It was a busy first day at the Baltimore Recreation Centre on Friday, January 24, 2025 as the Baltimore Figure Skating Club hosted the Skate Canada Regional Synchronized Skating Championships.
Inside the Rec Centre the lobby and stands were full of competitors and fans for the three day event.
It’s expected 2,100 competitors from 131 teams will take part in the synchronized event with teams as far as Quebec competing.
Head Coach of the Baltimore Figure Skating Club, Denine Page said there are only four of these events organized by Skate Ontario in the Province.
“It’s been a busy day, but it’s been a great day,” said Page.
The age of members on the teams range from eight-year-olds to people in their mid 50’s or older.
The number of people on a team can range from n members from 12 to 14 people on the ice at a time.
Watching the skaters on the ice, Page said they make it look easy, “but there is a lot of hours, a lot of practice, they put a lot of time and energy into, not only on the ice, but off the ice. It’s real technical. It’s a lot of time and energy with these teams to make it happen.”
Because it’s synchronized, “if someone takes a tumble – we actually had four members of a team go down today and one of them was injured. It’s part of the sport – that’s part of the risk.”
With the second time hosting the event, Page said Manager of Parks and Facilities, Trevor Clapperton and staff at the arena worked with the Baltimore Figure Skating Club discussed the logistics of the event and the number of people that would be attending.
With the colder conditions they were able to create more parking behind the arena they weren’t able to do last year.
“Learning from last year, we were able to address some of those concerns so it’s just been much better this year.”
At the end of the first day, Page said all the skaters are having a great time and there were no complaints at all.
“The volunteers we have are fabulous. They really all pull together and they’re happy doing the job they’re doing.”
“I appreciate it because it’s a team effort and it made it really, really easy to pull it all together.”
Skating starts on Saturday 7:30am – 9:00pm. Sunday 7:00am – 3pm.
It’s $10 for admission, $5 for seniors.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
