German Skating News - 2024 Onwards

[jägerbomb]

Hocke/Kunkel had my favorite performance of the night. Who else had a crush on Meat Loaf in the early 90s?

 

[Alilou]

Hocke/Kunkel had my favorite performance of the night. Who else had a crush on Meat Loaf in the early 90s?

Me!

 

[text_skate]

WC got quite some attention in German press, more than usual. Here are some quotes
Hase on future, source B.Z.

“We’ve just finished the World Championships and haven’t discussed it yet. We’ve got quite a lot going on with lots of shows until the end of May, but we’ll also have enough time off the ice to think about what we need and what we want,” said Hase. “We’ll talk to our team, the association and everyone who supports us, and see how and whether we’ll continue. We’re keeping our options open.”

FAZ: World Champion of Classic Beauty
on H/V

Hase and Volodin shone brightest during the World Championships with their flawless tango short programme. In the free skate, they could afford a slight wobble on the planned triple Salchow, which Volodin managed only as a double and Hase as a double-and-a-half. These were minor blemishes on an overall performance that, as so often with Hase and Volodin, demonstrated maturity and self-assurance.

Without a trace of arrogance, the Berlin-based sports soldier and psychology student (=Hase) remarked: “We’ve brought figure skating back into the limelight in Germany. We’ve never had as much fan support as we have here at a World Championship.”

on H/K

It seems, however, rather likely that Germany’s second-best pair, Hocke and Kunkel, with their penchant for artistic aerial acrobatics, will be back on the pairs skating circuit from next autumn onwards, following their seventh-place finish in Prague. The pair performed a new artistic feat in the Czech capital when Robert Kunkel spun his partner around him – the ‘Headbanger’ was greeted with frenetic cheers from the crowd.

FAZ article on H/K and the need for reforms in skating (before the competition started): How much spectacle can pair skating take?

“The ISU, too,” Hocke tells the F.A.Z., “knows that it needs to make changes to the rules in order to keep up with modern elite sport. These changes also include more action elements. And as far as I know, this is set to be introduced for the coming season.”

Unconventional pairs such as Hocke/Kunkel are part of the reason why major figure skating events now feature a panel of judges behind the boards and another in the stands. “During our exhibition performances, we’ve felt how figure skating, with all its artistic possibilities, can move and inspire people,” says Annika Hocke. “We skate for our audience, not for the judges. That’s why we’ve focused on that. Our plan for Milan was to capitalise on the momentum, and that plan worked out brilliantly.” Even if the medals went to other pairs who were technically superior on the ice.

Kunkel will remain a critic of the current pairs skating rules. “I think it’s a shame,” he says, “that in a sport called pairs skating, solo jumps are scored so much higher than other elements that define pairs skating. After all, you don’t want two good solo skaters together, but two good pairs skaters. What we do is pairs skating, not jumps side by side.”

Welt: “They needed each other to shine”

“They needed each other to shine,” says their coach Knut Schubert. “They share the same spirit,” says their other coach, Dimitri Sawin. “They needed each other to shine”

She later added: “It’s brilliant to have a team that’s bringing figure skating out of the shadows and back into the spotlight. We’ve seen the increased interest on social media, but being here live in person made it even more special – we’ve never experienced anything like it before. We hope we can keep the hype going in Germany and make the sport big again, so that the sponsorship situation for the athletes improves too.”

That, too, sounds less like a farewell and more like hope. And it hints at just how difficult the financial situation is. Generally speaking, the pair had already made it clear before the World Championships that they would base their decision – partly or even primarily – on the conditions. “If we’re to continue, then it must be within a professional and proper framework,” Hase had told Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). “I believe our national training centre is still hanging in the balance.” Berlin is set to be included as a national training centre alongside Dortmund and Oberstdorf for the Olympic cycle up to 2030, but the decision lies with the federal government and will be made by the end of the year.

By then, the new world champions will have long since decided whether and how to proceed. The training centre issue is likely to be just one of many factors. Top-level sport at this level comes at a cost; in figure skating, for example, travel expenses are compounded by additional costs such as those for choreographers.