Klamath Falls becomes temporary home for Oregon figure skater

When the shutdowns in Oregon closed ice rinks around the state, a Portland-area figure skater needed a place to train and the Bill Collier Community Ice Arena was the perfect place.

Two the cold.

For one portland-area figure skater-- southern oregon was his saving grace.

Meet team u-s-a's samuel mindra.

The happy valley figure skater has been finidng ways to train all pandemic long to prepare for the u-s figure skating national championships.

In november he was training in tacoma, washington since oregon rinks were closed.

But in mid-november of 2020-- washington indoor ice rinks closed too.

Samuel mindra says, "after like the few times that it was opening, it had to close again.

And so we just like bouncing around different rinks this whole time."

With less than two months before qualifications for the national championship-- samuel needed a place to work on his routine.

All the ice rinks in oregon and washington were closed... except for the bill collier ice arena in klamath falls.

It was outdoors so it remained open and became crucial to continued success.

Mindra says, "i don't want to get knocked off of team usa, so that was like my main goal for keep on training so i could still be on the team."

Just 17-years-old, samuel has been figure skating for most of his life.

He started when he was just four and has been competing for almost seven years.

It's taught him a lot about life in just a short time and it's why he knew that despite a global pandemic-- he could still compete at the highest level.

14:25 mindra says, "there are good days and bad days.

And when you push through the bad days and makes you feel like you could keep going, like not giving up, getting up after you fall, like all these things, all the