Facts & Figures

• The club was founded on December 10, 1997.
  
  
• With 100 skaters who make four competitive teams (seniors - 15 to 25 years of age, juniors - 12 to 17 years, two novice teams - 7 to 12 years), and the beginner team (4 to 7 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 fourth season that we have a senior team, and as many as 12 of its skaters have been skating in the club since its founding. Three seniors: Zrinka Kovačević, Sarah Ivanković and Mateja Mahnić (team captain) have not missed any performances. Skating as novices, then juniors, and now as seniors, they have skated the "Snowflake programs" as many as 89 times. Twelve seniors are university students and thirteen are high school students.
  
  
• All senior team skaters are members of the Croatian National Team and have a high athletic status according to the categorization of the Croatian Olympic Committee. They have earned this status with outstanding performances at the World Championships held in Zagreb in April 2004. They were 17th and Croatia, as a country, ranks 9th in Europe and 11th in the world. Ranked behind us were the National teams of Hungary, Great Britain, Austria, Australia, Netherlands… and in front of us were the best skaters from France,
  Italy and Switzerland.
  

• We attract considerable media attention. Only this past season there were 75 newspaper articles published about us as well as 15 radio and 15 television specials and segments. Our club, and its work were a topic of the June issue (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 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 Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy, which aired during Sunday prime time. Our practices, preparations and competitions are also often shown on TV.
  
  
• We are the most successful, the most organized and probably the fastest growing synchronised skating club in this part of Europe. When it comes to organizing competition in this sport, we rank up the top in the world.
  
  
• We had great performances in the USA, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Finland.
  
  
• We are proud of our accomplishments, especially: 10th place at the World Cup for Juniors in Switzerland and 17th place at the World Championships in Zagreb 2004. We are proud winning first places at the Frost-Work Cup in Miskolc in 2001, and our own Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy 2001 (juniors). Our senior team came in 2nd at the Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy 2002. We are also proud of our juvenile team which won 1st place at the Frost-Work Cup in 2003.
  
  
• We are proud of our skaters, all excellent high school and university students, who practice five 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 five coaches also profit from the foreign expert who works with the team during summer training - it is a unique opportunity for them to learn and improve themselves.
  
  
• We did a splendid job organizing the fifth World Synchronized Skating 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 Croatia. 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.
  
  
• We did a great job organizing the three 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 last Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy held in March 2003. We successfully organized an ISU judging and coaches seminar in 1999 and in 2004 we organized, and moderated, a regional coaches and organizational seminar.
  
  
• We will be hosting the fourth Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy February 24-26 2005. 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.
  
  
• The president of the club is Zoran Kovačević, a renowned sports journalist and vice president of the Croatian Skating Federation . Darko Mahnić, a huge sports fan, 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 Pivac, senior team skater and assistant coach up to 2004, is the first coach, assisted by Ivana Petljak who is also the choreographer. 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 also coaches the junior team. The novice and juvenile teams are coached by Sara Perl, Sandra Pavičić respectfully. And Vanja Maoduš, senior team skater 2001-2004, coaches the beginners. All are former figure skaters, and Sara and Sandra skate in the senior team. The team's conditioning trainer is the Croatian fastest sprinter Dejan Vojnović.
  
  
• We had a chance to work with the world's best coach. Finnish Anu Oksanen, coach of the 2002 and 2004 world champions, and the 2003 and 2004 winner of the World Challenge Cup for Juniors, 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… Both our coaches and skaters learned a great deal working with them. They have promised to come again.
  
  
• 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.