Sheffield has a long association with ice skating – top quality steel blades have been made in the city for over 300 years. Even Queen Victoria ordered a pair for Prince Albert in 1849 from John Wilson Skates.
And in January 2012, the ISU European Figure Skating Championships will be staged in Sheffield at the 9,000 seater Motorpoint Arena.
Europe’s top skaters will be competing for the coveted European Champion title, including Evgeni Plushenko, the 3-times World Champion, 6-times European Champion and 2006 Olympic Champion, the French skaters Florent Amodio (last year’s Champion) and Brian Joubert (3-times European Champion), Artur Gachinski and Javier Fernandez in the Men’s Championships, whilst 3-times winner Carolina Kostner, Alena Leonova, Kiira Korpi (last year’s bronze medalist) and Elena Gedevanishvili will be amongst those competing in the Ladies Championships.
The European Figure Skating Championships have a great pedigree, first taking place in 1891 in Hamburg. An annual event, the “Europeans” first appeared in the UK in 1933 in London, returning to London in 1939 and then Birmingham in 1989.
Previous gold medal winners of the men’s, women’s and ice dancing competitions include John Curry in 1976, Robin Cousins in 1980, Katarina Witt in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1994.
This year, the British pair of Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland will be going for gold in the Ice Dancing competition, hoping to follow in Sinead and John Kerr’s footsteps who took bronze at last year’s championships in Bern, whilst Jason Thompson and Jenna McCorkell compete in the men’s and women’s competitions.
The 2012 European Figure Skating Championships will be the first to be held in Yorkshire, and will be a fantastic opportunity for spectators to see exhilarating performances by some of the world’s top skaters.
The championships take place from 23-29 January, and for more information and to book tickets, see the Sheffield 2012 official website here.