.:zagreb snowflakes:.

About us

This is our eleventh anniversary. The Club was founded on December 10, 1997.
With 100 skaters who make three competitive teams: seniors (17 to 25 years of age), juniors (14 to 18 years), novices (11 to 14 years) and juveniles and synchro-school team (5 to 14 years), Zagreb Snowflakes is the biggest and most popular skating club in Croatia, although in the youngest, but nevertheless the most attractive skating discipline - according to the International Skating Union - with some 500 teams in 30 countries throughout the world.

This is the 8th season of our senior team, and 3 of its skaters have been skating in the club since it was founded: Azra Delić, Zrinka Kovačević and Lana Orban. Zrinka Kovačević has missed only one performance out of 141 over 11 years.

Senior team 2008/2009.

Eight skaters skated for the team a 100 times and five of them still skate this season: along Zrinka Kovačević (age 23, 140 performances) student at the Faculty of Economy, and Azra Delić (22, 136 performances) student at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Studies and Lana Orban (25, 131 performances), an administrator at the family company, Mateja Mahnić (24, 114 performances) student at the Faculty of Economy and Dina Vlahov (25, 113 performances) an attorney at law with a Masters degree in Law working for the Lawyers Association. Other skaters with more than a 100 performances are Ivana Mahnić (106) who skated from the founding of the club till spring 2006 as well as Sarah Ivanković (101) who left us the previous year and Edita Lukić (101) who said goodbye after the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London (Canada) 2007..

Our Senior team has successfully competed at seven World Championships : Rouen (France) 2002., Ottawa (Canada) 2003., Zagreb (Croatia) 2004., Gothenburg (Sweden) 2005., Prague (Czech Republic) 2006, London (Canada) 2007 and Budapest (Hungary) 2008.

Zagreb Snowflakes started to prepare for the 2009 World Championships
in Mid-August of 2008. Very motivated, they worked for five hours a day
and were completely delighted with Anu Oksanen and everything about her –
her coaching philosophy, work ethics, choice of music and choreography
for the programs for the upcoming season.
One of the world's best coaches (triple World Champion with both senior
and junior teams – brilliant Marigold Ice Unity 2002, 2004 and 2006
as well as Musketeers 2003, 2004 and 2006) came to Zagreb for the third
time as an expert but also as a great friend to the Zagreb Snowflakes
management, skaters and coaches.
She passed on her vast knowledge onto everyone around her and even
the exhaustion after a hard day of work became satisfaction and enjoyment
of this beautiful sport.

There was also a bit of superstition in all of this – Anu worked with the
Snowflakes five years earlier when preparing for the 2004 World Championships.
The Finnish team felt like home and became World Champions in front of a
packed audience at Dom Sportova arena and the Snowflakes, as the National Team, skated the „programs of their careers“and achieved their biggest success up till then.
What else can we say but – my history repeat itself on April 3-4, 2009!

Our senior team is the national team and the members have a high status of second category according to the Croatian Olympic Committee which they earned with their excellent result at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London (Canada) 2007 where they finished 16, and 11th country out of all entered and 8th out of all European countries (5 best placed countries from the previous Championships may enter two teams). We were better them the best teams from more developed countries: France, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain, Australia…and only a place behind Italy, two places behind the Czech Republic and three places behind Japan. Three years earlier the Snowflakes had their best result at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Zagreb 2004 when they were 17th.

Senior team performing

The senior team earned more than 100 points at all of their international competitions in 2007., the Club's most successful season: 100,02 in Neuchatel, 108,26 at the Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy and 103,80 at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London. At the Zagteb Snowflakes Trophy they were 5th out of ten teams – better than teams from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland. We earned 71 points for our free program alone at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London, more than we got for both of them a year ago in Prague. We beat France for the first time, we were 12 points better than Austria, 15 points ahead of Australia and we had 20 points more than our previous teachers from Hungary and as much as 21 points more than Great Britain.
In 2001 our Junior team competed at the first Junior World Challenge Cup and won 10th place. The competition in Neuchatel was the unofficial junior world championships and our young team became senior the following year.

Averaging 20 years, this year we have the youngest senior team in the World. As many as 10 of 24 (and as many as 8 standard skaters at any time) skaters of the senior team could still compete as juniors. All of them are long-time members of the club, dedicated and hard-working athletes, exemplary students and pupils. Among the members of the team we have a holder of a Masters degree in Law, 13 members of the senior team are college students (3 of them about to graduate) attending seven different Faculties (Kinesiology, Medicine, Philosophy, Economy, Food technology, Pharmacy, Teaching) and 10 are in high-school (5 seniors).

