2007 Winter Universiade: World Champions Participate in Demo Sport
January 9th, 2007
Finland will be represented by the synchronized skating World Champion team, Marigold IceUnity, at the Torino Winter Universiade. Synchronized skating is now for the first time in the Universiade programme, as a demo sport. According to Anu Oksanen, coach of the Marigold team, preparing the team for the Universiade has been challenging because only half of the skaters are still active in the Marigold team and the other half are former Marigold skaters who have trained just for the Universiades. Two training camps have been held and during the last week the team will have some extra practice in order to get the programme ready before the games. “Luckily these skaters have the routine of skating together. The team is naturally reaching for success because almost all the skaters have won a gold medal in the ISU World Championships during their career. It will be exciting still, because we don´t know yet, which other teams are participating.” Coach Oksanen (former Jääskeläinen) did participate herself in the 80’s in three Universiades as a figure skater. “For me these competitions were the highlights of my career. It was great to participate in this multi-sport event and get to know athletes of different sports. Once I was with an Australian skater girl giving drink bottles to Australian cross-country skiers during their competition” Oksanen remembers.
Team Finland consists of 60 athletes participating in nine different sports: alpine skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding, biathlon, ice hockey, figure skating, long track speed skating and synchronized skating. Added to this, delegation leaders, media assistants, physicians, medical staff as well as sport specific coaches, team leaders and officials, raise the number of persons in the whole delegation to 86. The Finnish ice hockey team aims to brighten the colour of the bronze medal won at the 2005 Winter Universiade in Innsbruck, Austria. The team is formed by athletes playing mainly in clubs of 1st or 2nd division, but two elite league players will bring the needed spice to the team. Three players remain from the Innsbruck team. In the preceding Universiade in Innsbruck and Seefeld, Finnish student athletes gained five medals – 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze – and the goal of the Finnish team in Torino is no less than the same. Maybe even more important, though, for many athletes is the experience of an international multi-sport event and get to know other student athletes from all over the world in the unique spirit of the Universiade.
