New pair Kaela PFLUMM & Matteo GUARISE

[Sk8swan]

Former world roller skating pair champion Matteo Guarise teamed up with Kaela Pflumm about 5 months ago. The pair have been working hard in Colorado Springs under the guidance of Dalilah Sappenfield and had a very successful test with the Italian Federation last week. If everything goes as planned, the pair will represent Italy and compete at international senior level next season
Good luck guys!

[Sylvia]

Thanks for the news!

Kaela Pflumm, now 20 years old, competed with Christopher Pottenger for several seasons on the JGP and their last competition together was 2008 US Nationals (11th in Senior).

[Sk8swan]

Thanks for the news!

Kaela Pflumm, now 20 years old, competed with Christopher Pottenger for several seasons on the JGP and their last competition together was 2008 US Nationals (11th in Senior).

Yes And she was born in 1991 and he in 1988.

His competitive record in roller skating: 3-times World Junior Pair Champion (2004-2005-2006), Silver Medalist at 2007 Senior Worlds, 2008 World Senior Pair Champion (all titles with partner Sara Venerucci)

[Cloudy_Gumdrops]

I hope things go well for them. Did Italy even have a 2nd pair anymore, what with DM&K and the roller pair retiring?

[Sk8swan]

I hope things go well for them. Did Italy even have a 2nd pair anymore, what with DM&K and the roller pair retiring?

Yes for next season Gillespie & DeMattè will be competing as senior. I think Kocon is trying out with a new partner but I have no idea if he'll manage to be competitive for next season and if he'll represent Italy or not.
So for Italy's senior team next season it should be:
Berton & Hotarek
Pflumm & Guarise
Gillespie & DeMattè
Kocon ?

[TAHbKA]

Thanks, Sk8swan!

[Ian74!]

Former world roller skating pair champion Matteo Guarise teamed up with Kaela Pflumm about 5 months ago. The pair have been working hard in Colorado Springs under the guidance of Dalilah Sappenfield and had a very successful test with the Italian Federation last week. If everything goes as planned, the pair will represent Italy and compete at international senior level next season
Good luck guys!

GREAT NEWS!
In fact, I was looking for some info related to Matteo Guarise, after months of silence and I learnt it yesterday.
Actually, he started with a Russian partner in June 2010, but the couple split in August.
Glad to see that finally Matteo found a new partner and had a positive test with the Italian Federation.
The best would be if Yannick finds an italian partner and goes on representing Italy! We got so many ladies in single with double axel and triple salchow and I am sure that there must be 1 willing to try pairs!!!

[Sk8swan]

GREAT NEWS!
In fact, I was looking for some info related to Matteo Guarise, after months of silence and I learnt it yesterday.
Actually, he started with a Russian partner in June 2010, but the couple split in August.
Glad to see that finally Matteo found a new partner and had a positive test with the Italian Federation.
The best would be if Yannick finds an italian partner and goes on representing Italy! We got so many ladies in single with double axel and triple salchow and I am sure that there must be 1 willing to try pairs!!!

I dunno if it would be the best idea for Kocon to team up with a girl who's never done pairs before, it might take too long for them to reach a good level of skating.
I didn't write about Matteo skating with the Russian girl in here as I had already posted about that in this forum. Thanks for bringing it in anyway. Since he decided to switch to the ice, Matteo had basically no breaks at all in trainings (first he skated on his own, then with the Russian girl, on his own again and now with Kaela).

[Ozzisk8tr]

I truly hope for the best for Matteo. He has been a joy to watch at Roller worlds. His passion certainly is evident, I hope the results follow through. Very best of luck to them.

[Ian74!]

I dunno if it would be the best idea for Kocon to team up with a girl who's never done pairs before, it might take too long for them to reach a good level of skating.
I didn't write about Matteo skating with the Russian girl in here as I had already posted about that in this forum. Thanks for bringing it in anyway. Since he decided to switch to the ice, Matteo had basically no breaks at all in trainings (first he skated on his own, then with the Russian girl, on his own again and now with Kaela).

This would mean representing another country for Yannick, cause I do not see any girl who has done pairs before in Italy (at least ther is none available right now).
Laura Magitteri?
She is the only one I got in my mind.
However, even Stefania or Nicole were at their first pair experience and the results have been extremely good!
OTOH, I wonder if Yannick can skate with a non-italian citizen representing Italy (does he have a dual citizenship???).
Finally, I've heard rumors about Federico Degli Esposti looking for a new partner to skate again in competitions....
It seems that the world is upside down... we have too many men skating and no girls available!!! First time in Italy!!!

[SamuraiK]

Kocon should skate with an italian girl, there are plenty of girls right now but hardly any with potential to break through in singles and remember both Berton and DellaMonica were fresh to pairs and the results were good still.

I would chose Francesca Rio for him, artistically shes lovely, last time i saw here she was tiny too but she seems to have lost her big jumps and is going nowhere in singles. Time to try pairs ..

[Sk8swan]

OTOH, I wonder if Yannick can skate with a non-italian citizen representing Italy (does he have a dual citizenship???)

He has Italian passport otherwise he would have never been able to compete in the Olympics.

