Exclusive Interview
‘Finding Her Edge’ Author Reveals the Olympic Skating Duo Who Inspired the Book
What To Know
- Author Jennifer Iacopelli revealed to Swooon that the inspiration for her novel Finding Her Edge came from a real Olympic duo.
- Finding Her Edge follows ice dancer Adriana Russo.
- The romantic storyline is loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Now that the 2026 Winter Olympics are underway, we can’t help but turn back to our favorite fictitious skating teens.
Following the massive success of Finding Her Edge Season 1, which follows Adriana Russo (Madelyn Keys), an ice dancer returning to the sport, caught between her former partner and first love, Freddie (Olly Atkins), and her new partner and just-for-show boyfriend, Brayden (Cale Ambrozic), author Jennifer Iacopelli sat down with Swooon to reveal the real-life Olympic skaters that inspired her novel.
While many know that the romantic framework of Finding Her Edge is adapted from Jane Austen‘s Persuasion, Iacopelli revealed “that actually came a little bit later.” Instead, “The first impulse of the idea was right after the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018.” She explained, “I was actually at my mom’s house, and we were watching Ellen, of all things, and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were on the show.”
Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are three-time Olympic gold medalists and are generally considered the greatest duo in the sport. While they were never romantically involved, their connection was all anyone could talk about. Iacopelli recalled, “The only thing Ellen [DeGeneres], and to be fair, every other host at the time, wanted to talk about was whether or not they were dating.”
“I remember sitting there being like, these people are probably the greatest of all time in their sport. They are two-time Olympic gold medalists, one-time Olympic silver medalists,” she explained. “I get that they’re very pretty and that they’ve got incredible chemistry, but they’re the best anyway. They’re insisting they’re not dating. No one believed them. There are people still today who don’t believe them, even though they’re married to other people.”
While Iacopelli didn’t write Finding Her Edge until 2020, the spark of the idea for Adriana and her romantic struggle came then. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s difficult. That’s super intense.’ I write YA, so I thought to myself, like, well, what if that happened to a teenager? What did that feel like? What would that feel like?” Now, that feeling has come to life both on the page and the screen.
Finding Her Edge, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
