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Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2016 1:22:17 GMT
Figure skating has done more for Emmy Francek than earn her medals in competitions. The 16-year-old Sewickley girl first took up ice skating as a child to help her walk. “I couldn't walk until I was 4,” she said, noting a pediatrician suggested she take up a sport to correct the problem. “I was supposed to start a sport that would challenge me.” Francek quickly found a love for the sport and was hooked. “I fell in love with it from the start, and after a few months of working at it, I could finally walk,” Francek said. “It was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me.” Today, the Sewickley Academy sophomore is such a good skater, she's earned top marks at figure skating competitions. Elena Valova, an assistant skating coach at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center on Neville Island, where Francek trains, said Francek's artistic ability is rare. “She's very talented,” said Valova, a former pair skater from Russia who won an Olympic gold medal in 1984.
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2016 1:28:58 GMT
Haley Beavers won the women’s novice title Monday at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, scoring 150.93 points to finish ahead of silver medalist Alexia Paganini. Beavers, of Newark, Del., had the highest scores in both the short program (52.35) and Monday’s free skate (98.58). Paganini, of Harrison, N.Y.,scored a total of 142.88 points, and Sierra Venetta of Danville, Calif., earned the bronze medal with a score of 129.04. Skating a Cirque du Soleil-themed program, Beavers executed five triple jumps (two in combination) plus a double axel-double axel sequence performed in the second half of the routine. "I really wanted to be more consistent and precise," Beavers said of her preparation. "I didn't need to have a perfect skate, but I wanted to do the best I can." Beavers led silver medalist Alexia Paganini by more than five points after the short program. It was Paganini who bested Beavers at Eastern Sectionals in November. "I had the same confidence throughout this competition," Beavers continued. "I know that I'm capable of doing in competition what I do in practice. I have that comfort level."
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Post by Admin on Feb 16, 2016 1:26:10 GMT
The 15-year-old figure skater from Russia, Maria Sotskova, will take part in the Youth Olympic Games, which start on February 12 in Lillehammer, Norway. On the ice Sotskova will be released under the music of Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet". The TV channel "360" talked with the skater in front of the competition and found out about her childhood dreams and "magical" socks. Mary was born in the suburban Reutov, there first time out on the ice on a normal sports stadium. Then the mother took her to the coach Svetlana Panova, Sotskova began skating professionally. Today is a day filled with training skater on the ice and in the gym, in addition, she has to spend a lot of time for a choreographic machine. "As a child I thought that I have some magic socks that I always put on only at the start, and here they were magic Now I grew up and realized that no socks thing." - said the athlete. At the first event in their lives - the Championship of Moscow - Sotskova took 30th place and was very upset. To cheer their daughter, her parents promised her a gift, if it takes the first place in the competition. "If I was in the first place, my parents promised to give a dog, and when I won, I was shaking over the dog: the first place - that is, where's the dog, but the dog was given to me only seven years later, when I was already in 70 first places?" - shared the girl. The Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, will be held in 12-21 February 2016. The competition involves young men and women from 15 to 18 years old. 29 sets of medals will competed by more than a thousand athletes from 70 countries.
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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2016 5:13:34 GMT
Russia’s Polina Tsurskaya triumphed by a distance the ladies’ figure skating at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Tuesday and won gold with a score of 186.04. Maria Sotskova won silver to make it a Russian double. “I’m very satisfied that I did everything I was supposed to do,” said Polina Tsurskaya. And added that she was proud “that my national anthem was playing because of me. Because of my achievements, we did well in the Youth Olympic Games.” Maria Sotskova, also from Russia, struggled with a disappointing short program on Sunday, but in an impressive comeback in the free program she recovered from eighth position to climb the podium at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre to collect the silver medal thanks to a score of 169.50. Sotskova, who also finished in second position behind Tsurskaya at the Junior Grand Prix 2015/16 final, said nerves had got the better of her before skating the free program. “I am really happy, because my performance was not so perfect. I thought I wouldn’t take a medal. I’m happy I took silver. I was so nervous, but my family will be very proud,” she said. “Everybody [in my team] was so nervous after my first performance [short program] and now it’s like ‘phew’. I had problems in the short program, it was difficult for me, every day I thought about it. I was so sad.”
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Post by Admin on Mar 1, 2016 5:04:31 GMT
South Korea's 11-year-old figure skating prodigy You Young has Olympic gold in her sights and with a tough, six-hours-a-day training regime, she's prepared to work hard to get it. Despite her tender years, You has been hailed as the heir apparent to Korean ice queen Kim Yu-Na after she became the country's youngest ever ladies singles champion last month. You, who is only 4ft 7ins (143 cm) tall, stunned her competitors at the national championships and was quickly dubbed a "figure skating genius" by a prominent newspaper. It was an overnight success which has been years in the making, starting with You's first attempts at skating aged five at a rink in tropical Singapore, where she grew up. "Young mastered the single axel in just two lessons. The coach said such a kid was unheard of," You's mother, Lee Sook-Hee, told AFP. "She is even better than I was," said Kim, who was on hand last month as You broke the retired great's record to become South Korea's youngest national champion.
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