Sydney Vogel???

[cocanuts]

whatever happened to her? i know she wanted to get a triple axel and win an olympic gold, and she was a junior world champion, but what happened to her?

[mikey]

The rumor is that she is in the process of changing countries in order to skate for Germany now. I think she is living in Duesseldorf now, but I am not 100% certain... We'll see what comes of it.

[Trillian]

Sydne missed most of the events she entered after the 1999 nationals due to injury. She did finally make it back to compete in qualifying events last fall, finishing 2nd at Northwest Pacific regionals, but she withdrew from sectionals due to injury and of course there was no basis for giving her a bye to nationals. Unfortunately she was pretty much struggling with injury from 1997 onwards, about the same time as she had a bit of a growth spurt, and the combination of those two things really hurt her skating quality.

It was reported fairly recently that she plans to skate for Germany in the future; I would think she'd be eligible for German nationals this year, so we'll see if she shows up there. If she does, and skates well enough to finish at or near the top, she should also be eligible for international competition right away since it's been four or five years since she's represented the U.S. internationally. However, we'll see if her skating is at a level that allows her to place well in the first place.

[alfongsucks]

Sydney is infact planning on competing at the German nationals in January. Does anyone know the quality of skaters that they have in Germany? How many triples they do ?

[cocanuts]

does anyone know the quality of sydney's skating now? she obviously doesn't have the same coach anymore. does she even speak german?

[alfongsucks]

she speaks German, one of the cool things though,is when you are immersed in the language you will pick it up far faster. Plus it is easier to understand a language then speak it.


Last thing I had heard was that Sydney still had all of her triples , except for the axel. I do not know how consistent they are, but still I think it is cool that she is plugging along

[Trillian]

Originally posted by alfongsucks
Last thing I had heard was that Sydney still had all of her triples , except for the axel. I do not know how consistent they are, but still I think it is cool that she is plugging along

I don't think they were all that consistent last season even before she got injured again, although she was landing triple lutzes IIRC and that would definitely help her. However, it's hard to say what the latest injury did to her skating--I hope she's able to compete because I'm really curious to see how she does. Germany has a handful of talented young skaters who've had very inconsistent showings internationally for various reasons (persistent injuries, nerves, etc.), but in theory there are a number of them who should be able to do most or all of the triples if they skate well. However, the German federation made it quite clear that they were very disappointed in the overall quality of their ladies last season (they opted to not even send a lady to worlds), and that may be a reason Sydne saw an opening to compete there.

Katharina Häcker, who won German nationals last year, hasn't done very well since then (she was on the JGP this year but finished 10th and 11th in her events) and didn't even get chosen for junior worlds last year, so I'd be kind of surprised if she was a threat for the title again. She wasn't old enough for Europeans or worlds last year so Andrea Diewald went in her place, but Diewald didn't do very well and has only had spotty results in general over the years. I'm not sure how well she can be expected to do. Susanne Stadlmüller, who won nationals two years ago and had the top showing at junior worlds, hasn't done badly internationally this year, but she's been one of the most frustratingly inconsistent (and frequently injured). Christiane Berger had the best showing on the JGP and is also probably a contender, along with Veronika Diewald and Stefanie Dankert, who also had decent JGP showings. A couple of other usual contenders, like Annette Dytrt--and, if they're still competing and uninjured, Zoya Douchine and Caroline Gülke--can also be expected to be factors. All in all, I'd pick Stadlmüller to win if she's anywhere near top form, and I suspect she's probably far ahead of Sydne at this point. Not sure how Berger, the Diewalds, etc., would match up.

[alfongsucks]

does anyone have a recent or semi recent picture of Sydney?

[cocanuts]

i think more americans should do this so they get a chance to go to worlds and olympics. angela should go to bulgaria since her parents are from there. AP should go to korea cuz she was born there. that leaves realistically 4 girls to fight for 3 spots in the US and hopefully michelle will turn pro soon and then jenny, sasha and sarah will get their chances as will angela and AP

[peachstatesk8er]

I disagree with moving to a new country to skate. If these girls can't make it here against our skaters, then how do they expect to do well on the World scene against the SAME skaters? It's a waste of money IMO. But if their biggest goal is to make it Worlds and come in 18th then more power to them. :roll:

A girl from AFSC did that, and it did her no good. She sucked here and she sucked there. The only difference was her parents had paid out a ton more cash and she got to go to some internationals that she wouldn't have otherwise. Did it help her career? Nopey. And where is she now? Teaching skating. Heck, she could have saved everyone a lot of hassle and just started coaching sooner, but noooooooo. There are girls, and some guys for that matter, that stay waaaaay too long at the party.

[cocanuts]

well some people may just want a chance to compete at worlds or olympics like angela. and maybe they can't beat them that very day at nationals but have a chance to medal at worlds.