News - Season 2008/2009

April 3, 2009:

Advancement Award Recipients 2009

Carolina and Daniel arrived home safely from Los Angeles. Everything they experienced will be written in the next journal entry.
On April 1, 2009, Carolina and Daniel received the Advancement Award of the NRW Sports Foundation. The NRW Sports Foundation awards its advancement and honorary awards to athletes or promoters of the New Competitive Sports initiative who

- developed courageous ideas and initiatives
- ventured on innovations
- triggered improvement
- created role models

and who took the liberty to do more; a liberty which we all have, but which we rarely make use of.

The Sports Foundation therefore gives its annual awards to people who rendered outstanding services to an Olympic sports career without risks and repentance.

The Advancement Award was awarded in Düsseldorf by the Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, and the Minister of Home Affairs of NRW, Dr. Ingo Wolf, among others.

March 28, 2009:

World Championships - Free Dance

Carolina and Daniel end the World Championships with a fantastic 17th place. They earned 72.23 points in the Free Dance (18th place) and therefore 147.77 points overall. Except for the Compulsory Dance, Carolina and Daniel could improve their results from the European Championships in January. Furthermore, the required placement for qualifying for a German ticket to the Olympics could be reached with this result as well. Unfortunately their Free Dance wasn't shown on Eurosport but you can download it here.

Free Dance Result Final Result

March 27, 2009:

World Championships - Original Dance

Due to a successful performance in the Original Dance (rose included), Carolina and Daniel gained two placements overall! They are thus currently in 18th place (75.54 points). They received 48.89 points for their Original Dance, which even meant a 16th place in this segment. The Russians Domnina and Shabalin (105.45) still have a narrow lead over the U.S. team Belbin and Agosto (104.81). For the Free Dance, which will take place Friday evening, Carolina and Daniel have drawn the starting number 8. Original Dance Result

March 24, 2009:

World Championships - Compulsory Dance

In their first World Championships, Carolina and Daniel started off with a 20th place out of 30 teams. Their Paso Doble earned them 26.65 points in the Compulsory Dance. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin from Russia are in the lead (40.77 points).
On Thursday, Carolina and Daniel will perform their Original Dance with starting number 11 at around 2:05 p.m. local time.
Compulsory Dance Result

World Championships - News

Carolina and Daniel have been in Los Angeles for the World Figure Skating Championships since Wednesday. Today, the competition starts with the Compulsory Dance. At roughly 2:20 p.m. local time, they take the ice for the Paso Doble with starting number 11. The Original Dance will take place on Thursday, the Free Dance on Friday.

February 23, 2009:

Carolina and Daniel finish the Winter Universiade with a 6th place both in the Free Dance (75.65 points) and overall (152.43 points). They showed a strong performance in the Free Dance, but for an extended lift they got a one-point deduction. Alexandra Zaretski/Roman Zaretski (Israel, 177.43) won the gold medal, the silver went to Ekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer (Russia, 170..43), and the bronze to Alla Beknazarova/Vladimir Zuev (Ukraine, 163.07).
Results Free Dance
Final Result

February 22, 2009:

After the Original Dance, Carolina and Daniel are now in 6th place at the Universiade (76.78 points). For their performance in which they added a rose as an accessory this time, they even received a 5th place in the Original Dance (48.43 points). Just one of their step sequences earned a level 1 only. Before tomorrow's Free Dance, the Zaretski siblings from Israel are still in the lead (88.44 points).

February 21, 2009:

At the moment, the 24th Winter Universiade takes place in Harbin, China. This event, which is held every other year, is the Olympics of college sports. On Wednesday, Carolina and Daniel took part in the Opening Ceremony, and then today the competition started. They finished the Compulsory Dance (Paso Doble) with 28.35 points and are therefore in 7th place. The Israeli brother-and-sister team Alexandra and Roman Zaretski took the lead (34.77 points).
Results Compulsory Dance

January 23, 2009:

Carolina and Daniel finish their first European Championships in 12th place! Consequently, they clearly met the requirements for qualifying for the World Championships in Los Angeles, USA in March. They also benefited from some withdrawals, but they can be really pleased with their performances. For their Free Dance, they earned 71.85 points (12th place in the Free Dance). The total score for all three segments is 146.00 points. Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski (Russia, 196.91 points) became European champions, followed by Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali (Italy, 186.17 points) and Sinead Kerr and John Kerr (Great Britain, 185.20 points).

