For a number of reasons, sadly not every skater gets their skating costs paid for.
Here we’ve compiled a list of skaters fundraising pages. If you’re able to, please consider donating!
(Listed in alphabetical order by country).
Samantha Ritter / Daniel Brykalov, Azerbaijan
Samantha is also a student at Western University in London and works hard to balance her training schedule and competitions with her schoolwork. Daniel is also a student studying the field of IT and cybersecurity.)
We would greatly appreciate any help that is available to help us continue with our goals to compete on a world stage. Our long-term goal is to continue to train and improve and work toward qualifying for the next Olympics in 2026.
Solène Mazingue / Marko Jevgeni Gaidajenko, Estonia
With the large medical bills from the surgery and our federation pulling our funding for not placing high enough this season. We will not be able to afford to continue to skate.
We have started this Go Fund Me account to help us continue to pay for training, ice time, pay our phenomenal coaches, Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and the entire Ice Academy of Montreal team. Over the next days, weeks, and months ahead we will need continued rehabilitation for my brain, mediations, physical therapy. And as you can imagine the normal costs of everyday living…such as rent, food, etc.
Ashlie Slatter / Atl Ongay-Perez, Great Britain
Any contributions you make will go directly towards helping us train and compete and will be spent on things like coaching lessons, ballet classes, competition and travel fees, insurance and clothing. (A professional pair of ice skates, including the blades, can cost up to £800, and our feet are still growing, so we don’t get to keep our skates as long as we’d like!)
Kristen Spours, Great Britain
However, as figure skating is a minor sport in the UK, there is little funding available by way of grants and sponsorship and Kristen is entirely self-funded.
While the national skating body can get her to the championships, the costs are prohibitively expensive and include on and off ice training, coaching and rink fee, kit including skates, costumes, petrol, physiotherapy.
Kristen spends hours a week commuting between her training rink at Swindon and Nottingham where she is a coach.
Chelsea Verhaegh / Sherim van Geffen, Netherlands
Ice Dance has been off the radar in The Netherlands for years, it’s slowly starting to gain more recognition. By representing The Netherlands internationally, we hope to make it more known again. The sky is the limit in terms of dreams.
To be able to compete internationally, we need to finance training, training camps, private lessons, choreography, costumes, equipment and competitions abroad etc. Unfortunately, we have to finance almost everything ourselves. Therefore, every little bit of help is very much appreciated!
Julia Sauter, Romania
Unfortunately my federation can’t support me as an athlete which makes my professional athlete life very very hard. I have to go and work 3 part time jobs to cover all of my cost and support myself. I feel like my body can’t hang onto that much longer, which why I am asking for help so I can focus to for the upcoming worlds in Japan next month and then helping me prepare for the upcoming season 2023! I want to go the Olympics 2026 in Milano and I am trying the hardest to make it somehow possible. Dreaming big and hoping for some help!
Mariia Holubtsova / Kyryl Bielobrov, Ukraine
Today, we are in the position where we have to find the solution to sustainably fund our trainings, or we won’t be able to continue competing and what even more important for us, we will lose the feeling of happiness and home again.
Kyrylo Marsak, Ukraine
In March 2022 due to the war in my country I was forced to leave Ukraine to continue training and competing. My first stop was in Torun, Poland, second in Riga, Latvia and final one is in Finland.
Here I practice in the city of Laukaa with the generous help of my coaching team headed by Alina Mayer-Virtanen. Also we cooperate with my coach from Kyiv Dmitry Shkidchenko.
Me and my team have comprehensive plans for this year to represent Ukraine at the international stage the best way I can. And to implement our plans I need a help with fundraising- for practicing abroad and represent my country around the world.
Ivan Shmuratko, Ukraine
From May 2022, because of the war going on in Ukraine my new main training location is Oberstdorf, Germany. Since the time I came here I’m funding a training proccess by myself with my family.
I decided to launch Patreon help me continue pursuing my goals and dreams in figure skating and I invite you to be a part of my journey!
Instead of just taking money what I propose to my patrons is to share my skills, knowledge and thoughts with you back for this initiative to be bilateral.
