Hanna Harrell
When Hanna Harrell was just a year old, her big brown eyes lit up with gleeful excitement upon seeing a troupe of beautiful ice skaters performing at a rink near her Arkansas hometown. Noticing her young daughter’s delight, Hanna’s mother, Atsuko, approached the show’s director after the performance to find out when her toddler could begin figure skating lessons. Looking at young Hanna in her stroller, the director advised Atsuko to wait a couple of years — and so she did. But by age three, Hanna was on the ice, quickly growing into a skilled and dedicated figure skater. As her extraordinary talent became evident, Hanna captured the attention of notable coaches and others in the skating world. When she was just seven years old and already a fierce competitor, Hanna and her mother relocated to Dallas so that Hanna could receive world-class coaching and training.
Now, at age 18, Hanna is a world-renowned champion who competed in 10 U.S. Championships between 2015 and 2022. Even after a foot injury forced her to withdraw from most of the 2019 season, Hanna rallied back and competed in the 2021 and 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, placing seventeenth and eighth, respectively.
Texas Children’s sports medicine physicians care for all manner of athletic injuries, including foot injuries like Hanna’s. When faced with a condition effecting the lower leg, foot or ankle, athletes can depend on Texas Children’s for treatment of Achilles tendon pain; foot and ankle fractures and sprains; compartment syndrome, a painful and dangerous condition caused by pressure buildup from internal bleeding or swelling of tissues; stress fractures and many others.
With Texas Children’s help, 2022 has already proven successful for Hanna, who placed third in the 2022 U.S. Championship Series in Washington and first in the 2022 U.S. Championship Series in Nevada.