Biography

Last Name: Hermann

Birthday/Place: January, 3, 1988 / Wuppertal

Hometown: Dortmund / Sprockhövel

Height: 166 cm

Home Rink: Berlin

Club: ERC Westfalen Kunstlauf Dortmund e.V.

Education: Graduated from the Goethe Gymnasium Dortmund, undergraduate student

Favorite Music: Current Charts

Favorite Skater: Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas

Hobbies: Sports, friends

First Name: Daniel Felix

Last Name: Hermann

Birthday/Place: October 12, 1986 / Wuppertal

Hometown: Dortmund / Sprockhövel

Height: 183 cm

Home Rink: Berlin

Club: ERC Westfalen Kunstlauf Dortmund e.V.

Education: Graduated from the Goethe Gymnasium 2006, Bachelor in Business Studies at the BiTS in Iserlohn, graduate student

Favorite Movie/Series: Seven Years in Tibet, Saw 1-2, Spider-Man 1-2, Schindler's List, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Friends

Favorite Music: James Blunt, Katie Melua and everything besides hip hop and techno

Favorite Skaters: Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski, Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder, Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat

Hobbies: Friends, music and dancing

Our development:

Everything started in the winter of 1991: on a frozen lake close to their home, Carolina and Daniel learned their first steps on the ice. Back then, some friends held a party on the lake and everyone was invited to skate a few rounds. Daniel and their oldest brother, Alexander, were thrilled by ice skating right away. The following weeks, they returned to the ice again and again to practice for some hours after school. When the winter was over and the lake was no longer frozen, their mother suggested to continue skating in a club on artificial ice.

Consequently, Mom Martina put all four kids in her car and drove them to the next rink in Solingen to practice skating there. Coincidentally, Solingen's synchronized skating team was training on the ice at that moment. At the sight of 15 girls, Alexander suddenly wasn't so keen on skating anymore. Number 4, the only girl, namely Carolina, got all the more interested.

In 1994, at the age of six and seven years respectively, they joined the Solinger Turnerbund, a sports club with skating facilities, so that they could also pursue their passion during the warmer seasons. Moreover, the two of them were then allowed to take part in the club championships and in the annual show "Christmas Magic on Ice."

At first they both tried singles skating before Carolina and Daniel playfully discovered "pairs dancing" for themselves at the beginning of the 1997 season. A coach suggested they'd go to Dortmund every once in a while to get some ice dance training there. Some months later, they ultimately switched to the Olympic training center in Dortmund in order to practice five times a week. Here they trained under the responsibility of Oleg Ryjkin, who also coached the siblings Christina and William Beier, as well as Stefanie and Thomas Rauer.

In the same season, 1997-1998, the two of them entered ice dancing competitions. The very first competition was the Amberger Eistanzfestival 1997, which they finished in 8th place out of 8 entries. Not being discouraged by this, they could win their first competition, the Wiehl Pokal, just a few weeks later. In this season they were also runners-up in the juvenile competition at the Regional Championships in North Rhine-Westphalia. For the following season, they advanced to the pre-novice level.

In 2000, Carolina and Daniel achieved a 3rd-place finish at the German Novice Championships in Berlin. As the youngest participants, they were accompanied by the children's TV channel "Kinderkanal" for an episode of the show "Logo." (Here you can watch this episode.)
In addition, they could demonstrate their ability in a guest performance with "Holiday on Ice" in front of almost 5,000 spectators and became part of the Holiday on Ice scholarship program. In the following years, Carolina and Daniel successfully took part in international competitions in Tallinn, Olomouc, Vienna and Dortmund. Furthermore, they could call themselves the 2002 Regional Champions, and they also won the Novice Trophy that year.

From the 2003 season on, they competed at the junior level and became part of the national junior team. They managed to place 9th in their first Junior Grand Prix event in Sofia. In the following years, they confirmed their top ten placements at Junior Grand Prix competitions in Mexico City, Sofia, Belgrade, Gdansk, and Chemnitz.

