September 25, 2014

  • Giant Inflatable 2018 Olympic Games? Synchronized Team Skating has applied for a place in the 2018 Winter Olympics

    Ms Marie Lundmark Finnish Member of ISU Board of Directors

    Ms Marie Lundmark Finnish Member of ISU Board of Directors

    The ISU has submitted a formal application for consideration by the IOC of the addition of Synchronized Team Skating in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The announcement was made today by Marie Lundmark, Finnish member of the ISU Board of Directors.

    The top 10 Nations in the sport would skate a short program and from them the top six countries teams would advance to the final free skate event. 

    A decision on the inclusion of Synchro Team Skating in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games should announced in April of next year. 

    Anu Oksanen, coach of the team Marigold Unity Ice says she believes that Olympic status for the sport would greatly improve the financial situation for Synchro Skating thus allowing more opportunity for skaters to focus more on training beyond what they can now afford to do.

    The process of seeking admission of Synchro to the Olympics has been a decade-long process with the just announced formal application by the ISU Board of Directors. Oksanen believes that the expected turning point came in 2011 at the World Synchro Championships in Helsinki where the entire ISU Board of Directors were in attendance and had their eyes opened to the sport. Members there saw for the first time the excitement and popularity of the sport. 

    (Note: The above is my english language version (using google translator) of an article by Elina Paasonen, who interviewed Mrs. Lundmark and one of the SySTC members for background, in today's morning addition of Aamulehti, a major Finnish paper @http://www.aamulehti.fi/Urheilu/1194929359193/artikkeli/jattipaukku2018).

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