Figure skating: the return of the French Cup parade in Rouen
Through Joe Hue
Published on
They will set fire to the ice…. And in the streets of Rouen (Seine-Maritime). From 6 p.m. on Thursday 2 February departing from the Place du Vieux-Marché, the world elite of synchronized figure skating will swap skates for baskets to parade through the city. A parade of the best teams in the world that had not taken place since 2020 due to the pandemic.
Not less than 400 skaters matters of 29 teams representing 8 nations are expected in Rouen. The French cup is one of the biggest international synchronized skating competitions… And the only one in France. Present from the day before the parade, and before the start of the competitions on Friday and Saturday, their training sessions, official or not, will be freely accessible on Île Lacroix, at the Nathalie-Péchalat ice rink (originally from Rouen, former ice dancing champion, president until last June of the French Ice Sports Federation).
The competition has been supported since its inception by the Rouen Olympic Club. Created more than 40 years ago, the ROC is a training center in Upper Normandy where ice skating is supervised by professional coaches. Over 100 volunteers contest for the success of the event.
The “synchro”, a recent discipline
While ice sports developed from the middle of the 18th century, synchronized skating emerged from the shadows at the end of the 19th century. The International Skating Union, founded
in 1892 in the Netherlands, indeed recognized this discipline at the beginning of 1900. The teams were then made up of 4 skaters.
In the mid-1950s, synchronized skating experienced a real turning point in the United States. Passionate about sports, Dr. Richard Porter builds teams at the University of Michigan. The popularity of the discipline reached Canada at the beginning of 1970. The two countries, USA and Canada, set up the first rules of the discipline, called at the time “Precision Team Skating”. The first official competition was organized in 1976.
Launched In 1994under the name of international cup of synchronized skating, the competition took the name of French Cup in 2000. In 2020, it became one of the three European stages of theISU Challenger Series for the junior and senior categories, where 16 skaters are present on the ice.
The French Cup welcomes the categories Advanced Beginners (10-15 years old), Junior ISU (from 13 to 19 years old), Senior Elite 12 (+ 15 years old) and senior UIS (15 years and over). The Rouen team Jeanne D’Arcfinishing 2nd last in Junior Elite 12 (12 skaters on the ice), is this year in senior competition.
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