-close to earning her first World Championship medal this weekend, but her résumé speaks for itself.

She was U.S. champion in 2014 and again this year, and at the 2014 Sochi Olympics helped the U.S. to a bronze in the figure skating team event. She has continued to knock on the door against the top in the world alongside Ashley Wagner, her chief U.S. rival, and now works in Los Angeles with famed coach Frank Carroll, who guided Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek to Olympic medals.

Denise Gold is thankful she listened to her gut when it came to skating, often bending over backwards for Gracie but never diving head first into a world that can be all consuming.

“I had a lot of people in my ear telling me what I ought to do with the girls, telling us to move to a training center or do this or that,” Denise Gold said. “The girls were only 10 or 11. What if they wanted to do another sport? I was always about keeping a home base.”

It was a decision that helped keep Gracie and Carly – still best friends to this day – close as twin sisters, as well.

“We both share this passion,” Carly says. “I have this best friend I’ve had my entire life. We get to follow our passion together. We can talk about anything and everything. We can lift each other.”

In Boston this weekend, a host of Missouri faces surrounded the Golds.

“The girls have a friend here that they skated with, and her mother, that are here,” Denise Gold said. “There is a whole group. You know, Missouri is here with us. And it was at Nationals, too. We made good friends there.”

Missouri is a skating mecca of sorts if you look close enough.

John Coughlin, Ryan Bradley, the Golds, Wagner and 2009 U.S. silver medalist Brandon Mroz all have ties to Kansas City or the state of Missouri.

In the end, Denise Gold and her family are thankful for the instructor they found first — and what she saw in Gracie Gold as a skater.

“Amy said that she knew from the instant that she worked with Gracie she was going to have success,” Denise said. “I told her I thought she said that to so many parents. We skated with all those kids: There are injuries, roadblocks… how could you ever know if a kid is going to be great? But she did. Amy knew.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Gracie Gold followed a long journey from skating class in Springfield to one of the sport’s best."