Skate to Milano – Our Aussie skaters vie for Olympic Qualifying
From 18th to 21st September the eyes were on Beijing, People’s Republic of China to see skaters earn the final spots for the Milano Winter Olympics.
Australia already has a spot in Pair Skating with Anastasia Golubeva & Hektor Giotopolous-Moore earning their place at the Olympics with a 9th place finish. Skate to Milano saw four more skaters challenge for remaining spots in Women, Men and Ice Dance events.
Victoria Alcantara was our representative in the Women’s event. While it wasn’t the skate she hoped for, Victoria showed her trademark determination and skill. Competing on this stage is an achievement in itself, and we are proud of the way she represented Australia with heart and resilience. Victoria finished with a score of 92.26 and finished in 24th place.
In the Men Douglas Gerber was our representative. Douglas was originally from New Zealand but has found his home in Australia. It was a big ask in such a competitive field to earn one of the 5 spots for the Men however he certainly showed he was a worthy representative, combining technical difficulty with artistry and musicality. Douglas achieved personal best scores in both short and free skates, with a combined score of 182.84 and finishing in 17th place.
Saving the best for last, it was in the Ice Dance that the team of Holly Harris and Jason Chan achieved their Olympic dream. They missed out on qualifying for the previous Olympics and unfortunately missed out on an automatic spot at the World Championships in March. So they had to go through this qualifying event in order to secure one of the 4 spots available to the ice dancers. This time they were ready to show they deserved one of those spots and skated personal best programs to finish in second place in both Rhythm and Free Dance sections of the competition. Their final score was a personal best of 183.50. It was a well deserved reward for all the hard work and also showed they are in the top echelon of ice dancers in the world. We look forward to seeing them at Milano and wish them well for the forthcoming season.
