German skating

[Frog]

What do you think about German figure skating? Do you see any potential or is there no hope?
Will there be medals for Germany in the future again?
What about the German ladies? Did you see Susanne Stadlmüller, Katharina Häcker, Christiane Berger or Anette Dytrt? What do you think about them?

[Alexeiskate]

I was really impressed with Silvio Smullen's natural style and unique choreography at the recent Worlds. His short to Chaplin had a lot of characters and his long was interesting and modern without looking forced, and he carried off the choreography well. It was just unfortunate that his jumps weren't there. Unless he can get the jumps consistent I'm afraid he'll always ranked in the bottom group.

I don't remember seeing any German woman at Worlds. Did the federation send any?

The German pair of Rico Rex (How cool a name is that?) and Eva-Marie Fitze has kind of a rough style that will hopefully improve as they gain more experiences.

[Frog]

No, they did not send any woman basing on German champion having general problems with her jumps, what resulted in a 21st place finish at Europeans.

Thus they gave the chance to 16-year old vice-champion and last year`s champion Katharina Häcker. The condition for a ticket to worlds was a good impression at junior worlds, what was very realistic thinking of her 6th place finish in 2001 when she was just 14 years old.
But it seems to me that she either makes a top competition or a flop!
Thus after being 9th in qualifying she collapsed completely in her short and finished in 26th position! And you must know that short time before (about 1 week) she had won the European youth olympics with two brilliant performances ahead of competitors that later had TOP10 finishes in the Junior worlds.
Perhaps her style is not so elegant but more sportish (??), but she has a great technique especially in her jumps! Thus she is able to land 3-3s and I have heard that her 3A (!!!!!) looks quite good already.

Susanne Stadlmüller who made a very good impression in 2001 had 2 bad years and thus only finished in 5th position at Nationals this year.
She has a great style and great expression, but at the moment has lack of constancy in her jumps (her best and favorite jump is 3Z!).
She switched trainers from Michael Huth (Kostner!!) to Karel Fafjr just prior to Nationals.
I hope that helps!

[mikey]

Well, I lived in Germany for 3 years (1998-2001), and I really got into following German skating. I also got the chance to go to German Nationals this year, for the first time, and it was interesting... I live in Hawaii now, and there is a little competition here called Skate Aloha that is literally bigger than German Nationals was. I couldn't believe it!

As for German ladies, I can give you my personal opinions, for what they're worth. First, is Christiane Berger still skating? I had heard that she quit. I was most impressed with Anette Dytrt. She had problems in the competition, but in the practices, she had very solid triples up to the lutz. Where they disappear to in competition, I have no idea... She also has good speed, good ice coverage, nice spins, and decent footwork. If she could stay consistent with her jumps in competition, I really think she could be top 10 in the world.

I was decidedly unimpressed with Katharina Häcker, based entirely on the hype I had heard previously. That being said, she is clearly a terrific skater with great potential, but I really felt that she still belongs at the Junior level. She has all the jumps, but the attention to detail just isn't there yet. She could very well be the future of German ladies' skating, though.

Similarly, I thought the same thing about Veronika Diewald. She still skates rather junior-ish, and she still needs to get a consistent lutz and flip, but she has very nice style. Lots of potential in her as well...

Susanne Stadlmüller, well, I dunno... I really liked her at Europeans a couple of years ago- maybe in Vienna or Bratislava? She looked junior-ish then, but she had the triples and seemed to be headed in the right direction. I think if she could fix the jump problems, she would be right up there with the others.

I also think we should mention Caroline Gulke. I was really interested in seeing her live because she always seems to be good enough to get sent to international conpetitions, but then places almost last. As far as I could tell from the practices, all of her triples are solid. She is a mature skater with very nice style, and I do think that she has everything it takes to be competitive internationally- if only all of the elements would show up on the same day at the same time. I am not sure how old she is, and if it is too late for us to keep hoping she'll get it all together, but I am personally not ready to give up on her. Lots of potential...

So, dare I ask- is Sydne Vogel still training?