January 22, 2009:

In the Original Dance of the European Championships, Carolina and Daniel defended their 14th place! For their program to rhythms of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, they received 45.75 points (15th place). Their total score is currently 74.15 points. The concluding Free Dance will take place tomorrow night. Original Dance Result

January 21, 2009:

Between January 20 and January 25, the European Championships take place in Helsinki, Finland. Carolina and Daniel earned 28.40 points in yesterday's Compulsory Dance (Finnstep) and thus came in a great 14th place! In their interview that followed in Eurosport's commentators' booth, the two of them expressed that they were very pleased with their debut at the European Championships. With their performance so far, they put themselves into a good position for qualifying for the World Championships.
Results Compulsory Dance
The Original Dance follows on Thursday. As in the Compulsory Dance, Carolina and Daniel will then skate with the starting number 18.

January 16, 2009:

Carolina and Daniel will participate in the Winter Universiade in Harbin, China, February 17-23, 2009. Besides Carolina and Daniel, Constanze Paulinus, Michael Biondi, Clemens Brummer and Martin Liebers will go to China as well. The two of them will therefore not compete in the NRW Championships at the same time.

December 27, 2008:

On December 28th, Carolina and Daniel will perform at the "Charivari Eisgala" in Regensburg/Germany and on December 30th at the New Years Gala in Oberstdorf/Germany, this one will be aired live on Eurosport! More information on this site http://www.eisshow.de/?id=312

December 21, 2008:

Carolina and Daniel will perform at the "Gala on Ice" in Dresden on December 23. This will be aired on the German channel ARD on December 27, 3 p.m. More information on this site: www.deu-event.de.

December 20, 2008:

Carolina and Daniel are the new German Champions in Ice Dancing! Their Free Dance was the best of the evening (83.75 points), so they maintained their 1st place with a total score of 166.70 points (both a personal best score, though at national championships, the scores are higher than usual). Carolina and Daniel are therefore qualified for the European Championships!
Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi came in 2nd (159.86), Tanja Kolbe/Sascha Rabe reached a 3rd place (153.60), and the 4th place went to Christina Beier/Tim Giesen (151.16).
Result Free Dance
Final Result

Dcember 18, 2008:

Since December 17, the German Figure Skating Championships 2009 in Oberstdorf have been underway. Their outcome will have a major influence on which skaters will be sent to the European Championships in January. On Wednesday, Carolina and Daniel reached a 2nd place in the Compulsory Dances (30.08 points). Unlike in previous events this season, they had to skate two dances (only half the points were counted for each of them). For the very first time, Carolina and Daniel skated the Finnstep in competition and received 14.13 points for it (28.26). The second dance was the Paso Doble, for which they were rewarded with a new personal best (31.89 points, which counted as 15.95). The Original Dance on Thursday went extremely well for Carolina and Daniel: they earned another personal best of 52.87 points (1st place in this segment) and even secured the 1st place overall! The Free Dance on Saturday will bring about the decision on the national title.
Results Compulsory Dance 1
Results Compulsory Dance 2
Results Original Dance

Yesterday, Carolina and Daniel were on the regional TV program "Lokalzeit Dortmund". You can see it on this site as a video: www.wdr.de/mediathek/html/regional/2008/12/17/lokalzeit-dortmund-eistaenzer.xml

November 24, 2008:

Carolina and Daniel finish the Ondrej Nepela Memorial with a 2nd place and a new personal best of 159.65 points! Although they again received a one-point deduction in the Free Dance for an extended lift, they also increased their Free Dance personal best to 76.99 points. The winners Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi earned a total of 166.93 points.
Results

November 23, 2008:

On November 22 and 23, Carolina and Daniel compete at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial in Bratislava, Slovakia. They started well and managed to reach a new personal best score in both the Compulsory Dance (Paso Doble; 30.70 points) and the Original Dance (51.96 points). Therefore they are currently in second place behind Zhiganshina/Gazsi (85.44 points) with a total score of 82.66 points. The Free Dance follows on Sunday.
Results

November 16, 2008:

This weekend there was another competition for Carolina and Daniel. The Pavel Roman Memorial, which is traditionally carried out in Olomouc (Czech Republic), is an international ice dancing competition for different levels. Out of a field of five competitors, Carolina and Daniel came in 4th place (139.69 points). Even though they were in 2nd place with 28.66 points after the Compulsory Dance (this time Paso Doble), they couldn't keep up with their competitors in the other segments and therefore fell behind (Original Dance: 45.59 points; Free Dance: 65.44 points). Deductions in the Free Dance for a fall and an extended lift contributed to the result. The German team Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi won the competition (156.80 points).
Results

