After a clean skate and a strong score, the United States Teams Elite Junior synchronized skating team waited nervously in the locker room as the final two teams performed at the International Skating Union World Junior Synchronized Skating championship in Sweden on March 8. Shortly after their performance, the skaters learned they had just made history as the first U.S. team to win the competition.
“Our coach came in, and there were all these [International Skating Union] media people behind her and people recording,” said senior Hannah Yang. “So we all started freaking out. We all ran over to her, and she didn’t say anything, she was just sobbing. And then she held up a one in the air. And then we all freaked out. It was crazy. It felt like a movie.”
The team finished with a score of 205.28 points, placing first out of 24 teams from 19 different countries.
At the competition, teams compete over the course of two days, performing in the short program on the first day and the long program on the second. Scores from both days are then compiled to produce an overall score.
“The short program is super technical,” said Danielle Ostrower, head coach of Teams Elite Junior. “It’s five elements, and it’s shorter, so you hit those five elements, and it’s all about the [technique] there. The long program is more artistic. There’s a little bit more freedom to display transitions and extrafluff or crowd-pleasing moments. And that has eight elements to it, so it accounts for a bigger portion of your score.”
In the short program, the team performed to a remix of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” and skated to pieces from “Swan Lake” for its long program.
“Since [the routine] was ‘Black Swan’-themed, we actually watched the ‘Black Swan’ movie as we were getting ready, and I feel like it really helped us get into character for the actual performance,” Yang said.
According to Ostrower, the team performed a variety of flips, tricks and pair work throughout its Worlds routine.
“[Pair work tends] to be the hardest, because the athletes are supporting their own body as well as somebody else’s body without the assistance of anybody else,” said Ostrower. “So physically, [it’s] demanding, and then the technicalities of how they hold each other to distribute weight, and then also to create beautifully, aesthetically pleasing positions.”
When the team first learned the Worlds routine, skaterswore helmets.
“[Helmets are] for one, falling, and two, what if we get kicked in the head?” said senior Emma Martinelli. “Then, with the blades,everyone’s just hyper-focused on not letting the bladesget anywhere they shouldn’t be. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
According to Ostrower, after the team has learned the choreography, skaters spend a significant amount of time synchronizing the differentparts of their performance.
“We get down to the quarter beats,” said Ostrower. “We do a lot of mirror work and synchronize breathing into the program because we lead with our breath for emotion, and we want to portray a synchronized, uniform vision.”
According to Yang, finding out the team won did not feel real.
“When we got back to the locker room, we were just proud that our performance captured everything we have been working towards this season,” said Yang. “And then suddenly we were World Champions. It still hasn’t fully hit me.”