We attract considerable media attention. In the past 11 years there were 550 newspaper articles about us as well as 120 radio and 80 TV shows and features. Our club, and its work were a topic of the June issue of 2004 (a four page spread) of the only specialized synchronized skating magazine – the US “Synchronized Skating Magazine”.

Our coaches, left to right: Sandra Pavičić,Vanja Maoduš, Ivana Gagro,
Danka Đurašević, Sara Perl, Ozana Miljković

Our work, progress and performances are often shown on television. The 2004 World Championships was televised in prime time for two and a half hours in two days.
We are the most successful, the best organized and probably the fastest growing synchronised skating club in this part of Europe. When it comes to organizing competition in this sport, we are among the best (if not the best) in the world.

We had great performances in 11 countries: USA, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Great Britain.

Azra (136 performances for club and national team), Dina (113 performances),
Lana (131 performances), Zrinka (140 performances), Lea (86 performances),
Mateja (114 performances)

We are proud of our accomplishments; especially of 10th place at the World Cup for Juniors in Switzerland and 17th place at the World Championships in Zagreb 2004 16th place at World Synchronized Skating Championships in London . We are also proud winning of first places as Juniors at Frost-Work Cup in Miskolc, the Hungarian Nationals and our own Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy in 2001; second place at Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy in 2002, 5th place in 2007, and when our juvenile team won gold at the Frost-Work Cup in 2003 – they continued their success as novices with the bronze medal at the 2006 Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy and silver in 2007; we are proud of the newest novice medal – silver at 2008. Jegvirag Cup in Miskolc.
We are proud of our skaters, all excellent high school and university students, who train 5 hours a day every August while others are enjoying their summer holidays on beaches, and who work with a top foreign coach on their new programs for the upcoming season.
Our novice and juvenile teams regularly perform at the Christmas shows on a mini-rink at the main square in Zagreb (Ban Josip Jelačić Square). The “Snowflakes” are among the main attractions of the rich program in the days leading up to Christmas organized by the City Assembly and the Tourist Office of the City of Zagreb. They also performed at the mini-rinks in Rijeka, Šibenik, Krk and Slavonski Brod.
We did a splendid job organizing the fifth World Synchronized Championships
2004. 550 skaters from 23 teams from 18 countries from all continents competed
and had a great time. Before Zagreb only the cities in the most powerful countries
of the sport organized this championships: Minneapolis (USA), Helsinki (Finland),
Rouen (France) and Ottawa (Canada).
The 2004 World Championships was one of the biggest and most attractive sport
events ever to have been held in our country. The number of competitors, 1500
guests from all over the world, 5000 delighted spectators in the stands of the
Dom Sportova arena, fantastic media coverage… It was a complete success
thanks to the enthusiasm of the organizing team with only one professional and
over 200 volunteers gathered in our club. The honorary patron was the President
of Republic of Croatia, Stjepan Mesić, and the patron was Vlasta Pavić, the
Mayor of the City of Zagreb.

The President of the Republic of Croatia is also a big fan of the “Zagreb Snowflakes” and also of this sport. He regularly sees the organizers of the “Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy” and in 2004 the “Zagreb Snowflakes” became the first and, so far, the only team he met twice in a month and a half. After opening the World Synchronized Skating Championships he greeted the team personally in the VIP lounge, received gifts from them, took pictures and invited them to his office for juice after the Championships. He gladly kept his promise…
We did a great job organizing seven Zagreb Snowflakes Trophies and the 2002 World Cup for Juniors, where 21 teams participated, with some 500 skaters from 17 countries around Europe, America and Australia all under the patronage of the Croatian Olympic Committee. A record-breaking 23 teams (novices, juniors and seniors) with 550 skaters from 10 different countries competed at the Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy held in March 2003. We successfully organized an ISU judging and coaches seminar in 1999 and in 2004 and 2007 we organized, and moderated, a regional coaches and organizational seminar.

There were 8 major Synchronized Skating Competitions held in Zagreb from 2001. – 2008. 84 different teams from all continents performed and over 45 000 spectators watched.