November 3, 2008:

Carolina and Daniel competed at the NRW Trophy in Dortmund these past few days, which is an international competition only for ice dancers of different levels. After the Compulsory Dance (again the Viennese Waltz), they were sitting in second place. With 29.59 points, they not only increased their scores from the first two performances of the season, they already reached a new personal best in this segment! In the Original Dance, Carolina and Daniel then earned 49.09 points. Combined with the Compulsory Dance result, they thus maintained their second place (78.68 points). After the Free Dance, in which they reached a score of 75.72 points, their total points were 154.40 - a new personal best for Carolina and Daniel! Nevertheless this wasn't quite enough for the win, which instead went to the Russian team Anastasia Platonova/Alexander Grachev (166.99 points).
Ergebnis Link

Oktober 12, 2008:

Unfortunately, Carolina and Daniel conclude their performance at the Finlandia Trophy with just a 6th-place finish overall. A lift in their Free Dance was considered an illegal element, so in addition to this element not being counted, they received a deduction of 2 points. Therefore Carolina and Daniel only came in seventh place (63.42 points) in the Free Dance. Overall, the two received 137.48 points, the winners Kerr/Kerr finished with 185.95 points.
Result Link - Free Dance
Final Result

Oktober 11, 2008:

From October 10-12, Carolina and Daniel will compete at the Finlandia Trophy in Vantaa, Finland. On yesterday's first day of the competition, the Viennese Waltz was again the Compulsory Dance. With 27.65 points, Caro and Daniel are currently in 4th place and could slightly improve their performance compared to Nebelhorn. As expected, the British team Sinead Kerr/John Kerr is in the lead ahead of the two Russian ice dance teams.
Results Link - Compulsory Dance

Today, Carolina and Daniel are still in 4th place after the Original Dance. They received 46.41 points from the judges and thus 74.06 points overall. Still in the lead are Kerr/Kerr from Great Britain (91.14 points). The concluding Free Dance will follow tomorrow.
Results Link - Original Dance

September 27, 2008:

In the concluding Free Dance at the Nebelhorn Trophy, Carolina and Daniel finished in seventh place and could thus secure their 7th place overall. Their program to "The Mask" reached 69.41 points, which resulted in a total score of 142.28 combined with the marks for the Compulsory and the Original Dance. Americans Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates were the winners (176.15 points) ahead of the Israeli team Alexandra Zaretski/Roman Zaretski (168.59) and their own fellow countrymen Jane Summersett/Todd Gilles (163.53). Results Link

September 26, 2008:

The first competition this season for Carolina and Daniel is from September 25-27, the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf/Germany. They are in 7th place with 72.87 points after the Compulsory and Original Dance. After having to take the ice as the second team for the Viennese Waltz and only earning the eighth best score (26.92 points), the two reached a score of 45.95 points in the Original Dance (music: "You are the cream in my coffee"), which meant 5th place in this part of the competition. Before the Free Dance on Saturday, Americans Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates are in the lead with 87.89 points. Carolina and Daniel will start as the sixth team there. Results Link

August 28, 2008:

We returned safely to Germany after four months in Canada! Having enjoyed our stay so much the time flew by. Today, we already began our training in Dortmund.

There is new interview on the website www.icedance.com

June 12, 2008:

On June 18 - 20 and on June 23 - 26, you can see us in the German tv series "Auf und Davon" on the channel "VOX". It is a documentation about our travel to Vancouver, Canada and what we experience there.
http://www.vox.de/magazine_1054.php?artikel=77434

May 4, 2008: We arrived safely in Vancouver, Canada and have already settled in pretty well. Carolina has just received a spot in the German army sports support program, which means more regular financial support for us!
http://www.eislauf-union.de/Foederplaetze.html

April 29, 2008:

In the last few weeks we were practicing our new programs with our coaches Rostislav Sinitzyn and Vitali Schulz. Carolina is currently taking her final exams and will be done with school at the end of April. Afterwards we will prepare for the new season. We will train in Vancouver, Canada, for the next four months with Viktor Kraatz and his wife Maikki. At the end of September we will have our first competitions. During the time in Vancouver, Carolina will be an au pair in a host family and Daniel will study at Simon Fraser University.

Here is a map of our travel route: (red is Carolina and blue is Daniel)

View map