Summer camps in Oberstdorf and Pinzolo

 

The summer training camps in Oberstdorf, Germany and Pinzolo, Italy, were busy as usual.

 

Oberstdorf hosts once again the “IceDome”, a famous camp in the popular mountain resort. Oberstdorf has two ice rinks that remain open all summer. More than 200 skaters signed up for the IceDome. The camp consists as usual of two sections, IceDome I from June 16 to July 15 and IceDome II from August 11 to 25. Skaters from youngsters to international competitors are preparing under the guidance of 15 experienced coaches such as Michael Huth (coach of World Champion Carolina Kostner), Peter Grütter (longtime coach of two-time World Champion Stéphane Lambiel), Rostislav Sinicyn, Alexander König and Valentin Nikolaev (coached Olympic Champions Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko). “We have a huge number of participants this year and therefore we hired more coaches”, Huth said.

 

World Champion Carolina Kostner, his most prominent student, had just come back from shows in Asia and wasn’t on the ice. Huth felt she should take a break and then take a decision concerning her future. Chafik Besseghier, who took bronze at French Nationals and competed at the European Championships in Sheffield, worked with Huth and Stanick Jeannette. Another well-known skater in the camp was Anna Ovcharova from Russia. Following her recovery from a foot injury Anna moved to Switzerland end of December and is now training full-time in Geneva with Grütter. The 16-year-old is considering to skate for Switzerland. Grütter praised her as a “great skater” and Anna said that her injury has healed and she feels very comfortable training in Geneva.

 

Ice dancers Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi went to Moscow twice to work with Ilia Averbukh but now are back in Oberstdorf. The new free dance has a “Zombie” theme and promises to be a lot of fun, according to the skaters. They also found an unusual Polka and Waltz for the short dance.

 

Pair skaters are not part of the IceDome but train in the other rink with Karel Fajfr. Maylin Hausch/Daniel Wende started training again in early June. The promising junior team Annabelle Prölß/Ruben Blommaert ist getting ready for the Junior Grand Prix and a new pair consists of Katharina Lesser and the former single skater Viktor Kremke. Stefania Berton/Ondrej Hotarek are currently in Detroit but are expected to come to Oberstdorf in August.

 

Alexei Mishin’s summer camp in Pinzolo in Northern Italy has become a tradition already. Most of his skaters from St. Petersburg – from the little ones up to Evgeni Plushenko, Artur Gachinski and Lisa Tuktamysheva - had travelled to Italy to take part in the camp. Plushenko started working with new choreographer Kenji Miyamoto, a former Japanese ice dancer, on June 21 on a new long program to “Romeo and Juliet” by Nino Rota, using a different arrangement, but not the one Edvin Marton created for Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin. Choreographer Tom Dickson worked with Mishin’s other students including Tuktamisheva on skating skills. Artur Gachinski arrived a day later as he had his final exams at school.

 

Photos from Pinzolo

Photos from Oberstdorf (We'll update the page continously with new photographs from the iceDOME summer camp.