About us

• This is our tenth anniversary. The club was founded on December 10, 1997.
  
  
• With 110 skaters in senior team (16 to 28 years of age), in juniors (13 to 18years), novice (10 to 14 years) and in beginner and juvenile team (4 to 13 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.
  
  

  2007/2008 Senior Team

  
  
• This is the sixth season of our senior team, and 4 of its skaters have been skating in the club since it was founded: Azra Delić, Zrinka Kovačević, Edita Lukić and Lana Orban. Zrinka Kovačević has not missed a single performance in nine years.
  
  
• Eight skaters skated for the team a 100 times and three of them still skate this season: along Zrinka Kovačević (age 22) student of the third year at the Faculty of Economy, and Azra Delić (21) second year student at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Studies and Lana Orban (24), an administrator at the family company. Mateja and Ivana Mahnić and Dina Vlahov who skated from the founding of the club till spring 2006 also have 100 performances under thief belts as well as Sarah Ivanković who left us the previous year and Edita Lukić who said goodbye after the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London ( Canada) 2007.
  

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

  With Stjepan Mesić, the President of the Republic of Croatia, after the opening ceremony of the World Sinchronized Skating Championships Zagreb 2004.

  
  
• The senior team earned motre than 100 points at all or their international competitions in the past 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 themm 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 10 th place. The competition in Neuchatel was the unofficial junior world championships and our young team became senior the following year.
  
  
• Averaging 19 years, this year we have the youngest senior team in Europe. As many as 12 of 22 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. Two members of the team graduated, nine members of the senior team are college students, 10 are in high-school and one is working. This year we have a skating mom in the team – Sandra Pavičić is back on ice as a skater and coach of the juvenile team after giving birth to baby Bruna in February 2006 (only 15 days after giving birth). Sarah Stewart is the first non Croatian skater to skate for the team, she chose Croatia and our club as a place where she would spend a year after graduating from college. All the skaters, except Sarah Stewart, competed for the team last year at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in London.
  
  
• We attract considerable media attention. In the past 10 years there were 500 newspaper articles about us as well as 100 radio and 70 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”. The Croatian daily paper “Jutarnji list” and Radio Sljeme are constant media patrons of our competition – Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy.
  
  

  Our coaches, left to right: Sandra Pavičić, Ivana Gagro, Danka Đurašević, Sara Perl, Vanja Maoduš, 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. HTV and OTV (Croatian networks) aired many interesting segments about the club before and after the Championships. Our performances at the openings of the Golden Spin Winner Exhibitions always receive a live coverage on TV. We are especially proud of our two half-hour reports from the Milan 2002 Spring Cup and the 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy, which aired during Sunday prime time and a report from the World Championships in Sweden was aired on Z1 TV station. Our practices, preparations and competitions are also often shown on TV and featured in “Good morning, Croatia”.
  
  
• 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.
  
  

  Zrinka (128 performances for the club and the national team), Azra (124) and Lana (119) are the only skaters who have been in the club since its very beginning, December 10,1997. They have travelled the world, performed at 6 World Cup Championships but still enjoy every practice and performance as if it was the first.

  
  
• We are proud of our accomplishments; especially of 10 th place at the World Cup for Juniors in Switzerland and 17 th place at the World Championships in Zagreb 2004 16 th 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, 5 th 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 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 and Šibenik.
  
  
• 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). Furthermore, Zagreb made history as the
  first city that organized the World Challenge Cup for Juniors (2002) and the World
  Championships.
  
  
• 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 six 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.
  
  
• We will be hosting the seventh Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy in March 13-15 2008. Some 500 skaters from 25 teams and 15 countries will show their skill on the ice of Dom Sportova arena. Over 1000 visitors will come to Zagreb, the stands will be filled again and even the most demanding audience will be pleased and satisfied. Once again we will have a first rate treatment in the media and extensive television coverage.
  
  

  Zagreb Snowflakes staff: Arnold Čada (club secretary) Ksenija Krsnik (juniors team-manager), Biserka Ragač, (club treasurer), Mišel Šnuderl (synchro-school manager and treasurer), Melita Delić (chief equipment manager & senior team stylist), Zoran Kovačević (club president), Marija Rađaš (senior team treasurer), Dijana Alispahić (novices team treasurer), Jasna Ivanković (novices team equipment manager & stylist), Davorin Orban (president of the Technical Commission & seniors team-manager). missing: Valerija Dujmović (juveniles team-manager), Đurica Novaković (junior team equipment manager & stylist)

  
  
• The president of the club is Zoran Kovačević, a renowned sports journalist and sports official. Arnold Čada, a huge sports fan and a judge (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.
  

• 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. Danka Đurašević is the first coach, assisted by Sara Perl and Ivana Gagro. Danka 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 junior team is coached by Sara Perl. The novice by Sandra Pavicic. Vanja Maoduš coaches the beginners assisted by Ozana Miljković, a first time coach. All are former figure skaters have either skated or still skate (Sara, Sandra, Ozana) in the senior team.
  
  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.
  
  
• 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 delighted the audience at the last Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy. Anu is always with us though – as a supervisor, advisor and friend.
  
  Orgationally 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.
  
  
• 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.