The Icicles Senior team in their competition dresses for the 2022/3 season
- Tickets for a Panthers game and a night for ten at Bistro Live are up for grabs – and you’ll be supporting the Icicles compete with the best in the world too
A top level synchronized ice skating team from Nottingham are busy fundraising to help them travel abroad after winning a spot to compete with the best in the world.
Team Icicles Senior, a squad of 19 ice skaters who train at the National Ice Centre on Bolero Square, have performed so well this year they have been selected to compete in the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships in the USA at the end of March.
Because the sport attracts no funding in the UK, team members are holding several fundraising events to help pay for their trip, which is costing around £38,000.
The Icicles would love support from members of the public who want to see Britain perform well in a highly demanding sport.
Synchronized ice skating, which started life as a half-time entertainment during breaks in ice hockey matches in the USA, has now grown to a popular and growing global sport in its own right.
Thrilling and remarkable to watch because of the speed, power, grace and agility of its athletes, the sport of synchronized skating involves team of up to 16 performing seamless routines to music. The more advanced the level, the more complex and demanding the routines.
The Icicles Senior team has highly dedicated members, some of whom travel from all over the country – including Wales, Portsmouth and Manchester – to train for hours every week. They are no stranger to fundraising having raised thousands for Cancer Research UK a few years ago, after a manager had been diagnosed with the disease.
One team member is Sofie Ekstrom-Gabb, who travels to Nottingham every weekend from her home in Cardiff to train with her team, who have a two hour session every Sunday starting bright and early at 5am. As well as that, the Icicles train for many hours in the dance studio, so they can perform as a seamless unit together.
Sofie, 22, has been skating for 16 years and said she was excited to be travelling to the USA to show off the Icicles’ long and short programmes.
The Icicles are particularly looking forward to travelling to the States after being selected to compete in the World Championships in 2020, only to have the event cancelled because of Covid.
Sofie said: “I’m really proud to skate with the Icicles Senior team and we have continually improved since we formed.
“We’re the only senior synchronized ice skating team in Britain and we needed to meet the requirements from the ISU (International Skating Union) to win a place in the World Championships. They think that we are good representatives to go.”
After competing to a very high standard this season the Icicles Seniors now need to find around £2,000 each to fly to Lake Placid in the USA, with flights alone costing between £500 and £600, on top of what they pay for monthly training fees.
Another member of the team is Emily Potter, 23, from Nottingham. Emily, who has been skating since was nine years old is now a coach at the National Ice Centre, which sees her regularly starting her working day at 5am as well as training with the Icicles Seniors for many hours a week.
She said: “Because we were supposed to go to the World Championships at Lake Placid in 2020, which was obviously cancelled due to lockdown, it feels like we’re getting a second shot to represent our country.”
Competing at a senior level is considered to be the pinnacle of synchronized ice skating and the Icicles Senior team has this year also performed abroad in the Mozart Cup Challenge Series.
The Nottingham Synchronized Skating Academy, of which they are part, has organised a raffle with prizes including a Peak District weekend break; luxury hampers, a night at a Nottingham Panthers ice hockey game; a night for ten at Bistro Live; family ice skating pass at the National Ice Centre and a pair of tickets for Rollerworld.
During Covid it was not known if members of the Nottingham Synchronized Skating Academy would be able to return to the sport – but it is still thriving with 100 members as young as six years old coming to the ice arena to train in the club’s six teams. Many junior members of the club were inspired by watching the club’s Icicles Junior team which featured on CBBC’s Ice Stars programme for several years.
Head coach Esther Morris said: “I’m so proud of the girls for being able to compete in the World Championships and I really hope we can get some support with our fundraising to help ease the financial burden a little for those who have shown such dedication to their sport to be able to go. It’s a real feather in Nottingham’s cap to have a team performing at such a high level so it would be great to see the public support us in representing the UK in the USA this month.”
To take part in the raffle and be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes, see https://forms.gle/AwQ6oqiwL1A4QBuw9 or you can contribute to the fundraising by visiting a Go Fund Me page here https://www.gofundme.com/f/team-icicles-senior-world-championships-2023. The raffle is being drawn on March 25, and the Icicles senior fly to the USA on March 27, ahead of the competition which starts on March 31.