Finally, I've heard rumors about Federico Degli Esposti looking for a new partner to skate again in competitions....

I can tell you that's not really the case. Of course Marika and Federico ended their competitive career on the ice not the way they wanted and he specially felt like they could give more to the sport. But there are too many difficulties for them to keep going. The chance that he keeps going with another partner is very remote and IMO not a smart choice, he has the best pair partner one could hope for and they know each other so well after skating together for so long (since 1996 actually).

[Ian74!]

Kocon should skate with an italian girl, there are plenty of girls right now but hardly any with potential to break through in singles and remember both Berton and DellaMonica were fresh to pairs and the results were good still.

I would chose Francesca Rio for him, artistically shes lovely, last time i saw here she was tiny too but she seems to have lost her big jumps and is going nowhere in singles. Time to try pairs ..

Fully agree with you!
We got Francesca Rio, Bianca Balzarini, Victoria Manni, all girls with good skating skills, but lack of triples to be at the top in singles.
I do not know if they are tiny enough and maybe too tall, considering that Yannick is 1.70 mt.

[Ian74!]

He has Italian passport otherwise he would have never been able to compete in the Olympics.



I can tell you that's not really the case. Of course Marika and Federico ended their competitive career on the ice not the way they wanted and he specially felt like they could give more to the sport. But there are too many difficulties for them to keep going. The chance that he keeps going with another partner is very remote and IMO not a smart choice, he has the best pair partner one could hope for and they know each other so well after skating together for so long (since 1996 actually).

I see, but the source regarding Federico was quite reliable...
Maybe it is just a backtalk!!!

[Sk8swan]

I would chose Francesca Rio for him, artistically shes lovely, last time i saw here she was tiny too but she seems to have lost her big jumps and is going nowhere in singles. Time to try pairs ..

Honestly I don't agree with that. It seems like people think pairs is up for everyone to try like "I'm not successful in single let's do pairs". I don't like this perspective: pairs IMO is the most difficult discipline of all. Maybe because I'm familiar with the roller skating world where they "pair up" skaters at a very young age. This way they can grow together and learn more and more difficult pair elements and when they reach the highest level they have an amazing variety of different elements they can show off i.e. lifts. It seems to me though that ice teams paired up late in their career can rely (and that's IMO is a scoring's system bug) on high level difficulty on single elements to get the points and then keep showing the same lifts over and over again and settle for a 2twist. Honestly I'm more interesting in seeing different lifts with difficult entry/dismount, or a pair going for a 3twist and 2 difficult 3throws instead of going for 2 sets of sbs triples.

[alhrayth]

I see, but the source regarding Federico was quite reliable...

I don't see anyone being more reliable than Sk8swan on Fede&Marika....

[Sk8swan]

I don't see anyone being more reliabe than Sk8swan on Fede&Marika....

and if he's lying to me about this... he's gonna regret it for the rest of his life!

[SamuraiK]

Honestly I don't agree with that. It seems like people think pairs is up for everyone to try like "I'm not successful in single let's do pairs". I don't like this perspective: pairs IMO is the most difficult discipline of all. Maybe because I'm familiar with the roller skating world where they "pair up" skaters at a very young age. This way they can grow together and learn more and more difficult pair elements and when they reach the highest level they have an amazing variety of different elements they can show off i.e. lifts. It seems to me though that ice teams paired up late in their career can rely (and that's IMO is a scoring's system bug) on high level difficulty on single elements to get the points and then keep showing the same lifts over and over again and settle for a 2twist. Honestly I'm more interesting in seeing different lifts with difficult entry/dismount, or a pair going for a 3twist and 2 difficult 3throws instead of going for 2 sets of sbs triples.

Dont get me wrong, I do agree with everything you say about not treating pairs as a "second best" option and ideally kids would try up from early age, but in Italy and lots of countries there's no such scenario so one has to take what there is.. you have an already succesful enough pair guy and tons of skilled girls without much chance of a single career. Its just 2+2 logic.

[Sk8swan]

Dont get me wrong, I do agree with everything you say about not treating pairs as a "second best" option and ideally kids would try up from early age, but in Italy and lots of countries there's no such scenario so one has to take what there is.. you have an already succesful enough pair guy and tons of skilled girls without much chance of a single career. Its just 2+2 logic.

Of course one has to take what it's out there but if we keep this way of thinking we go nowhere. It's time that people in the sport realize they have to build up a "school" for pair skating starting from lil kids. And I'll go on and say that Italy is not like other nations: we have the best roller skating pair coaches who know exactly what it takes to build up successful pairs. So why not taking advantage of that?

[Ian74!]

and if he's lying to me about this... he's gonna regret it for the rest of his life!

I am not pretending at all to know more than her/him
(even if I really do not understand your comment....)
I am just saying that the person who told me this was someone really inside figure skating in Italy.
Of course, he/she is not Federico's girlfriend or partner!

Regarding the comment about single/pairs transition, I understand your point, but we have also to be realistic. This is completely out of the italian culture: how many italian mothers will allow their little baby princess to "risk" their life being thrown away by a huge bad boy!!!
I just would like to remind you that a couple of years ago we had 0 pairs in Italy!!!