Michelle Kwan’s daughter is already following in her mom’s footsteps!
On Sunday, April 27, the retired professional ice skater, 44, shared a sweet video on her Instagram as she and her 3-year-old daughter Kalista Belle went ice skating. In the video, Kwan can be seen wearing a long gray trench coat and skates, stepping back and forth alongside her daughter.
At her side, Kalista wears a pink and blue helmet, black gloves, knee pads and ice skates, stepping back and forth alongside her mom.
“We officially have an ice skater! My daughter took her first ‘real’ steps (2 years earlier than me!),” Kwan wrote over the video.
“I love her determination,” she continued. “And the skating adventure begins…”
In her caption, Kwan echoed her final statement, writing, “And so it begins…🥹.” In her comments, fellow former professional figure skater and new mom Tara Lipinski wrote, “😍” while Olympic skater Apolo Ohno wrote, “❤❤❤❤.”
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Related: Surprise! Michelle Kwan Welcomes Her First Baby: ‘A Perfect Miracle’
In January 2022, Kwan announced the surprise news on Instagram that she welcomed her first child, a baby girl named Kalista Belle Kwan.
“I’m overjoyed and tears of happiness are streaming down my face as I share the news of the arrival of Kalista Belle Kwan!” she wrote. “I’ve always wanted to be a mom and, to me, she’s a perfect miracle.”
She added that while she found it difficult to imagine what her first child would look like, “it seems like she’s been in my life forever.”
Kwan shared that her “journey to motherhood” was a “challenging” one, which included “a very long labor.” Still, she added, “I’m glad I never gave up.”
Explaining why she kept her pregnancy news private, Kwan said, “As people closest to me know, I’m always full of surprises and tend to keep my personal life private. And, I’ve wanted to share this happy news for many months but each milestone seemed to be exciting and daunting at the same time.”
“Each step of the way, I knew that there was still more time needed until I could hold her in my arms. Here’s a quick montage of the last 9 months to catch you all up:),” she shared.
In 2018, Kwan opened up to PEOPLE about her life after figure skating. Before her retirement in 2006, she took home a silver medal at the 1998 Games and a bronze at the 2002 Games.
“There’s no easy transition for professional athletes, Olympians,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “For 20 years of my life it was all about skating. And then I finished and was like ‘Now what?’ I think athletes struggle with the identity. I was known as a figure skater and then I went back to school, and then I pursued my master’s degree in foreign policy. I’m no longer a figure skater.”
She added that she found it “fascinating” to find a passion “outside of sports.”
“I always say figure skating is a fantastic, amazing chapter of my life,” Kwan said. “But there are many more chapters and things to discover and things to learn.”
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