SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

Hello Patrick, first of all, could you tell us how old you are? We’ve been watching you skate for years now but you just don’t seem to get any older. Well I’m 28 years old and born in? I was born in Karl- Marx-Stadt which is called Chemnitz these days, and which is also the hometown of the most famous German skater Katarina Witt. Did Karl-Marx-Stadt facilitate you with an Ice rink? We moved to Berlin when I was very young so all my childhood I spend in Berlin. And in Berlin you started Figure Skating… off all Sports one can choose from? Yes, I started figure skating at the age of four in a kindergar- ten together with my younger sister. We favored figure skating over ballet and so we practiced twice a week together with some other children. We attended an elite sports school where we were able to combine sports and school perfectly. Many famous sportsmen and Olympic champions like Claudia Pechstein (speed skating), the Harting bro- thers (discus) or Britta Steffen (swimming) started their education at this school. But why the switch from Single skating at first to Synchro now? I stuck to single skating until 2008. I participated until the juniors’ category and made it even to German National vice champion. After that I should have advanced to seniors’ category but I had to be honest and just didn’t see a realistic perspective for myself. So, at first, I decided to quit skating, but that didn’t last very long because shortly after I quit I was asked by the teammanager and the male skater of Team Berlin 1 to start again but this time in Synchronized Skating. Did this come as a surprise? I had really no idea or ever thought about Synchro or how it would be, but I accepted and gave it a first try in the 2008/2009 season. And you were hooked to it from the start? No not really haha, In the beginning I even skated really bad as well, couldn’t keep my position in lines and had problems to maintain my course at an element. But the team kept me motivated, not to quit after this one season and keeping the World Championships 2010 in Colorado Springs in mind… I continued. Since then, I learned to love Synchro- nized Skating more and more, but also, fortunately enough, learned to skate a bit better. Didn’t you have any second thoughts being one of 2 male skaters among mostly girls? After Colorado, I even remained as the only male skater in the team and in 2011, they elected me as their team captain. From that moment on I knew that… I would like and want to stand out more than before. Team Berlin1 would present itself in the future with me as one of their unique features. A remarkable change in attitude? That period even changed me Part of the Olympic discussion is the fact that Synchro teams may consist of girls and/or men. So, if a team with one or more men enters the Ice, we always pay even closer attention. Is it really an advantage as some say or is it a disadvantage like some other people say? We decided to talk to Patrick Stein, Berlin’s team captain to clarify things. PATRICK STEIN SYNCHRO NICE 133