Anastasiia Vasylchenko, Ukraine
Since March 2022, I have been training in Brasov. Unfortunately, the ice arena in Brasov only works until the end of April, and then a break from May to mid-August. Therefore, in May last year, I traveled daily with my mother from Brasov to Bucharest to continue training. It took 2.5 hours there and 2.5 back. But thanks to the support from Romania to Ukrainians, the trip was free, so I could continue training in May at the ice arena in Bucharest until the ice was drained and in June at the Bucharest shopping center during the absence of ice in Brasov. At the moment, free intercity travel in Romania has been canceled, and the ice arena will not work in the summer in Bucharest either, so I cannot continue to train in the summer of 2023 Romania.
To do this, I need approximately 7,000 EUR:
1. Creation of 2 new programs: short and free. The estimated cost is 2000 EUR.
2. Being on the ice all the time in the training process in the summer. The estimated 4000 EUR for four months is 700 – 1000 per month.
3. New Edea Ice Fly boots 400 EUR and John Wilson Pattern 99 Revolution blades 600 EUR.
Liubov Zholobova, Ukraine
Days before the invasion of Ukraine she was competing in Kyiv. When it happened, she was forced to leave her home country and didn’t know if she would be able to ever skate again. It was a devastating situation. A friend of a family reached out to the Skating School of Switzerland and asked for help.
Stéphane Lambiel and his Team offered Liubov a place to stay and most importantly get Liubov and her family safe. They packed all their stuff and drove to Switzerland. Before even arriving in Champéry, Liubov wanted to go directly to the ice rink. For her, Skating and being at the rink was the first priority.
Liubov was able to train with the Skating School at no cost for a year to continue her practice with the ambition that she feels for figure skating. Despite the horrific situation with the war in her hometown, Liubov has found not only a place where she goes to school and learns French and English, but also a very hopeful opportunity to pursue her career and journey as an athlete.
The Skating School will continue to support her career and next season by subsidizing over half of her training expenses.
Oona Brown / Gage Brown, USA
We train intensively about 22 hours a week. Of those hours, about 17 is spent on the ice, and about 5 is spent off ice training. Oona and I also run competitively in local 5K races, which helps with our endurance.
Some interesting facts about us are: We come from a family of seven children, ages 14-25. We are both soccer referees. We are both musical: Gage plays the electric bass and sings, Oona plays the snare drum in a pipe and drum band. We never went to school, we were always taught at home. We started skating as a homeschool class once a week when Oona was 4 and Gage was 6. We started competing together as an ice dance team at ages 10 (Oona) and 12 (Gage).
Caroline Green / Michael Parsons, USA
The training costs to compete at this level are daunting – each year it costs $30,000 – $40,000 for each skater to train and compete at this level. This includes all the costs for ice time, coaching fees, off-ice training, skates, costumes, travel, and more – which is why we need help from sponsors like you to help carry the load.
Vadym Kolesnik, USA
Vadym’s immediate family resides in Kharkiv, Ukraine, a city that has been dramatically affected by the criminal acts of the Russian invasion. They have lost their business and hometown and cannot support Vadym. The Kolesniks need financial assistance to allow Vadym to continue to follow his skating dreams and provide some security in this time of catastrophe. Vadym continues to work various jobs to support himself, but the cost of living and training exceeds what he can make on his own.
Lorraine McNamara / Anton Spiridonov, USA
With your generosity, we are able to train to the capacity that is required at our level and work with professionals that can help us take our skating to the next level. We aim to not just become great, but the very best. Thank you for being a part of our journey!
Eva Pate / Logan Bye, USA
Right now, their training costs between $65,000 – $75,000 per year for the team to train at this level. This includes all coaching fees, ice time fees, off-ice training, skates, costumes, and travel expenses. Each season as they are more successful, they incur more costs by going to more competitions, which is why we are asking for sponsors like you to help! By donating, you will be helping them to continue their training to reach their ultimate goal of representing the USA at the Winter Olympics.
Isabella Flores / Ivan Desyatov, USA
Some may know that Vanya represented the Belarussian Skating Union during the 2021-2022 season. With Russia’s invasion and war with Ukraine, Vanya’s older brother advised him to find a way to leave the country. Within 14 days, Vanya relocated to the United States. He made this spontaneous decision to leave everything he’s ever known so he had a chance to influence his future regardless of the geo-politics going on in Russia. Hungry for a chance to live out his dream, he booked a flight to the USA with almost no knowledge of the language or culture and shards of a plan.
This week they learned that the Belarussian Skating Union will release Vanya… under the stipulation that the team must reimburse the federation $25k USD for all training costs that Vanya incurred in the previous season. In short: Vanya will not be able to represent the United States until this $25k is paid off.
