Your local Cumberland newspaper

Ice queen's life now in sync

Xavier Toby

Wednesday 14 May, 2008 12:00pm

SYNCHRONISED ice skating may not be a hugely popular sport in Australia, but elsewhere in the world it's become a phenomenon.

Seventeen-year-old Briar Harold has represented Australia in several world championships, competing in front of crowds of several thousand in North America and throughout Europe.

"I think the largest crowd was when we competed in front of over 5000 in Canada," she said.

Recently the Concord West resident won a Strathfield Rotary Club youth achievement award for her contribution to the sport.

"That was a big thrill and hopefully will raise the profile of the sport in Australia," Harold said.

Synchronised ice skating is the fastest growing ice sport in the world. Competition involves teams of 16 skaters performing two choreographed and technically difficult programs.

Harold competes with the Fire On Ice team, which recently won its fourth consecutive senior national title and first junior title.

She is in both the senior and junior teams which are part of the Sydney Figure Skating Club and train at the Canterbury Ice Rink.

Most recently Harold competed at the Senior World Cup in Hungary at the end of March.

The Australian team finished 19th but scored more points than at previous competitions.

also captained the junior team at the Junior World Cup in France at the beginning of March. The team finished 16th.

More recently, the senior and junior teams competed in Croatia for the Zagreb Snowflake Trophy. The juniors finished third while the seniors came sixth.

It was the first time an Australian synchronised skating team had won an international medal.

Harold trains up to six times a week and, sometimes, for four hours a day.

"I love the feeling of skating and I love the girls on the team," Harold said.

Due to all the training she is completing her HSC over two years.

"I couldn't have done it otherwise," she said.

Harold is training for the state championships in eight weeks and the nationals in August.

She started skating when she was 10 after trying lots of different sports.

"I enjoy the costumes and make-up. There are not many sports where you get to dress up to compete," she said.

At the moment synchronised skating is not an Olympic sport, but Harold hopes it will be soon be so she has the chance to represent Australia at the winter Games.

Harold hopes to study media and communications after high school and plans to continue skating, "until I can't skate any more".