SynchroNice / Fourth Edition / 2019

SYNCHRO NICE A LOVELY COACH FROM SWITZERLAND Our readers always like to know how someone ended up in Synchro Skating. What can you tell us about that? Like many other kids I always liked ska- ting very much, but I was already 8 years old when I joined my first skating club. The family where my little sister went for daycare had a daughter who was in skating school at the local Club so, after their recom­ mendation, we… that’s my baby sister and me, started there as well, but I turned out to be the only one who came to love it. After a while I was recommended to take part in their Synchronized skating team because I was probably too old to succeed in single skating anyway. I really enjoyed it, even though we finished almost last in every competition. :) Because at one point the future of the team was not certain anymore, some of my teammates tried out in Helsingin Luiste­ lijat. I went along with them and to my big surprise I got selected for Junior teamMusketeers. So, you had the pleasure of working with Anu Oksanen? Yes, I did, she was as a coach a great inspiration to me and when I look back, I remember it was in my 3rd season in Musketeers when the idea of becoming a coach myself emerged. And this is where Tinker Bell you told me about came in? Hahaha yes, we had a Tinker Bell themed free program in that season, and me and the team felt that it was lacking maybe a little of this feisty temper that Tinker Bell is known for. That’s why we pitched a few movements to Anu, and they ended up being a part of our program. I think that was the first real input for me to make me realize how great it would be to create choreographies myself one day. Af­ ter I stopped skating, I started coaching in our skating school, but I didn’t want to base my coaching on just the knowledge of how I was coached as a skater over the years (even though that knowledge alone would have brought me pretty far, because Anu is absolutely Hello Eveliina Lundman Hello, please call me Liina, those who know me better all do. Aren’t you too young to be a coach already? Well I turned 33 already last September. And where are you coaching exactly? I am working in Switzerland for “Eislaufclub Burgdorf” as the head coach and my main job there is to coach our Cool Dreams Junior but I also coach teams in other categories like Novice Advanced “Cool Dreams Novice”, Senior B “Cool Dreams Royal” and of course our Adults “Cool Dreams Crystal”. Can’t say that you have a Swiss accent, where do you live or maybe better, where were you born? Correct, I live in Burgdorf, really near to our ice rink but I was born in Vantaa, Finland. And in Burgdorf they made you their head coach? Yep, they did.