Nordic skating (FIN, SWE, NOR, DEN, ISL) | Page 23 | Golden Skate

Nordic skating (FIN, SWE, NOR, DEN, ISL)

Finland will have three spots in ID next season, wow. In fact it was not a big surprise, <13 points was possible in advantage. There is one more senior pair and two of the junior pairs would be age eligible next season - I checked their ages from Isuresults. I think some of them still want to skate in juniors as they are very young though and maybe want to go JGP and try get a spot at JWC. It is not so easy to get the minimums in ID for young couples and we still don't know what it is next year. Yuka is trying to get a passport to be able to skate in Olympics. She has lived here long enough, just needs to pass the language test.
 
Petra Lahti is not repserenting Finland any more, but as Oceania does not have it's own thread (maybe it should) I put this here.

Here is her interview in Finnish. Shortly: Her mother is originally from NZL, father is a Finn and they have moved to Finland when she was three. Next season she is age eligible to skate in seniors and she will try to get an Olympic Spot to NZL. I think it is realistic if she skates clean, I wish she can do it. She is current NZL champion, but she still lives, studies and trains in Finland.
 
Petra Lahti is not repserenting Finland any more, but as Oceania does not have it's own thread (maybe it should) I put this here.

Here is her interview in Finnish. Shortly: Her mother is originally from NZL, father is a Finn and they have moved to Finland when she was three. Next season she is age eligible to skate in seniors and she will try to get an Olympic Spot to NZL. I think it is realistic if she skates clean, I wish she can do it. She is current NZL champion, but she still lives, studies and trains in Finland.
Perhaps the Australia thread could be changed to Australia and New Zealand?
 
Emmi Peltonen's name is removed from every competition she was supposed to take part in. She has not active at social media either lately. I will not be surprised if she will announce retirement, or just make it quietly.
 
Emmi Peltonen's name is removed from every competition she was supposed to take part in. She has not active at social media either lately. I will not be surprised if she will announce retirement, or just make it quietly.
I had to check her profiles. She hasn´t posted anything since December, so it doesn´t seem like a good sign. She used at least to post a lot on TikTok, but not anymore. Looks like she only competed once this season in November in NRW Trophy. Before that her last competition looked to be Euros last year (2024) where she placed 12th. Wow, how much can change in a year. And she really did not have many competitions in one year. I really like Emmis style, so such a shame if she is retiring, but I can completely understand it. She seemed to have work pretty hard to get back in shape...but maybe injuries stopped her. Best of luck to her finding out her next step.

She did joke about her and Sondre doing ID in another life on Tiktok a couple of months ago. I thought about it right after Sondre retired and then she posted this a few months ago. I´m pretty sure it was a joke. But I thought about it - since Sondre returned to ice to do Disney on Ice a few years after retiring I don´t feel like he is done with skating. I don´t see him coming back to singles, and now maybe Emmi doesn´t either, but she doesn´t seem done with the love of the sport either. It would have been so cool if that happen. I don´t see Sondre returning with someone other, but I feel if they joked about it and they were like "for real - should we try?" and then they are both like yes. Sondre seems to have been working more with some easy pairs elements in shows recently so he might have gotten a little bit of taste of pair skating. I guess this is just me dreaming but they joked about it and both seems to be done with singles. And they seem to both thrive in US, so I picture them both training there.
 
I had to check her profiles. She hasn´t posted anything since December, so it doesn´t seem like a good sign. She used at least to post a lot on TikTok, but not anymore. Looks like she only competed once this season in November in NRW Trophy. Before that her last competition looked to be Euros last year (2024) where she placed 12th. Wow, how much can change in a year. And she really did not have many competitions in one year. I really like Emmis style, so such a shame if she is retiring, but I can completely understand it. She seemed to have work pretty hard to get back in shape...but maybe injuries stopped her. Best of luck to her finding out her next step.

