A friend’s birthday party. That’s all it took for 11-year-old Meigen Yu to decide she wanted to become an ice skater. Meigen’s decision was all her sister Ailin, 10, needed to come to the same conclusion.

The Yu sisters, who are from Fairfield, were in Ames Saturday for the figure skating competition in the 19th annual Iowa Summer Games. They have been skating for two years now and both enjoy it immensely. Meigen “just loves” Michelle Kwan, especially since she is Chinese. Irina Slutskaya is Ailin’s favorite skater because she is “really flexible and she’s an awesome skater.”

Ailin said Slutskaya is also very pretty and she wants to be as good as her one day.

When Sophia Yu, the girls’ mother, heard her daughters’ decisions, her first reaction was dread.

“I thought, ‘Oh no, we have to drive so far’,” she said.

Their father, Larry Sutton, said Fairfield does not have an ice rink in town, so the family is forced to drive 65 miles north to Coralville, a suburb of Iowa City, to find the closest ice rink. The Coral Ridge Ice Arena where the girls practice is located inside the Coral Ridge Mall.

Sutton said they drive up there anywhere from two to four times a week just so the girls can practice and attend lessons with their coach, Burton Powley, a newly-crowned world champion.

“I was surprised,” Sutton said. “They’ve never shown any interest in any sport until skating came along.”

Meigen said she simply wanted to skate when she first started. The thought of becoming a professional skater didn’t cross her mind, but after sometime, thought she would like to.

Ailin on the other hand, was the exact opposite on the issue. She said she would love to become a professional and thought about it from the very beginning.

“We’ll see,” Sophia said. “That’s a lot of sacrifice on the parent’s side. We’ll cultivate their interest for right now.”

Sutton said he would love to see his girls stick with it and develop ice skating as a life-long skill, but he would also love to see them compete in some national and world games one day. But, he wants them to get a good education in the process.

“If they’re well-rounded and well-educated then yes, I would love to see them become professionals,” he said. “We try to support our kids in everything they do.”

So far, the girls have done quite well in their skating competitions, Sutton said. Meigen has earned a couple of gold medals, but both have earned top three medals.

On Saturday, Ailin secured two bronze medals in two of her three events, but Meigen came up short in all three.

Ailin said she was very excited about both winning the medals and qualifying for the first time for the state games.

Saturday’s events were a qualifier for the 2007 State Games of America in Colorado Springs, Colorado.