VALENCIA — While only in fifth grade, Christian DePolo has already faced adversity in athletics.

And defeated it.

DePolo, 11, a Center Township Elementary student, suffered a rare Lisfranc (mid-foot) fracture while playing basketball in November. Only basketball isn't his primary sport. That would be figure skating.

Suddenly, the prospect of returning to the ice seemed so far away.

“He was misdiagnosed at first,” Christian's mother, Lonni DePolo, said. “We went to see a juvenile orthopedic doctor and found out there were no guarantees he'd ever walk normally again.

“That injury is tricky. You do the rehab and just hope everything comes back.”

DePolo has been involved in figure skating since age 2. He watched his older sister, Danielle, perform and got hooked on the sport himself.

“I tried hockey after I did Learn to Skate and it was OK. Once I saw my sister (figure) skate ... I wanted to do it, too,” he said.

Danielle DePolo went on to become a silver medalist in the Keystone State Games and rode in the Butler Christmas Parade as a skating champion. Now 16, she is taking a year off from competition.

Christian recently returned to competition — after a three-and-a-half month layoff.

“One of his goals is to ride in that parade as a champion himself, just like his sister,” DePolo's mother said.

But first things first.

DePolo had to wear a cast for four weeks. He was in a specialized boot for six weeks after that, then faced six weeks of physical therapy.

His first time back on the ice wasn't until Feb. 13 at Ice Connection — and this was a guy used to practicing twice a week around the calendar.

“I knew I'd make it back,” DePolo said. “I never questioned it.”

But there were questions to be answered.

“Christian's focus and interest was always there,” Marty Culbertson, his coach for nine years, said. “But could he come back and execute the spins, glides, jumps, all of the things he had learned and was still learning?

“He's a strong kid with a good work ethic. He was not afraid to skate and that definitely helped him.”

His mother said “Christian had to work to get his balance back” during physical therapy.

It all came back.

DePolo does roughly four competitions a year and has medaled (gold, silver or bronze) in every one of them. But he and his pairs partner — 10-year-old cousin Stefani Hartman of Center Township — had only two weeks to prepare a routine for the 18th annual Golden Blades Championships of Pittsburgh.

That event was April 18 at Harmarville Blade Runners.

“I didn't think we'd do well, but I still wanted to go,” DePolo said. “We usually take a year to work on a routine and we run through it about 30 times.”

For this competition, they had two weeks and only one run through the routine on ice.

“We had problems with our CD player and we ran out of time,” Culbertson said.

Yet DePolo's run of success continued. He and his cousin captured the gold medal in pairs and he took silver in his individual routine.

Now he has his sights set on the Pennsylvania State Championships, slated for February of 2016 in York.

“I want to make the Olympics,” DePolo enthused. “I'm serious about this.”

His mother knows it. She's been through this journey before with her daughter.

“Danielle was five when she watched the Disney movie Ice Princess and decided she wanted to do this,” Lonni DePolo said.

“Most people bronze their children's baby shoes. I'll be bronzing their first pair of skates.”