In this article, we discuss skating traditions from the welcoming of new team members to annual team hangouts and competition superstitions. We asked for skaters input and got answers from 15 different ISU Senior teams from Montreal to Milan.
The second day of the Lumière Cup - 2nd stage of the Challenger Series - took place on Saturday in the Netherlands.
Although the Netherlands are in lockdown, the 5th Lumière Cup started on Friday in Eindhoven. A relief for the organizers who are setting up for the first time a Challenger Series competition.
The ISU (International Skating Union) updated this weekend the prevention measures for all accredited persons and announced that the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2020 originally foreseen on March 13-15, cannot be staged. A synchro team in Europe has also been tested.
For its second edition, the Cup of Dresden brought together 65 teams in its "Energie Verbund Arena" in Germany. This exciting competition is growing and the teams competed in nine categories.
An exciting weekend took place in Italy where the 4th and last stage of the Challenger Series was organized during the Spring Cup. The Finnish Team Unique confirmed their lead in the senior competition, Junost (RUS) won the junior event. Recap of this crazy day, team after team.
In a few hours, the first Challenger Series of synchronized skating will have its winner. Saturday evening, 23 Senior teams presented their short program in Milan. Recap of the competition before the free programs!
Finnish teams kept dominating the fourth Hevelius Cup in Gdansk, Poland. On Sunday, the ISU categories Senior, Junior and Advanced Novices skated their free programs. Finland took eight medals of nine. In the Interclub competition, it was turn of Juvenile B, Basic Novices and Mixed Age to compete
The multiple-time German champions Team Berlin 1 started the new year by winning their 25th consecutive title and earned their spot for the 2020 World Championships in Lake Placid. 22 other Teams also fought for the top places at the German National Championship which was held in Berlin last weekend.
Lumière Cup 2019 took place this weekend in Eindhoven (NED). 30 synchro teams competed on Saturday evening with their Free Programs. Cool Dreams won the Advanced Novice division, Musketeers delivered an excellent skate and earned the Junior gold and Marigold IceUnity put out a beautiful program in the Senior category.
Finnish teams cruised to their first gold medal in European international competition this season. After the Short Program competition, Marigold IceUnity totaled 74.94 points to seal the Senior victory. Musketeers skated into the lead in the Junior event with 69.98 points. Canada, Germany and France are also on the provisional podium.
This past week, the 2019 Budapest Cup took place in the Hungarian capital. The Russian teams showed once again their skills and won gold in all divisions. This important event was one of the last competitions of the season before the World Championships.