She did joke about her and Sondre doing ID in another life on Tiktok a couple of months ago. I thought about it right after Sondre retired and then she posted this a few months ago. I´m pretty sure it was a joke. But I thought about it - since Sondre returned to ice to do Disney on Ice a few years after retiring I don´t feel like he is done with skating. I don´t see him coming back to singles, and now maybe Emmi doesn´t either, but she doesn´t seem done with the love of the sport either. It would have been so cool if that happen. I don´t see Sondre returning with someone other, but I feel if they joked about it and they were like "for real - should we try?" and then they are both like yes. Sondre seems to have been working more with some easy pairs elements in shows recently so he might have gotten a little bit of taste of pair skating. I guess this is just me dreaming but they joked about it and both seems to be done with singles. And they seem to both thrive in US, so I picture them both training there.
Well, Finland has 3 spots for Euros... There isbone senior team and a couple of age eligible junior teams but there is room as nobody was close to get the minimums. Juulia and Mattias also kept their partnership in secret for a while before they announced it so maybe...
 
Well, Finland has 3 spots for Euros... There isbone senior team and a couple of age eligible junior teams but there is room as nobody was close to get the minimums. Juulia and Mattias also kept their partnership in secret for a while before they announced it so maybe...
My first thought is that it would have been easiest for them to skate for Norway since we don´t have a team. But given that Finland has 3 spots it wouldn´t be so bad to skate for Finland either.

If they are even considering skating together - they would not have been started yet, Sondre is still very much doing shows and touring with Disney on Ice.

After I wrote this, I had to check an interview Sondre did at a Norwegian breakfast show early in January when he was home in Norway on a short break between the shows for Disney on Ice. He said that his contract with Disney on Ice originally lasted for one year and that was his plan - and then return home to continue working since he just finished his journalism degree right before he went on tour. So that would mean he would be done with the shows around July? this year. But he already said that he got proposal to continue for one more year, and that he is seriously thinking about doing it because he has so much fun and that is he is going to sit down and discuss further contract with Disney. So probably that means he will be doing Disney on Ice the next 1,5 years. Unless the contract thing isn´t happening, I don´t see him going back to competitive skating. All though he is having much fun, it seemed from the interview that he is also thinking about the importance to prioritize his journalism dream and career.
 
Has anybody heard anything from Crafoord twins?
In EC, they had the most interesting short program and the most disastrous short program performance which ultimately broke my heart.
 
Has anybody heard anything from Crafoord twins?
In EC, they had the most interesting short program and the most disastrous short program performance which ultimately broke my heart.
I love them 😍

 
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Finland has several candidates for JWC in women. Iida is at her own level in scores and then Venla behind Iida is quite much ahead the others. So most likely they will go. In men only Matias L. and Arttu have the minimums, while Matias is in a good lead. In ID there are several junior pairs, but nobody on the list, so it must mean nobody has the minimums. There have been mistakes on the list sometimes and they don't update it every day, but usually some days after competitions if somebody reaches SB, so situation is ID is not clear.

It is interesting situation in Finland. If - who ever it will be - a woman skater can get an Olympic spot for Finland she may not be the one who will be chosen to go to Olympics. There are several candidates who are very close, dreaming about the spot and then there is Iida, who will be age eligible to skate in seniors next season. Of course that skater can get two spots but it demands 110% success and maybe some unlucky other skaters, which I do not wish to anybody. Iida starts her FS with 3S, I thinks it may mean she will try 4S someday, I cannot see other reasons to start with the easiest triple. Iida's combilned TES are already 105+. It is in juniors but should be a piece if cake for her to reach senior worlds Tes when she can compete in seniors.
What's up with Janna Jyrkinen?
 
What's up with Janna Jyrkinen?
She had some good skates at the beginning of the season and was close to get the spot at worlds, but only just. Then Linnea Ceder had a competition of her life in Romania just a couple of days before, got the best scores, had good enough second best scores as local feds rules was skater with two best scores with one international one will get spot. Linnea got also the minimums she did not have before there and went to lead on that list and so she got the world's spot. Janna's last competitions has not been at that level she has used to and she gets often many URs. I don't know what is going up with her. Only thing I know there has happened something at her former club she wanted to change the club. She has said she still has good relationship with her former coach but some people had heard rumours - only not confirmed rumours - it has something to do with training conditions. Also maybe she is still not used to her quick change from a little girl to a women, and I mean physically. There was also a podcast about her talking about that some weeks ago.
 
