Olympic figure skating champion Alyona Savchenko is returning to her hometown of Chemnitz to work as a coach. Together with her former pairs skating partner Robin Szolkowy, with whom she has won numerous titles, she will look after young figure skaters at the Saxony state base. She also brings two other experienced coaches to the team.
The city of Chemnitz has a long tradition in figure skating and is known for its successful athletes. Thus, several world champions and Olympic champions have already been produced here. The Saxony state base in Chemnitz is an important location for the next generation of figure skaters in Germany.
Aljona Savchenko has celebrated numerous successes in her career and is considered one of the most successful figure skaters of all time. With her commitment as a coach, she would like to pass on her knowledge and experience to the next generation and further advance figure skating in Chemnitz.
The 39-year-old Savchenko had most recently worked as the national coach of the Netherlands. After her Olympic victory with France's Bruno Massot 2018 in South Korea, she had become a mother of a daughter and had announced the official end of her career in 2021. After that, she initially worked as a junior coach at the federal base in Oberstdorf.
94 medals from Chemnitz
Chemnitz has produced numerous European and world champions as well as Olympic champions in figure skating in the past. In total, Chemnitz figure skaters have won a proud 94 international medals. Among the unforgotten success coaches are Jutta Müller and Monika Scheibe. Top stars such as Kati Witt, Anett Pötzsch, Gaby Seifert, Ingo Steuer, Mandy Wötzel, as well as Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy also contributed significantly to the success story. An end to this long tradition would be regrettable.
Light at the end of the loss of status as a federal base
Good news for figure skating in Chemnitz: the return of Aljona Savchenko provides an upswing in the scene. Especially against the background that Chemnitz has lost its status as a federal base for the time being, this is a ray of hope. Olympic and world champions have already been made in Chemnitz and renowned female coaches have been on the sidelines. But now the funding is not forthcoming and the training conditions are deteriorating. Nevertheless, the chairwoman of the Chemnitz Ice Skating Club is combative and hopes to slide back into the system in 2024. Letizia Roscher and Luis Schuster are to remain with the CEC in any case and there are models to guarantee training times.