Their longtime coach Oleg Ryjkin had started to slowly retire from coaching, so Vitali Schulz took over as director of the figure skating base in Dortmund, and Rostislav Sinicyn got to be their new choreographer. The amount of time spent on training and travel every day eventually required them to move to Dortmund. Aged 15 and 16, they moved into an "apartment-sharing skating community" which they shared with other skaters and coaches of the training center.

At the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Carolina and Daniel were allowed to attend the official Olympic Youth Camp and could thus experience the "Olympic spirit" live with another 40 selected young competitive athletes from different disciplines. Besides visiting the Olympic Village and the German House, they met many athletes, among others Rosi Mittermaier, Georg Hackl and Katarina Witt.

In spring, Carolina and Daniel were voted "Team of the Year 2005" by the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis.

In January 2007, the siblings reached an eagerly awaited goal and became the German Junior Champions after having missed the title by .13 points the year before. After they had been alternates for the World Junior Championships three times and twice the runners-up at the German Junior Championships, Carolina and Daniel could now participate in the World Junior Championships in Oberstdorf.

No German dance team had managed to place in the top ten since the Beier siblings. Carolina and Daniel reached their goal at first go. Due to their achievement, Germany received two spots at the following Junior Worlds.

In the 2007-2008 season, they were promoted to the next level and would from then on represent the German Skating Union at the senior level.

The first season at this level went very well. Carolina, now 20 years old, and Daniel, 21, competed in their first Senior Grand Prix and finished 8th with a score of 136.11 points. They improved as the season proceeded, reached the 2nd place at the Pavel Roman Memorial and skated to their personal best thus far with 153.18 points. This continued with a similar score at the German Championships where they were only 16 points behind the German top team.

In their preparations for the 2008-2009 season, Carolina and Daniel stroke a new path. Since Daniel's studies required studying abroad for a semester, he and Carolina spent the summer in Vancouver, Canada, where they trained under Victor Kraatz and his wife, Maikki Uotila-Kraatz. During the time, Carolina worked as an au pair.

Back under the direction of Vitali Schulz, they skated to their biggest successes to date. In December 2008, after having competed in several smaller competitions, Carolina and Daniel went on to win their first title as National Champions at the senior level. Furthermore, they improved all their personal best scores in this season and competed in both the European and the World Championships where they finished 12th and 17th, respectively. These results were better than expected. Due to their placement at the World Championships, Germany was allowed to send an ice dance team to the 2010 Olympic Games, and Carolina and Daniel were initially appointed as part of the Top Team for the Vancouver Olympics.

With some difficulties in their preparations for the season, Carolina and Daniel's start into the 2009-2010 season was rather cautious, but they could still reach a 7th place at the Grand Prix event in Canada. Alongside the results of the Beier siblings, this is the best German placement since the retirement of Kati Winkler and René Lohse.

Due to different interpretations of the nomination criteria for the Olympic Games, Carolina and Daniel lost their "Top Team Vancouver" status shortly before the German Championships in December and had no longer a chance to go to the Olympic Games. At the German Championships, they finished in second place and had to admit defeat to the Beier siblings, who had the honor of representing Germany at the Olympic Games.

Carolina, who had been a sports soldier for a good year, and Daniel, who had completed his business studies in the meantime, decided to go abroad again to get new incentives for their daily practice. They moved to Lyon for four months and trained under Muriel Zazoui and Romain Haguenauer there. Because of their good placements that season, Carolina and Daniel were nominated for the 2010 World Championships in Torino. Unfortunately, they could not repeat their placement of the previous year and finished 22nd.

Health and motivational issues led to Carolina and Daniel's short split up at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. A few weeks later, however, they resumed their training in Berlin under the direction of René Lohse. Unfortunately Carolina's knee problems didn't cease as initially hoped and she had to have surgery in November 2010. Since January 2011, both practice together on the ice again and prepare for the 2011-2012 season.