by Matteo Morelli

These Europeans Championships provided some food for thoughts on different topics, which were discussed during the event.

A point that was discussed following Israel’s Alexei Kiliakov incident during practice was the size of groups on the ice. With five teams and therefore ten individual skaters at any practice and warm up, the ice can feel small, perhaps too small to guarantee safety or to allow teams to fully do what they have to do without having to avoid other skaters.

“Today we did the partial steps sequence and after the last minute we still had to do the twizzles because we had to stop many times,” Guignard said following the rhythm dance.

She believes that four is the ideal number of teams to be on the ice to allow skaters to properly get warmed up.

Although it is understood that smaller groups at such big events would make for longer competitions (and TV time), surely what happened during practice will trigger some conversations about what would be best for skaters to feel empowered to deliver in competitions and ensure safety.

Another issue that is starting to become more visible relates to music rights and licensing, a conversation that has been taking more of a central place over the last year. Benjamin Steffan reflected on the fact that not every skater can afford to pay for the rights to use some music, narrowing down the choices that athletes have to create their new programmes.

“As skaters, we have to sign a waiver at the beginning of every season stating that the responsibility lies solely on you so, if you don’t do that, you are not allowed to skate,” he added. “The idea behind this whole licensing is that somebody monetizes the ideas of someone else and they have to pay a fee. That makes sense, but we as skaters don’t make anything. It is a very big problem.”

An example of this relates to Mrázková and Mrázek’s free dance: they had to change what they were skating on as the composer of the music originally selected didn’t let them use his music.

This topic is definitely something that we will hear more of in the coming months and years, with everyone from the ISU to the skaters and their teams trying to understand how to manage the current situation.

Lastly, in line with the commitment to engage more viewers and continue to promote the sport, the ISU decided to adopt again the individual entrance to the ice, after having first tested it at the Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France.

During the press conference, the top teams shared that overall, they like this new way of introducing teams. Evgeniia Lopareva saw that there were some teams who did something in their own styles when being introduced to the ice, and maybe this could be explored further.

Lilah Fear agreed that showing more of each one’s personality and what they like, rather than just skating accomplishments, would add to the entertainment level of the sport. Lewis Gibson said that he enjoyed skaters being introduced during the warm up by sharing their hobbies, which he believes helps to show more of everyone’s personality.

Marco Fabbri added that he enjoyed the small introduction videos adopted at Worlds 2016 in Boston, USA, showing skaters in an interesting way before their warm up, and that this could be considered to be added to the way skaters are introduced.

With another European Championships in the books, we will take away all lessons learned and memories from an event that proved to be full of things to remember, reflect on, and celebrate.