Competitive figure skater, Nicole Pratt, became a US Figure Skating Gold Medalist in Moves In the Field at a test session conducted at the recent Idaho Winter Games in Sun Valley. This achievement is the culmination of 10 years of year-round weekly training. It marks a progression through eight different progressively challenging test levels where the quality of edges, balance, speed, power, presentation and overall skating are evaluated by a panel of judges certified by the US Figure Skating Association. The Senior Level Test is the highest level USFS Moves In the Field test available to figure skaters. With this honor, Nicole becomes one of an elite group of less than ten Sun Valley skaters to pass a Gold Moves Test in the last six years. Pratt is a 14 year old a freshman at Wood River High School.



Nicole began skating 10 years ago in Sun Valley Figure Skating Club's "Skate-With Us" group classes for beginning skaters. She fell in love with skating and began taking lessons from Coach Darlin Baker. Baker, a US Open Bronze medalist and USFS Double Gold Medalist and International Medalist in Ice Dance, was Pratt's first coach and continues to be her primary coach. Baker is well-known locally as a principal professional soloist in the Sun Valley Summer Ice Shows for the past 17 years.



Nicole Pratt is a talented show skater as well as a technical skater. She performed in the Sun Valley Summer Ice Shows children's group number for over five years and in Sun Valley Company's Christmas Eve ice shows for 10 years. For the past three years, she has enjoyed principle solo roles as Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy. She has also enjoyed solo and group roles in the Sun Valley Figure Skating Club's Spring Shows. Pratt hopes someday to become a professional featured soloist in the Sun Valley Summer Ice Shows.



Since she began, Pratt has actively competed both locally, and in Jackson Hole, Salt Lake, Boise, Spokane, Seattle, and Phoenix. She is the 2007 Pre Juvenile Northwest Pacific Regionals Champion. She currently has a 4.0 GPA, she participates in many community service programs, and she enjoys several extracurricular school activities, including track, volleyball, Environmental Club, and FCCLA.



Pratt also passed her Novice Freeskate test at Winter Games. Other Sun Valley skaters who passed tests included: Winter Rose, who passed three tests to complete her Silver Ice Dance level; Alexandra Harten, who passed Junior Moves, Juvenile Freeskate and completed her Pre-Silver Level Ice Dance level; Telar McClure, who passed Intermediate Freeskate; Caitlin Scholtis, who passed Juvenile Freeskate, Abby Chase, who completed her Bronze Level Ice Dances and also passed the Fourteen Step and Intermediate Free Dance tests. Grace Hoffman passed three dance tests to complete her Preliminary Dances Level. Dyllan Millar, Lane Letourneau, Katie Peters, Claire Stickney, Tara Ware and Grace Hoffman passed Preliminary Moves, and Lane Letourneau, Emma Stuessi and Aurora Wilkinson passed Pre-Preliminary Moves. Lauren Jacobs, Tara Ware, Emma Stuessi, Travis Flynt, Arizona Semones and Isabella Bourret passed Pre-Preliminary Freeskate. Adult skater Rod Harten passed Adult Pre-Bronze Moves, and former Olympic Ladies Freeskater Lisa-Marie Allen, who recently began ice dancing, passed no less than five different ice dances to complete both her Preliminary and Pre-Bronze Ice Dance levels. The SVFSC would also like to congratulate associate member and good friend of the club, Alexa Linden of Medford, Oregon, for passing her Viennese Waltz and becoming a USFS Gold Medalist in Ice Dancing.

