Art on Ice young talents 2024
Many up-and-coming young figure skaters dream of becoming the next Denise Biellmann or Stéphane Lambiel and one day becoming world champion. But what does it take? To what extent can a figure-skating career be planned? What price – literally and figuratively – do athletes and their families pay to achieve this? And at what point in the athlete’s journey does targeted support make the most sense? These are the questions that concern me regarding development of our “Art on Ice young talents” project.
Staying with Stéphane Lambiel and Denise Biellmann: they are good examples and role models for children and young people. Despite intensive training from an early age, a lot of sweat, countless hours of work and many sacrifices, they are still healthy and can look back on not only a successful, but also a happy career. And they are still involved in sport today. Something else both have in common: such a career would not have been possible without the personal, mental and financial support of their families.
There is often a lack of targeted talent development outside of the club and association structures, especially in fringe sports. And the associations also have limited human and financial resources. Whether or not an athlete receives financial support, be it in the form of grants or sponsorship, is often determined by how quickly they achieve success. At the same time, athletes have to reconcile school, personal lives and a big training workload at a young age.
A Sports Medicine study shows that many of the most successful elite athletes were not among the best performers in their youth, but made greater progress in the long term than the top juniors. This suggests that adolescent athletes’ training should focus less on short-term success at a young age and more on promoting their potential for long-term performance improvement in adulthood.
If support schemes and sports scholarships place too much emphasis on young people’s current performance, this could motivate young athletes, coaches and parents to maximise short-term success, which can have detrimental long-term consequences in terms of health and performance.
It is often the case, in figure skating too, that many of the young talents selected do not subsequently reach elite level. One reason is that many, especially girls, do not develop as expected or simply stop participating in the sport early. Development often stagnates during the growth phase and puberty, and too little time is given to addressing the physical changes and adapting technique.
Long-term rather than short-term development is taken into account in the associations’ PISTE tests, which decide squad selection and thus support. Long-term potential is evaluated as part of a comprehensive screening, including the athlete’s pathway and family situation.
Five young people from the Talent Team are part of the Art on Ice 2025 tour and will be on the ice together with global figure skating stars. This is a dream come true for Ava D’Andrea, Tammaro Wyss, Ean Weiler, Elisabeth Dibbern and Olivia Bacsa.
The downside is that if support comes too late, the financial burden for a family is often too great. Ice skating is very expensive for many reasons. In Switzerland it’s because the infrastructure, i.e. the ice, is a rarity and expensive. Secondly, because without a lot of training hours – and high coaching fees – it isn’t possible to keep pace with the other nations. And finally, because prestige and lobbying are very important in figure skating. In other words, without an internationally renowned – and therefore often expensive – coaching and choreography team behind you, it is difficult to win over the jury.
We want “Art on Ice young talents” to start at different levels. We rely on a cooperation with Swiss Ice Skating to work using resources efficiently. We support skaters at various ages and stages of development, but only until they reach elite age, when they will hopefully earn Sporthilfe grants and bonuses for successful performances.
Success in competitions is decisive in that it leads to initial selection and squad membership. But then we focus on enjoyment, the entertainment factor and development potential. We make various experts available to the talents when selecting athletes and as part of our support. And they get the opportunity to perform at Art on Ice. We are able to count on AXA Switzerland’s support for this.
Our goal with all the support is personal development, fun, greater expression, more self-confidence – and a slightly different type of support for their goal of one day making it to the top of the world.
Sarah van Berkel, formerly Meier, became European figure skating champion in 2011, is now a journalist and is responsible for athlete management and the “young talents” project at Art on Ice. The 40-year-old is a “Gfrörli”, she loves coffee and is addicted to nuts.
