SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

SYNCHRO NICE 61 captain Ann-Charlotte Dutry. I try to be a captain to Team Phoenix, as good as she was to us. Melanie? I am a huge fan of Team Surprise from Sweden. The first time I saw their perfor- mance live in Zagreb I instantly fell in love with this team and knew I would always support them. I’m excited already for the coming World Championships, because it’s a home game for them and they will perform to the lovely music of ABBA. I do hope they will skate their best performance ever! Okay… a quick question we ask everybody... favorite quote or one-liner? Anja: “Do more of what makes you happy”… Because I always tried to satisfy others before myself. Nowadays I try to do the things I love and hopefully satisfy others in the process. Melanie: “Practice like you’ve never won, perform like you’ve never lost”. This is a very important quote for athletes in general. You have to push yourself to the limit while practicing in order to get better every time. But when you’re out there you have to believe in yourself to be able to give your best performance. Could you tell me a little about the team Anja? Sure, our team is not led by only 1 trainer/coach, but by a group of different trainers/coaches and our team manager. This complex situation makes it necessary to cooperate even more intensely as a team but also with the coaches. Everything must be organized with military precision. As I am perhaps the strictest in our team, I sometimes have to act like sort of a drill sergeant and won’t allow being late for practice, untidy hair buns or Skate laces etc. I focus on detail so the team can focus on their performance. Nothing is left to chance. Since recently however we have the luxury of a chaperone and that’s making our job a lot easier. Because I know everyone on the team very well, I’m also able to detect if somebody’s having a bad day or an off moment. That’s where my social skills come in handy, because I will try to help immediately of course. Melanie always takes a lead when it comes to the warming up, her studies and skills make her perfect for the job. Agility is an issue in our team so, Melanie insists that we do a lot of practice on this aspect. Every summer break, we can do an off-Ice training program that Melanie specially prepared for us in anticipation to the new season. We started in 2014 with a few former but retired Synchro Skaters as a “just for fun” team, but after entering more and more competition, we be- came more and more competitive and since we started working with team Berlin’s coach Gert Hofmann, we even felt like World’s were coming within reach. Former synchro skaters rising from the ashes to start at it again… just like a Phoenix… now you know where we got our name. We had and have some very talented peo- ple coaching us, like our first coach Mireille Mostaert later on accompanied by Christian Gijtenbeek, but also for instance Kevin van de Perren and Jenna McCorkel who concentrated on our individual Skating Skills and Gert Hofmann for our Choreography. Practice is taking place at 2 different locations, since we’re a team that consists of members from all over the country. How about the development in Synchronize Skating Melanie? I think we can be very happy that synchro- nized skating is growing as a sport and attracts more fans every season. Initiatives like your Magazine ‘SynchroNice’ and for instance ‘One TeamMovement’ in combination with the organization of new competitions earlier in the season (such as Autumn Cup in Granada where we took part) really make a difference. Synchro- nized skating has improved a lot in Belgium as well. It was until recently that Nationals in Belgium were organized for solo skaters and synchronized skaters on the same day. There just weren’t enough synchro teams to organize a separate competition, but luckily that has changed. Unfortunately, we’re the only Belgium team in this category, hopefully that will change soon too, so there will be more competition in Belgium. And do you feel it should be Olympic? As for the Olympics… Of course, we dream it to be Olympic. It has all the ingredients for an Olympic team sport and one has to be an all-round figure skater to become a good synchro- nized skater but for now…we cannot but evolve and just wait it out and hope for a positive decision one day. In the meantime, some countries will have time to grow, because I also know that it’s always the same countries that take home the medals. Still I believe that some countries are making huge progress like for instance Croatia and Hungary. I believe all countries are growing and it’s great to see even new countries catching up. It all comes down to Stamina…It’s very important never to give up, not even when everything goes wrong. Focus on your goals and go straight ahead for them. No one said it has to be easy, but as a team you can reach out to each other and help one and another... It’s a team effort. Anything left unsaid? We’re very happy to have been invited to do this interview with you. We feel privileged and honored to be published in SynchroNice, between some well-known names within our sport. Thank you for this amazing opportunity!  “PRACTICE LIKE YOU’VE NEVER WON, PERFORM LIKEYOU’VE NEVER LOST”