Zagreb Snowflakes stuff, left to right:
Dijana Alispahić (novices team treasurer),
Krešimir Ivanković (club vice-president),
Ksenija Krsnik (juniors team-manager),
Miralem Delić (club representative in the Zagreb Skating Federation),
Marija Radaš (senior team treasurer & senior team equipment manager and stylist), Đurđica Galeković (club treasurer & junior team equipment manager & stylist),
Arnold Čada (club secretary),
Mišel Šnuderl (juveniles & synchro-school manager and treasurer),
Zoran Kovačević (club president),
Melita Delić (chief equipment manager & senior team stylist),
Davorin Orban (president of the Technical Commission & seniors team-manager),
Valerija Dujmović (juveniles team-manager)

Zagreb will host the 10th World Synchronized Skating Championships in 2009. Five years after we made history after being the first city ever to host the World Synchronized Skating Championships (2004) and the World Challenge cup for juniors (2002) and as a city where synchronized skating celebrated its 50th anniversary – Zagreb will become the first city which will host the World Championships twice. It is the greatest tribute to the highly organized team with over 100 volunteers gathered in the club which has been organizing events since 2001 and enjoys hosting big competitions to the delight of skaters ane ISU officials from around the world.

The president of the club is Zoran Kovačević, a renowned sports journalist and sports official. Arnold Čada, a huge sports fan and a judge (of the judicial kind, not the skating variety), is the club’s secretary, and Davorin Orban is the team manager - a former skater and coach, a successful president of the “Golden Spin” Organizing Committee and a renowned ISU judge. The club has had the same president since it was founded (1997) and we have changed the Secretary only once, in 2006 Mr. Čada took over from the unforgettable Darko Mahnić.
We invest a great deal into the work and advancement of our Croatian coaches. We enable them to attend seminars abroad, and during summer camps in Zagreb they and the skaters work with top foreign coaches. For the first 7 seasons the head coach was Kristina Blat. Danka Đurašević (37 perfromances, 3 World Championships) took over from Kristina in 2004 and has been coaching the teams up until she had to go on an early maternity leave in 2008. This season both the senior and the junior teams are coached by Sara Perl, a long-time skater (98 perfromances, 6 World Championships) and Danka’s assistant. She’ll be assisted by Sandra Pavicic (75 performances, 5 World Championships) who also coaches the novive team and Ivana Gagro. Vanja Maoduš (3 World Championships) coaches the beginners assisted by Ozana Miljković (54 performances, 4 World Championships. All coaches are former figure skaters….

Danka Đurašević, our head coach, is one of the only two Croatian coaches with a coaching degree from the Faculty of Kinesiology – with a major in skating and she is also an ISU Technical Specialist. The other coach coaches with a coaching degree from the Faculty of Kinesiology is the former Zagreb Snowflakes Coach Kristina Blat.

We had a chance to work with the world’s best coach. Finnish Anu Oksanen, coach of the 2002, 2004 & 2006 world senior champions, and the 2003, 2004 &2006 world junior champions, declined some inviting offers from Canada and the US to come to Zagreb to work with us in summer 2002&2003. In the summer of 2004 our guest was Anu’s first assistant - Janna Hautamaki… Our coaches and skaters improved significantly working with the best and so last and this season Danka Đurašević choreographed both senior programs that won us the 16 place at the World Championships on her own. Sara choreographed both junior programs, Sandra the novice program and Vanja choreographed the routine with which the youngest Snowflakes always delights the audience. Anu is always with us though – as a supervisor, advisor and friend.

Organizationally we are a role model for many clubs, even outside of skating. We wouldn't e so successful without the best doctor in the world Josip Feldbauer, great psychologist Amir Zulić and amazing conditioning trainer Ognjen Bagatin. They have greatly gontributed to our results and atmosphere. We are proud of them as they are of us for our effort, enthusiasm and togetherness of skaters, parents and club management.

Our serious work, progress and results helped «create» the first Croatian ISU Championships Judge. Josip «Joško» Cerovac judged the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London and made history as the first Croatian judge to judge a World Synchronized Skating Championships.

Milan Bandić, the mayor of the City of Zagreb, stoped by the dressing room
to pose for a picture with the youngest "Snowflakes" before their performance
at the Opening Ceremony of the 7th Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy

We have our club badge, calendar and booklet. We can be recognized by all the
important “little things” that make our members happy and delight their skating
friends all over the world. Our badge and annual booklets reached
many skaters and officials on all continents.
We are known for our enthusiasm and serious work. Our goal is to make sport a way of life for our skaters and their parents, and to help them realize both on and off the ice that sport builds personality, leads onto the right path and helps create working habits and healthy people.
Many have acknowledged the fruits of our labour, many offer their help, many are with us. We haven’t let anyone down. We are convinced that those, and many others, will support us in the future. We appreciate it all and continuously strive to show the beauty of synchronized skating.