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Daniil Valanov landed a 3A in warm up at a domestic competition today. This is a historic moment for Norwegian figure skating, as there never have been a Norwegian skater landing a 3A before. Sondre Oddvoll Bøe never officially landed any, I know he did practice them, but never tried them in competition.

Daniil attempted the 3A both during the SP yesterday and the FS today, but had a fall on them there. Really great that he was able to land it at the end of this season, hopefully this means he can work on it getting it stable for the next season.
 
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000011136383.html

Update on Yuka: she really has decided to apply for Finnish citizenship. At the moment she has a temporary residence permit but to become a citizen she needs a permanent one first. This is why the process takes time. Citizenship should be obtained before the end of the year, as athletes must be registered for the Olympics by the end of December. The Finnish Fed says now they have no way of speeding up the process. However, there is a clause for special cases, and I wonder why it would not concern her. Finland accepts dual citizenship, Japan don´t so this is a huge decision from her.
 
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000011136383.html

Update on Yuka: she really has decided to apply for Finnish citizenship. At the moment she has a temporary residence permit but to become a citizen she needs a permanent one first. This is why the process takes time. Citizenship should be obtained before the end of the year, as athletes must be registered for the Olympics by the end of December. The Finnish Fed says now they have no way of speeding up the process. However, there is a clause for special cases, and I wonder why it would not concern her. Finland accepts dual citizenship, Japan don´t so this is a huge decision from her.
I would love to see them at the OG. Fingers crossed for her getting it in time!
 
Here is a local evening post's article in Finnish about Yuka's situation

excerpt from the article in English:
"The applicant must show that he/she can survive and live in Finland.

Figure skaters are not paid a salary, but their income comes in the form of subsidies and partner agreements. Therefore, it is not as easy for Orihara to verify that the subsistence requirement is met as it is for, say, an ice hockey player or a football player who receives a regular monthly salary."


What I also know, not mentioned in the article, that applicant of the citizenship must have been lived here at least five years - Yuka has- and must pass language test neither in Finnish or Swedish, which is also a official language in Finland.

Yuka has learned Finnish quite much and I suppose she could pass the test.
 
Here is a local evening post's article in Finnish about Yuka's situation

excerpt from the article in English:
"The applicant must show that he/she can survive and live in Finland.

Figure skaters are not paid a salary, but their income comes in the form of subsidies and partner agreements. Therefore, it is not as easy for Orihara to verify that the subsistence requirement is met as it is for, say, an ice hockey player or a football player who receives a regular monthly salary."


What I also know, not mentioned in the article, that applicant of the citizenship must have been lived here at least five years - Yuka has- and must pass language test neither in Finnish or Swedish, which is also a official language in Finland.

Yuka has learned Finnish quite much and I suppose she could pass the test.
As a native - do you have any opinion about her chances to get in time for OG 26?

From how I read it, it doesn´t seem very promising. My understanding is that she would need to have permanent residence before she can apply for citizenship, and then when she first has applied - the application process can take several months or might even a year or more. Since her problem is getting a permanent residence in first place because of the problem with showing stable income, it prolongs the whole process.

I read that the skaters will have to have the citizenship by December, that doesn´t leave a lot of months to get it.

The two scenarios here:

1) Even if she gets permanent residents sorted out pretty soon, the application time could be anything from several months and over a year. From my understanding there is no way the Federation can help with speeding it up, she has to be in line like everybody else.

2) If it will take months to sort out the permanent residents, there will be even shorter time between application process and deadline, and very unlikely the application will be done in time.

Her best chance is if she could get the permanent residents thing sorted out pretty quickly.
 
The article says that Yuka applied for a permanent residence permit last autumn. The exact date is not given. I had a look at the current queue times on the Immigration Service website. There was no separate category for athletes in this section, so I hope she is treated an employee and then it is 4 months in majority of the cases, rarely 12 months.

At the moment the queue time to obtain a citizenship for most of the people is 31 months but in exceptional cases it is 9 months. I hope and believe that 9 months applies to Yuka because otherwise there would be no hope left. Anyway it will surely be tight because April is already here. Let´s hope for the best!
 
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