Soucisse And Firus Steel Themselves For Sheffield Europeans
Carolane Soucisse (30) and Shane Firus (31) make their third consecutive ISU European Figure Skating Championships appearance this week in Sheffield, United Kingdom (14-18 January).
The Irish ice dancers finished 18th at last year’s championships in Tallinn, Estonia and will be aiming to improve on that ranking this time round. This will be the fifth competition of what has been a hectic season which has included a silver medal at International Ice Dance Dordrecht in the Netherlands in August and representing Ireland at the ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier in Beijing, China back in September. The three-time Irish national champions train in Toronto, Canada with their coaches Carol Lane and Juris Razgulajevs.
Soucisse and Firus take to competition ice for the 1990s themed rhythm dance starting at 12:30pm (Irish time) on Friday, 16 January. The Irish duo will skate to a New Kids On The Block medley. Thirty teams from 21 nations will battle for the 20 spots available in the free dance on Saturday, 17 January where Soucisse and Firus hope to showcase their routine to music from “Riverdance” that evening.
“We are super excited to perform in Sheffield this week,” Soucisse said. “We really enjoy performing both our programmes this season and we hope we can bring the crowd in and give them a great show!”
“We are really looking forward to this event and want to take in the whole experience,” Firus said. “We made some small changes since our last competitions and are excited to showcase them here!”
Europeans are the oldest ISU championship event having first been contested in 1891. Ireland made its debut at the championships in 2009 when Clara Peters skated in the women’s event. Peters also participated in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 editions (the latter also in Sheffield). In 2018, Conor Stakelum became the first Irish male figure skater to perform at the championships and he subsequently made appearances in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Sam McAllister represented Ireland at the 2023 Europeans. In 2024 Soucisse and Firus became the first ice dance team from Ireland to compete at Europeans.
In order to earn entry to the championships, eligible skaters must attain a combined minimum technical element score of both their programmes during the current or preceding season. The championships are held annually and this is the second time Sheffield plays host.
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships will be broadcast on the Skating ISU YouTube channel. Geographical restrictions may apply. The results of the championships can be followed on the event results page and on social media via the #EuroFigure and #FigureSkating hashtags.
