Loena Hendrickx will stay off the ice for a while during competitions.
She previously withdrew from the Grand Prix in France, which was held last weekend, because she needed extra time to prepare for the upcoming events. Now she has also announced that she will not participate in the Finlandia Cup, a Grand Prix in Helsinki in 2 weeks.
The European figure skating champion will participate in the Golden Spin in Zagreb from 4 to 7 December. For the first time in weeks, she is training well again, says Hendrickx. She wants to be able to defend her European title in Tallinn at the end of January.
According to Hendrickx, she had a difficult start to the season. "I had a good summer and the training went well. But despite that, I had the feeling that there was no progress. As the season approached, the pressure increased. And that worked against me."
After the first competition of the season, in Shanghai at the beginning of October - she came third there - she decided to take a step back. "Back to basics and building up step by step. We've been doing that for a while now and I can see that there's progress."
But Hendrickx has decided that the competition in Helsinki is too early. It's the fifth of six Grand Prix competitions, in which only invited skaters can participate.