SynchroNice / Fourth Edition / 2019

DURING THE MOZART CUP 2019, WE MET WITH THE 33-YEAR-OLD SWEDISH COACH FRIDA MALMQVIST. HI THERE, FRIDA, WHERE ARE YOU COACHING? Hello, I’m working at Goth- enburg’s Konståkningsklubb Synchro. What teams do you coach? I have team Convivium and team Karisma to coach, but we also have a Pre-Novice team in the Club, team Sidera, that I´m helping out as well, for instance when creating the new programs, but they have their own coaches. And you’re from Gothen- burg? Almost, at this moment I live in a town called Nödinge, 20KM up north, but I was born in Lindome and that’s some 20KM South of Gothenburg. HOWYOUNG WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED SKAT- ING? At the age of 6 my parents encouraged me to take an interest in sports and be part of a club. I tried several sports growing up and I liked them all, but as I got a little older, I couldn’t combine all those practices anymore, so it was time for me to make a choice, but that was hardly a choice because I had also started in Synchro at the age of 9 and I loved it so much more than all the rest. Did you start in Gothenburg? No, my first team was in Mölndals Konståkningsklubb, in Pre-No­ vice “Team Chippies”. After that I went from Novice “Team Limelight”, to Junior “Team Arioso” and finally to Senior “Team Spirit”. At age 17, I skated my first Worlds, all the way up in Canada, of all places. That Summer I auditioned at Landvetter Konståkningsklubb and got to skate in Team Surprise, Season 2003-2004 and we even got the Silver Medal at Worlds that season. I took Sweden still going strong, or is it? Let’s talk to Frida Malmqvist some time off, like 6 months, but after that I picked it up again, this time in Boomerang. Here I spent 5 beautiful seasons and unfortunately skated my final Worlds in Colorado Springs 2010 due to a severe back injury. That was the end of your skating career? Not quite, during spring of 2008 I was asked to start coaching. Our novices, “Karisma”, needed a new coach and so, I started coaching but with my dear friend Camilla Södermark. Together we coached them for 9 years and in that time, we also got to coach our Senior Team Boomerang during seasons 16 to18. Nowadays, since Camilla started a new phase in her life, I have other wonderful talented coaches by my side and even after 11 years as a coach I still love it very much and I’m happy to be involved in Synchro! Is Boomerang still competing? Unfortunately, Team Boomerang, is out of competition this season and it saddens us, but on the other hand we are very happy to have started up our Junior Team Convivium again. They also had a year off competing, but now they’re back and it feels great. Are you a successful coach? When are you successful, really? In my time as a coach I´ve been helping other clubs here in Sweden but in Iceland as well to move forward in Synchro. I have managed to take Boomerang to Worlds twice and with Team Karisma we SYNCHRO NICE 57