2007 Ondrej Nepela Memorial Preview

Bratislava, Slovakia

Seven ice dance teams will be competing in the 15th Ondrej Nepela Memorial competition taking place this week in Bratislava, Slovakia. The event, named after Slovakian singles skater and 1972 Olympic Champion, marks the start of the senior international season.

The overwhelming favorites are Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France (pictured, left), the 2007 European Champions. While many of the top ice dancers in the world will not make their debuts until the Grand Prix in late October, Delobel and Schoenfelder will unveil their new programs early. The duo, who train with Muriel Boucher-Zazoui and Romain Haguenauer in Lyon, have been skating together since 1990.

After Delobel and Schoenfelder, the event seems wide open with Several teams are in the medal hunt, including Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azroyan. Grebenkina and Azroyan represent Armenia and finished 14th at the European Championships and 22nd at the World Championships in 2007. They train with coach Alexander Zhulin, who returned to Russia from the US after coaching Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov to the Olympic gold medal in 2006. Their personal best score was earned at the 2005 NHK Trophy.

Germany’s Carolina and Daniel Hermann, siblings who won the 2007 German National Junior title, are making their senior international debut. Hermann and Hermann finished 10th at the 2007 World Junior Championships and have been skating together since 1997.

Other teams competing include Barbara Silna and Dmytro Matsjuk of Austria, Laura and Luke Munana of Mexico and from Canada Mylene Lamoureaux and Michael Mee and the new team of Siobhan Karam and Kevin O’Keefe.