Our city has become the country’s first to adopt this new sport – with an appeal for more citizens to get involved.
While it has flourished for several decades abroad, it is only now that Ukraine is taking on this new discipline.
The ice sport was taken on to help promote Kharkiv’s coaches of figure skating. These include world championships international master Olga Akimova, master of sports of the USSR Julia Beletskaya and choreographer of city events and TV projects Ekaterina Gulich.
The idea came after the World Cup included synchronized skating. Coaches decided a number of Kharkiv teams: Novice (10-15 years), younger group and Senior (over 16 years).
Gulich said: “It’s just our initiative as coaches and parents of sportsmen.
“We would like to find people who are also interested in this and help us as there are a lot of international tournaments to attend, sewing of costumes and team uniform to make. In general, a lot of things that need money.”
Kharkiven Alina Beletskaya has been skating since age of 14. Now, 19, she is a master of sports, champion of Ukraine in figure skating and a participant of the world championships. She trains up to 6 hours a day, but has opted in a new direction: synchronized skating.
At the heart of synchronized skating is a basic slide. It has elements of a single and pair skating and ice dancing. According to coaches, the main thing is to teach single skaters work together as one coherent mechanism.
In the near future, sportswomen plan to perform in Kharkiv and then at the Ukrainian Cup final in figure skating in Kyiv.
