Team Surprise (SWE) hang up their skates after 35 years | Golden Skate

Team Surprise (SWE) hang up their skates after 35 years

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
I understand their longtime coach/trainer no longer wished to be a coach (although she does want to remain involved with the discipline as such), but why the whole team had to be resolved too? I don't get it. It's not as if the same skaters were in there for the whole time the team existed, were there? Contrary to single's, pairs and ice dancing, a team can remain in existence through the years, with new girls/men coming in, and others going out along the years. A mystery.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
It is indeed a mystery and a sad one. Were most of the team members aging out? Perhaps no one had paid attention to recruitment properly for some time?
 

mariap

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Also another senior team from Sweden, Team Boomerang, is not competing this season.
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
Oh wow, that’s too bad. :(

This is just me doing some guesswork based on my personal knowledge of the discipline, but when a top level synchro coach who’s had the job for decades chooses to retire or pursue other endeavours, it can be very difficult to find a replacement of the same caliber; thus, the organization retires alongside them.

I hadn’t heard that Boomerang also won’t be fielding a team this season, that’s crazy! I’ll have to do some digging around, but I don’t believe the country has any other senior teams.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Oh wow, that’s too bad. :(

This is just me doing some guesswork based on my personal knowledge of the discipline, but when a top level synchro coach who’s had the job for decades chooses to retire or pursue other endeavours, it can be very difficult to find a replacement of the same caliber; thus, the organization retires alongside them.

I hadn’t heard that Boomerang also won’t be fielding a team this season, that’s crazy! I’ll have to do some digging around, but I don’t believe the country has any other senior teams.

This makes sense. I figured it was that or a question of finances. But then I'm a cynic. :drama:
 

Violetti

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Here is an article in Finnish (team Surprise and Dohany) https://www.skatingfinland.fi/ajank...ympiahaave-lopullinen-piste-team-surpriselle/

The coach Andrea Dohany says that if synchro would have been included in the Olympics she and the team would have continued. She says she was tired of all the changes in the rules over the years and contradictory instructions for their implementation that came from different sources. Which of them to follow, skaters asked and she could not tell clearly. So it was difficult to motive the skaters. She is going to coach coaches and younger skaters who still might some day get to go to the Olympics.

It says: Nyt joukkue harjoittelee perustajansa Andrea Dohányn valmennuksessa ja tähtää lajin kehittämiseen koulutusmallina valmentajille ja luistelijoille niin Ruotsissa kuin maailmallakin. So the team is still practicing but not competing and Dohany coaches. They aim to develop synchro as a training model for coaches and skaters in Sweden and abroad.

Google translator does not translate Finnish into English very well but you might like to try.
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
Here is an article in Finnish (team Surprise and Dohany) https://www.skatingfinland.fi/ajank...ympiahaave-lopullinen-piste-team-surpriselle/

The coach Andrea Dohany says that if synchro would have been included in the Olympics she and the team would have continued. She says she was tired of all the changes in the rules over the years and contradictory instructions for their implementation that came from different sources. Which of them to follow, skaters asked and she could not tell clearly. So it was difficult to motive the skaters. She is going to coach coaches and younger skaters who still might some day get to go to the Olympics.

It says: Nyt joukkue harjoittelee perustajansa Andrea Dohányn valmennuksessa ja tähtää lajin kehittämiseen koulutusmallina valmentajille ja luistelijoille niin Ruotsissa kuin maailmallakin. So the team is still practicing but not competing and Dohany coaches. They aim to develop synchro as a training model for coaches and skaters in Sweden and abroad.

Google translator does not translate Finnish into English very well but you might like to try.

Thanks for the link!

I can understand her frustration and know exactly what she’s referring to in her frustration with the nonstop changes to the constant, unexpected modifications to the rules and regulations. It’s happening throughout the entire discipline, at the hands of the ISU for the highest levels - senior and junior - and then all the way down to the beginner levels, via Skate Canada and Skate Ontario, in my personal experiences as a Canadian. The last two years have been brutal for synchro with the implementation of Skate Canada’s LTAD model, which I have been an outspoken critic of for all the disciplines, not just synchro. Synchro just happened to be the last one to have the LTAD model rolled onto. The changes that SC and SO are claiming will supposedly help to grow the discipline at an exponential level are doing the exact opposite: hindering it, making it more expensive and therefore more elite, which is turning many skaters off, frustrating coaches and team managers, and outright slapping certain competitive levels in the face. The hardest hit are the adult and beginner (youth aged introductory) categories, but it’s being felt in some shape or form by all the categories in the Canadian system.
 

jorge2912

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 20, 2019
Country
Chile
is sad that team surprise has ended their activities .was my favorite team , i wonder the real reasons of this end . i hope someday returns to be active the team, thanks to a video of their SP of them in 2009 has introduced me to synchro skating as fans ...
 
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