Recent content by IDC a.k.a. Ritti

Noone asked me, but my 1€ is that Orihara better start the process to get Swedish citizenship by 2030. 1) It's provenly easier and quicker than the Finnish one. 2) Swedish is an easier language to learn than Finnish. (It's the second official language in Finland too, and one must know either...

A bunch of links to recent articles (in Finnish): Iida Karhunen https://yle.fi/a/74-20202353 Matias Lindfors https://www.ksml.fi/urheilu/9121420 Matthew Sperry (& Daniela Ivanitskiy) (in English!) https://www.fcnp.com/2026/01/08/f-c-native-to-compete-at-the-european-figure-skating-championships/...

Valtter Virtanen (FIN) added himself to the Bellu Memorial start list after having just done 5 competitions in 4 weeks. He was able to get closer to the tech minimums in Tallinn last week, but not enough. From Tallinn he flew straight to Merano where he competed the following day. There he...

Helsinki Arena (venue for 1999 & 2017 figure skating Worlds and 2009 Europeans) has finally been sold to new Finnish owners and can now reopen. The arena has been closed since Feb 2022 due to sanctions imposed against the previous Russian-background owners. "We have the readiness to host the...

Watch out for an upcoming story in Newsweek. Also, the motto of the Espoo Europeans opening ceremony was "Skating is for everyone", and Minna-Maaria was personally invited to skate there by the FFSA managing director herself. The slogan for the whole event was "Just be you". It's an important...

I edited the link, it should work now.

Lengthy article about Emmi Peltonen and her injuries & struggles with recovery during the past year https://www.is.fi/urheilulehti/parhaat/art-2000009285095.html Valtter Virtanen's thoughts on skating, work-family-sport balance, and why he never gets tired of watching Kevin Aymoz' programs...

You might want to add Nella Pelkonen and Olivia Lisko to the medal hopefuls list. https://www.stll.fi/maajoukkue/seasonbest/season-best-yksinluistelu/

More about his story (article in Finnish): https://www.skatingfinland.fi/henkilot/ukrainalainen-kyrylo-marsak-paasi-harjoittelemaan-suomeen/ Valtter Virtanen and his wife/coach Alina Meyer-Virtanen invited Kyrylo Marsak to train with them, and offered him a place to stay. He also took part in...

Really? My memory obviously failed me, but wheeee!

IIRC it was created some 20 years ago to be a counterpart for OES (Obscure European Skater), referring to "obscure" Asian/American/Australian/African skaters. So Sylvia's thread title, complete with the quotation marks, is spot-on :)

Finland's Euros team: Women: Jenni Saarinen, Emmi Peltonen (sub Oona Ounasvuori, Linnea Ceder) Men: Valtter Virtanen (sub Makar Suntsev) Ice dance: Juulia Turkkila / Matthias Versluis (sub Yuka Orihara / Juho Pirinen) Pairs: Milania Väänänen / Mikhail Akulov Source...

A new video of Adam skating a choreography might be on its way to YouTube soon... but not until his cameraman learns to skate forwards AND backwards. https://youtu.be/R2kiSoryC2A?t=408 (watch from 7:00 onwards) Nice to see that Adam actually did bring his skates when he came to Finland 5 weeks ago!

The Nordics (and Nordics Open) have no ice dance event. International assignments by the Finnish Figure Skating Association: https://www.stll.fi/luistelijalle/kilpailijalle/kansainvaliset-kilpailuasiat/yl-jt-isu-kilpailupaikat-kevat-2020/ So far, Turkkila/Versluis have been assigned...

Kiira's latest Instagram story is quite telling. She writes: "If only these kind of cases were just sporadic, rare occasions."