On the final day of competition for Team Ireland at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Vuokatti, Finland, Elizabeth Golding finished with another season best score in the Girl’s Figure Skating. Her score of 61.5 in today’s Free Skate event was added to yesterday’s short programme score of 32.41 to give her an overall of 93.91, over two points ahead of her previous best. Golding was the only Irish athlete in action today, on the final day of competition for Ireland at the EYOF which runs from the 20-25 March 2022.
In what was her long programme event, Golding danced to the song One Eye Open, by Lola Blanc, executing three moves successfully in succession that she had not previously mastered, and was pleased with her performance,
“I opened the routine with a double lutz, and I had two triple salchows in combination, and then I had in the rest of my programme two more spins and a flip toe lutz combination and a lutz toe combination. I managed to do all of them together and I’m really proud of that that. I managed to get through the whole programme without many mistakes. I only made one mistake in the spin, but I’m pretty proud of everything all together.”
Over the course of the event Golding has relished performing in front of a crowd,
“It felt great because in the warmup I was having some issues and I felt some pain so I was kind of crying little bit and I heard a lot of people clapping and everything to support, so it felt really nice and like amazing that people were really out there to support me and stuff.”
This EYOF was the first time that Ireland had a figure skater competing in an Olympic event, and Golding’s first time competing in a multi-sport competition, after the competition she expressed her gratitude for competing in the event,
“I’m definitely going to remember this competition for the rest of my life, because this is probably the peak of my career right now! As a junior to be able to participate in such a big competition, I’m really thankful to the Ice Skating Association of Ireland, and Karen (O’ Sullivan – President) and everyone who really believed in me and helped me get to this competition and chose me to represent Ireland at such a big multisport event. I’m just speechless.”
This brings to a close Irish participation in the Winter EYOF in Vuokatti, Finland. Next up for Team Ireland is the summer EYOF in Slovakia in July.
24 March 2022 RESULTS:
Figure Skating – Girl’s Free Skate
TBD Elizabeth Golding – 61.50 (SB). Overall score – 93.91 (SB)
