SynchroNice / Fourth Edition / 2019

Madison & Michaela Michaela was born on April 10th, 2001 and Madison on December 14th, 2001. Two beautiful all-American teens living their childhood dream. Where do you guys live? Michaela: I live in Whip­ pany, New Jersey, just an hour outside of New York City. And you Madison? I currently live in Green­ wich, Connecticut, pretty close to where our team practices are held. Is Josh Babb your coach? Michaela: Yes, he is, but he’s assisted by Pamela May and off the ice, we train our program, interpretation, and ballet with Paula Wagner, and our fitness with trainer, Sandra Johnson-Shakalov. Madison: Yes correct, during individual practices, we work on different skills with different coaches like international dances, freestyle but also edge quality. Most athletes we talk to tell us that they started at a very young age, most of them weren’t even 6 years old. How about you guys? Madison: Well, when I was four, I fell in love with figure skating after attending a Disney on Ice show. Since then I always aspired to be just like Princess Jasmine, so I signed up for Learn-to- Skate classes at my local ice-rink in Greenwich. One of my teachers invited me to go to the Skyli­ ners Pep Rally, so my mom and I decided to check it out! I was amazed with what I saw and knew right away that I wanted to become a synchro skater. In 2008 I joined the Preliminary line for Skyliners, and since then I have felt at home with my new skating family. Michaela: I started skating at the age of four at a local rink in Morristown, New Jersey, about 10 minutes frommy house. My older brother played ice hockey at the time and instead of waiting for his practices to end in the arcade, my mom would bring my twin sister and I to watch the figure ska­ ters in the other rink. I’ve been on the ice ever since, starting as a freestyle skater. I competed freestyle until I was around 10 and started synchronized skating at the age of 7 on Precisely Right, the team at my home rink. I started at the Preliminary level and competed through juvenile with another organization before making the switch to Skyliners. I wanted to compete at a more intense level, and despite the long commute, I knew the transition and commitment would be worth it. Is it because this skating runs in the family, Michaela? A genes thing, if you will? Haha, no not necessarily but my twin sister Brielle skated on and off throughout elementary school and middle school, but when I made the switch to Skyliners, my sister decided to focus on other sports and commitments. Does it apply to your family Madi- son? No, I don’t have any siblings either that skate. But, if I did, we would definitely spend our practice times together and even possibly be on the same team! At your age Madison, you must still have a ton of goals you want to achieve? I feel that I can speak for everyone on the team and say that our goal is to perform to the best of our ability. Even from the beginning, I never had the goal to just win, I was always driven to push myself as well as the people around me. Every year through all of our practices and experiences together, the team creates a stronger relationship. While making new connections with the team is perhaps important for the friend aspect, I also find that these bonds help us perform better on the ice, because we’re competing in a sport we’re passio­ nate about alongside our closest friends. Anything to add to that, Michaela? No not really, I fully agree with Madison. My biggest goal throughout my entire skating career has indeed always been to continuously improve and learn new skills.Being a Skyliners junior athlete and training under Josh Babb, has pushed me both technically and artis­ It is almost time to send our new SynchroNice Magazine off to the printers, but just in the nick of time we managed an interview with the lovely Michae- la Kaminski (17) and Madison deBlasi (17), two of the skillful stars with the New York Skyliners Junior. SynchroNice went out to get one of the girls on this team for an interview but got two girls instead. Now Skyliners Junior is not just any team, and so we’ve made room in our magazine to talk to the both of them. SYNCHRO NICE 51