SOLIHULL INCLUSIVE SKATING ACADEMY head coach Sarah Carter is “ridiculously proud” of her team after they came away with 80 medals at the Virtual World Inclusive Skating Championships.
Carter, who is also Team GB’s Inclusive Skating Head Coach, led her team to 40 gold medals, 26 silver’s and 14 bronze’s as well as three world records.
Skaters submitted pre-recorded videos, that were judged at the end of last year, and attended an official presentation ceremony on Zoom.
And Britain’s iconic former World and Olympic champion figure skaters Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) helped hand out the medals.
Carter, who is a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is incredibly proud of what the skaters have achieved.
Carter said: “I’m ridiculously proud, I’m proud of the team and of myself. A lot of my skaters are new to inclusive skating, I was hoping for a couple of gold medals.
“My older team members tend to do quite well on the international circuit. When we got the medal tally, I had to double check it, I’m so proud of them.
“Inclusive Skating is a charity that was set-up to make skating inclusive for everybody. It’s for people with learning and physical difficulties and mainstream skaters.
“The system is run similar to the Paralympics and I also have a couple of Special Olympics skaters as well.
“It’s a passion of mine to find a way of making things work for someone and the medal tally proves what we’re doing is working.”
The mindset coach uses NLP techniques to train her team which includes helping skaters have the confidence to step back onto the ice after lockdown, working with team members ranging from ages 12 to 60.
This includes skaters with various abilities and disabilities including learning and physical disabilities and also helps deal with the anxiety induced by new activities.
Inclusive Skating hope to return to face-to-face competition this Summer having previously hosted competitions all over the world including Australia, Finland, Iceland and Russia.
Remarkably, all of the athletes are self-funded which means the cost of outfits, costumes and travel is all paid for in-house.
To contact Sarah about joining inclusive skating or mindset coaching you can email her at: [email protected]
