Another former World Roller Skating Pair Champion on the ice

[Sk8swan]

It’s has been up in the air for a while now… following the footsteps of Marika Zanforlin & Federico Degli Esposti, another roller champion from Italy has switched to the ice. Matteo Guarise, 21, 2004-2006 World Junior Pair Champion and 2007 World Senior Pair Champion with Sara Venerucci has been training on the ice for a few months now in Milano and has recently joined Vassiliev’s group in St. Petersburg. He’s now skating with a russian girl, whose name will be revealed later on after all tests will be done. The pair plans to compete for Italy

http://www.doppioaxel.it/pagina_2.html (Italian only)

[zotza]

I will become very shallow but...it's gonna be really good to see Matteo on the ice

[Sk8swan]

I will become very shallow but...it's gonna be really good to see Matteo on the ice

he's got quite some presence indeed

[Ozzisk8tr]

So Sara after her doping issue won't return to roller? Good on them. There's no Olympics to aim for in roller, which is so frustrating. Also pairs was about the only discipline on roller that I thought was ahead of Ice. Partly because of the restrictive rules on ice.

[Sk8swan]

So Sara after her doping issue won't return to roller?

I won't count her out as far as roller skating is concerned. What's for sure she's not making the move to the ice with Matteo... I have mixed feelings about this to be honest... on one hand I think it would have made things easier if they both switched because they had great chemistry and experience together (thinking about the pair elements here)... on the other hand maybe skating with a born-on-the-ice skater will speed up the process of him adjusting to the new surface...

[Ozzisk8tr]

Sk8swan I agree with your second thought about it speeding up the process of transitioning to the ice. I find Sara not too emotional when she skates and hope a new partner and skating surface will help her develop that aspect of her skating. Any word if her father (10 times world pairs champion for others who didn't know) is going to be assisting with any of the ice work? Has he already worked with any of the Italian ice pairs teams?

[Fashionista]

I still don't get how they transform from rollers to ice skaters. It seems to be completely different disciplines. Edges, flow - how they deal with this stuff?

[Sk8swan]

Sk8swan I agree with your second thought about it speeding up the process of transitioning to the ice. I find Sara not too emotional when she skates and hope a new partner and skating surface will help her develop that aspect of her skating. Any word if her father (10 times world pairs champion for others who didn't know) is going to be assisting with any of the ice work? Has he already worked with any of the Italian ice pairs teams?

Nope Sara is not trying on the ice... what I meant in my previous post is that she "might" compete again (with another partner obviously) on rollers not on the ice. So neither her father or her mother (who was her husband's coach btw) are involved in training ice pairs teams. Matteo and his new partner (if this is gonna work of course) will be coached by Vassiliev and some ice skating coaches in Milano.
Zanforlin & Degli Esposti might be involved with coaching Italian ice pairs in the future; actually they have already been asked for some advices about pair moves from the current top pairs.

[Sk8swan]

I still don't get how they transform from rollers to ice skaters. It seems to be completely different disciplines. Edges, flow - how they deal with this stuff?

Well IMO Zanforlin&DegliEsposti have proved that the move is possible. They've done extremely well in such short amount of time and never training full-time because of their jobs.
Matteo will have a smoother path IMO as he's committing himself to the sport almost full-time (he does work as a model but that's a "flexible" job). Another strong point on his side is that he was also competing in singles as a roller skater so he can land 3-jumps with ease. Looks like he won't have much trouble mastering sbs 3toes and 3sal on ice.

[Polymer Bob]

It's amazing what these people can do on roller skates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ31c213oXI

[Ziggy]

Sk8swan a bit off topic but Zanforlin/Degli-Esposti have decided to quit competetive skating, right?

[Ozzisk8tr]

It's amazing what these people can do on roller skates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ31c213oXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKOmZ...eature=related
The above link is Patrick (10 times world champ)and his second partner. They are so inventive. Notice the split quad toe they do, and the amazing entrances into lifts. Also Caydee Denney was a former competitive roller skater, and her parents are roller coaches if anybody didn't realize.

[Polymer Bob]

This appears to be mostly an Italian sport. The seats look to have a higher percentage full than at most blade skating events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGd0ivnn6A&NR=1

[Sk8swan]

There is so much more worth watching from roller skating...
Speaking about pairs only this is probably the best sp I've ever seen (the lp was even better but looks like it's not on youtube...)
This was Z&DE almost at their best: they were the only ones to land 3 throw jumps + a quad twist in one program!
And I like this early program of theirs to Anna & the King soundtrack
About the guy mentioned in this thread: here's the gold meda performance @ 2008 Worlds, the sp from 2007 Worlds (loved it ) and then something unusual for figure skating: this was like a play on rollers, Matteo & partner were main caracters... felt like you were watching theather... amazing coreography work and music choices! (this is just the final act, the whole thing last over 1 hrs - trailer here!)

[Sk8swan]

Sk8swan a bit off topic but Zanforlin/Degli-Esposti have decided to quit competetive skating, right?

Ziggy just give me the time to update their site (tomorrow or the day after that) and you'll know

[RunnersHigh]

It's amazing what these people can do on roller skates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ31c213oXI

Wow! amazing.
In Summer, I used to do inline skates but never have thought about jumps, spins or steps..
In my mind, only Double push to speed up!!

[Sk8swan]

Another article saying the same things I wrote in the first post just with a small picture of Matteo on the ice
http://www.artonice.it/?q=it/node/9218

[robinhood]

I suppose it's a very difficult and hard discipline. But compared to ice skating, roller skating seems so fugly, laboured and uninspired
I have a hard time believing all this great roller skating champions can have the same success in ice skating...Sorry, don't kill the delivery man

[Fata]

I suppose it's a very difficult and hard discipline. But compared to ice skating, roller skating seems so fugly, laboured and uninspired
I have a hard time believing all this great roller skating champions can have the same success in ice skating...Sorry, don't kill the delivery man

I think some really could. The problem may be that it is a lot about prestige and money. So ice skaters may be more professional, at least there seem to be more roller skaters who have to do other jobs and are not able to focus on skating only. And of course there's always more money around when a disciplin is olympic...
Anyway, I think there are several really strong roller skaters. But what I also realized at last year's worlds is that compared with ice skating there are less good skaters...In ice skating worlds I would say we have 15-20 really good skaters, in roller skating worlds there were only a few.

Back to the topic. I think it can be easier for Matteo than for Zanforlin/Degli Esposti because he will skate with someone experienced in ice skating. So this can maybe help him with skating skills...edges etc. On the other hand I hope that there won't be obvious differences between the two skaters as skating on blades is completely different from skating on quads.

Oh and I find it interesting that these two sports mix up again...Some centuries back it was totally normal that skaters competed in both...Now it seems impossible (at least that is the opinion I hear quite often from roller skaters, that ice skating would ruin their technique)

[Sk8swan]

http://skatingidea.wordpress.com/201...-sul-ghiaccio/ another article about this. This mention a webtv interview he'll do replying to fans questions on June 18th.
Btw, another strong point is that he's pretty young, just 21 yrs old.