17-Year-Old Nicolas van de Vijver is a young SA figure skater, skating his way to greatness, with the opportunity to qualify for the World Championships!
Cape Town, South Africa (12 May, 2023)— 17-year-old SA figure skater and upcoming ice prince Nicolas van de Vijver definitely knows his way around the rink.
At seven years old, a young Nicolas found his stride and glide at the Grand West Ice Station in Cape Town, putting in hours upon hours of ice until he was crowned the national champion—which he’s held since 2015.
In 2021, he tackled his first international competition at the Junior Grand Prix in Slovenia—the beginning of multiple international skating showcase sessions for the then-16-year-old.
In fact, Nicolas was of such top-notch figure skating calibre, he earned an IceLab internship in Italy from the International Skating Union; dubbed one of the 5 Centres of Excellence in the world.
Here, he and his coach, Lisa Stigant set to task and trained like ice warriors. Soon, the hard work paid off; Nicolas was awarded a Junior Skater scholarship in June 2022.
15 hours of his week belong to the ice rink and off-ice training for Nicolas. When he’s not training, he’s coaching a ‘Learn to Skate programme’ at the Ice Station and the Junior Blades development club.
For this year’s rollout, the young ice prince already competed in the Bavarian Open in Germany and the Sofia Trophy in Sofia where he placed top 5 in both.
Now, the local ice prince has been selected to represent South Africa at not one, but two Junior Grand Prix competitions set to take place from August to October. Here, he’ll have the chance to qualify for his short programme for the Junior World Championships next year.
And, South Africans can help him get there.
Funding for figure skating is limited, so his family have set out to raise funds for what would be the highlight of his career through Back A Buddy.
“All support will be hugely appreciated as we try to ensure that this very talented and promising young athlete gets to the Junior World Championships next year,” says Linda van de Vijver.
You can support the young ice prince’s dream here.
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