Scandinavians

Does anyone know why there aren't more figure skaters from the Scandinavian countries?
Seems like there's maybe a girl or two from Finland every now and again, but that's about it.
Norway has crack speed skaters all the time, and Sweden as well as Finland have always had some of the best hockey players in the world, but only very few figure skaters come from there, which I find puzzling.

It is a bit odd, but it could be that for the most part, for whatever reason, they're just not into it. Finland is usually fairly well represented, tho, and I've been noticing the last couple of years in the junior ranks that Sweden seems to be emerging; they've had some very promising prospects the last few years. Lack of world-level coaching may also be an issue. Plus in some areas where hockey and speed skating are much more popular, that's where most of the available ice time goes.

Why Norway doesn't seem to have many is a bit of a mystery, given that Norway is the land of Sonja Henie. I read somewhere that many Norwegians today associate Henie more with a huge art museum she and her husband gave to the city of Oslo, than they do with her skating career. Part of this might have to do with the fact that the Norwegians were less than enthralled with Henie's perceived pro-Nazi stance during WWII; perhaps because of this, she didn't inspire a lot of little girls in Norway to take up the sport, as Michelle has done here, as an example. Apparently not even having the Olympics there inspired much, tho; it's been 12 years since Lillehammer and we still rarely even see a Norwegian skater even on the junior level.

Now as to Denmark -- inadequate facilities, in part. Plus, really, given the way the Danish federation treated Mikkeline Kierkgaard, a lovely, talented skater who had given them some of their best ever results, I can't imagine anyone there being overly inspired to go into the sport.

Iceland has just recently started sending skater to junior competitions; should be interesting to see how that plays out down the road.

I always liked Rakhamo & Kokko (Finland - ice dancing). What's doing with Alisa Drei , who impressed us at 2003 Worlds? Will Susana Poykio continue competing next season? Hope so!

I am very interested to see how Pylkina & Hogner develop. I really want a European alternative to the Chinese domination of pair skating, and hope that team can be a part of that (not that I have anything against Chinese pairs, but I do want to see some variety and competition in the sport).

Is is Sweden or Finland that seems to be very good at Synchronized Skating? Unless I am confused and its Switzerland...

eliza88

Idleracer - You're kidding,right?
IIRC, cities (even in Scandinavia) do at least attempt to clear sidewalks from snow, ice and slush in the winter, plus any ice developing would be way too thin and you'd be doing some major damage to your skates and have really bad accidents if you attempted to 'skate on the sidewalks'...........
In rural areas, they might use skis to get to school or work (the few remaining farmer kids do in the Austrian alps), or perhaps skate across a frozen lake or two.

And yes, there's a bunch of skateboarders and inliners in SoCal, not sure how 'utilitarian' of an activity it is, but what follows is Californian domination of said sports.

eliza88 said:

Is is Sweden or Finland that seems to be very good at Synchronized Skating? Unless I am confused and its Switzerland...

Click to expand...

Finland!

http://www.synchroworld2006.org/pics/news/9.jpg

I believe the people in Finland are more related to the people in Hungary than they are to the Norsk countries.

Joe

Joesitz said:

I believe the people in Finland are more related to the people in Hungary than they are to the Norsk countries.

Joe

Click to expand...

Well, they certainly are linguistically (Finnish and Hungarian form the Finno-Ugric language group). I don't know if the similarities are ethnic as well, though. Does anyone know?

Oh,that old raisin.....
I suppose that from a linguists' point of view, Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, and other 'Mongolian' languages are related (Zuni, btw. sounds an awful lot like Finnish....), but that's like saying that German and Hindi are related (which, theoretically, they are.....)
Some modern Finns do have somewhat 'exotic' features, I had a Finnish girlfriend at one time who had very high cheekbones, almost almond shaped brown eyes and the lightest white-blond hair you've ever seen, but for the most part, they definitely look 'Scandinavian' rather than anything else.

None of which explains the lack of figure skaters........:scratch:

The Germans and the people of Southeastern Asia are quite closely related, as we can see by the fact that the national champion of Thailand in ice dancing is Benjamin Westerberger (with partner Alisa Allapach).

http://www.frogsonice.com/skateweb/reports/2003-nationals/mon-jr-cd/allapach-westenberger-1.jpg

Mathman said:

The Germans and the people of Southeastern Asia are quite closely related, as we can see by the fact that the national champion of Thailand in ice dancing is Benjamin Westerberger (with partner Alisa Allapach).

http://www.frogsonice.com/skateweb/reports/2003-nationals/mon-jr-cd/allapach-westenberger-1.jpg

Click to expand...

This is the second mention of Allapach & Westenberger in this context that I've seen in the last couple of weeks. Allapach's partner USED to be Westerberger, it is NOW Peter Kongkasem, who is actually of Thai descent, hence the Thailand representation. They were 29th (last) at the Worlds this year.

Thanks for the update. Here are Allapach and Kongkasem:

http://www.skatetoday.com/articles0506/photos/ALLAPACH-KONGKASEM.jpg

I also found out that Alisa Allapach is one of the staff coaches at East-West Ice Palance (Michelle's rink). Along with Scandinavian Peter Oppegaard, LOL.