Houston \u2013 They make it look effortless on the ice, but their rise has been anything but slow.<\/p>\n
Houston-based figure skaters Ian Spencer and Tiffany Kim, skaters for The Skating Club of Houston, have been skating together for just 10 months. In that short time, the pair not only qualified for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the novice level, they stepped onto the national podium, earning a bronze medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think we\u2019d be able to go that far,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their rapid progress has been guided by their coaches, Mark Janoschak and Tammy Janoschak, who are also a husband-and-wife team.<\/p>\n
Ian Spencer and Tiffany Kim (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Tammy Janoschak brings a background in pairs skating, while her husband comes from ice dance \u2014 a combination they say has helped shape Spencer and Kim into a balanced, disciplined team.<\/p>\n
Mark Janoschak knows the Olympic stage well. He is a Canadian ice dance champion and competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I appreciated most was seeing athletes from all over the world in so many different sports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This season carried extra meaning for his students, who competed at nationals during an Olympic year \u2014 an experience that sparked something new.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, I thought the Olympics would just be cool,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cBut after going to U.S. Championships during an Olympic year, it\u2019s definitely something I\u2019d like to work toward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
Ian Spencer and Tiffany Kim (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to the Olympics was always this \u2018wow\u2019 idea,\u201d she said. \u201cBut once we were there, it hit me \u2014 we\u2019re almost there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming off their bronze medal finish, the pair says they\u2019re focused on what\u2019s next, continuing to build on their momentum.<\/p>\n
Their coaches say the success is no coincidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s their discipline \u2014 in the sport and at school,\u201d Tammy Janoschak said.<\/p>\n
As for whether the Olympics could be in their future?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to start with the dream,\u201d Mark Janoschak said.<\/p>\n
And for Spencer, sharing that journey together would mean everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have all that hard work pay off together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Spencer and Tiffany Kim may still be finding their edges, but this Houston pair is already skating toward what comes next.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston \u2013 They make it look effortless on the ice, but their rise has been anything but slow.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[50630,56,58,57,18268,37810,63636],"class_list":{"0":"post-153947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-figure-skating","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-ice-skating","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-u-s-figure-skating"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}