Success on ice and in class for Olympic hopeful

Sixteen-year-old figure skater Edward Solovyov is busy training when most teenagers are still in bed.

The Olympic prospect starts most weekday mornings bright and early at Whitley Bay Ice Rink, before heading off to Cramlington Learning Village (CLV) where he’s just started his A Levels.

At weekends, when he’s not competing, Edward travels to London for more coaching and  every school holiday he and his parents go to Estonia for specialised training. “We realised that he needed to train abroad, because in Europe there are established schools and you won’t make good progress if you won’t see how people do it somewhere else” said his mum Alexandra.

Despite this intensive regime Edward is a success in the classroom as well as on the rink.  He achieved three top grade 9s and eight 8s in his GCSEs and is studying Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths and Physics at CLV’s Sixth Form.

He is grateful to the school for all of its support and the school said Edward’s achievements are well deserved.  “His dedication to figure skating is quite inspirational: the long days and early starts for training, the national and international travel, all while studying for his GCSEs,” said Deputy Head Teacher David Bell.  “But when you asked him how things were going, he’d break into a smile and tell you that life was great.”

On the ice Edward is Britain’s youngest Junior Men’s Champion.  He was just 14 and beat skaters who were four and five years older than him.  Last year Edward was affected by injury but still came second.  “I’ll have to get my revenge this year,” he said with a grin.

Encouraged by his parents, who grew up in Ukraine, Edward started skating at the age of six.  One of his coaches, Karen Brannen, has been working with him since then and said realistically Edward is one of only two athletes who will compete for selection to be Britain’s men’s figure skater at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.

Last year he was chosen to take part in the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Georgia to provide him with an early taste of what to expect in 2030.

But even when he’s away competing or training Edward makes sure he keeps up with his schoolwork. “Elite sport is hard, “ said Karen. “But I do think that being good has made him disciplined, so that’s how he can manage the two – skating and study.”

Edward said he channels the resilience he needs on the ice into his schooling: “Because in figure skating, things always go wrong. You need to learn to pick yourself up, forget about it and move on,” he said. “And I feel like it’s the same at school if you have a bad exam.”

The early starts, hard training, travel, injuries and sacrifices made by Edward and his parents will hopefully culminate in representing his country in 2030, but that is still a long way off.  “The goal for everyone is to be at the Olympics, but it’s quite a hard one. There’s lots of hurdles to go over until then,” he said.  “A more short term goal would be getting to the junior world championships this year and perform my best there.”