Sun Valley Winter Games

The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club held its annual Winter Games Competition last Saturday, Feb 20.  Skating families took advantage of the beautiful weather and travelled from McCall, Jackson Hole, Oregon and Boise to participate in the competition and test session.  Several promising new Sun Valley Skaters competed for the first time, and a few veteran skaters took advantage of the opportunity to test new routines and prepare for the popular Sun Valley Summer Championships in July.  Skaters earning gold medals included Caitlin Scholtis, Gracie Eagan, Travis Flynt (2), Emma Steussi, Alex Steussi (2), Claire Fisher, Noelle Weaver (2), Katie Peters, Sheldon Gentling (2), Isabella Cronin, Emma Dorinson, Sage Curtis, Marcella Fisher, Adrielle MacDonald, Logan Smith, and Samantha Smith.  Skaters earning silver medals included Nicole Pratt, Alex Harten, Caitlin Sholtis, Emma Steussi (2), Samantha Bunting, Blair Baker, Lane LeTourneau, Blake Letourneau, Katie Peters, Aurora Wilkinson (2), Isabella Cronin, Karsyn Gerringa, Anastasia DeLance (2), Tatum Fuller, Grace Cleveland and Sheldon Gentling.  Bronze recipients were Lauren Jacobs, Isabella Bourret , Tara Ware, Lane LeTourneau, Samantha Bunting, Blake LeTourneau, Noelle Weaver, Claire Stickney, Karsyn Gerringa, Antonia Avery (2), Tallulah Gilbreath, Kristina Poydenis , Anastasia DeLance and Tucker Smith. Two year old Tucker Smith took second place to his sister, Samantha, in Snowplow Sam Showcase. He delighted spectators by becoming the youngest Winter Games competitor to grace the ice in some time.  The results are listed below beginning with the highest freeskate level event categories: 

Intermediate / Novice Artistic: Nicole Pratt-2

Intermediate Showcase: Alexandra Harten-2

Pre-Juvenile Artistic:  Caitlin Sholtis-1

Pre-Juvenile Showcase: Gracie Eagan-1; Caitlin Sholtis-2

Preliminary Girls Free Skate: Lauren Jacobs-3

Pre-Preliminary Girls Free Skate: Emma Stuessi-2; Isabella Bourret-3; Tara Ware-6

Pre-Preliminary Boys Free Skate: Travis Flynt-1

Pre-Preliminary Artistic: Travis Flynt-1; Emma Stuessi-2; Isabella Bourret-4

Pre-Preliminary / Preliminary Interpretive: Tara Ware-3

Pairs Showcase: Emma Stuessi and Alex Stuessi-1

No Test Girls Free Skate: Samantha Bunting-4; Alex Stuessi-5; Claire Fisher-6: Lane Letourneau-8;

                 Blair Baker-9

No Test Compulsory Moves: Claire Fisher-1

No Test Artistic: Alex Stuessi-1; Samantha Bunting-2; Lane Letourneau-3; Blair Baker-5

No Test Interpretive: Noelle Weaver-1; Blair Baker-2; Samantha Bunting-3

No Test Showcase: Lane Letourneau-2; Blair Baker-5

Freeskate 6 Free Skate: Noelle Weaver-1; Blake Letourneau-2

Freeskate 4-6 Artistic: Blake Letourneau-3; Claire Stickney-4; Katie Peters-5

Freeskate 4-6 Showcase: Katie Peters-2; Noelle Weaver-3; Claire Stickney and

                Dyllan Millar-4(Tie); Blake Letourneau-6

Freeskate 4 Free Skate: Katie Peters-1; Claire Stickney-3

Freeskate 2 Free Skate: Sheldon Gentling-1; Aurora Wilkinson-2

Freeskate 1-3 Artistic: Sheldon Gentling-1; Isabella Cronin-2; Karsyn Gerringa-3

Freeskate 1-3 Showcase: Aurora Wilkinson-2; Antonia Avery-3; Karsyn Gerringa-5;

                Sheldon Gentling-6

Freeskate 1 Free Skate: Isabella Cronin-1; Karsyn Gerringa-2; Antonia Avery-3

Basic 8 Free Skate: Anastasia DeLance-2

Basic 6 Free Skate: Emma Dorinson-1; Tatum Fuller-2; Tallulah Gilbreath-3

Basic 3 Free Skate: Sage Curtis-1; Grace Cleveland-2; Kristina Poydenis-3; Adrielle Macdonald-4;

                Peyton Post-5

Basic 3 Compulsory Moves: Marcella Fisher-1

Basic 1-8 Artistic: Anastasia DeLance-2; Grace Cleveland-4

Basic 1-8 Interpretive: Sheldon Gentling-2; Anastasia DeLance-3; Marcella Fisher-4

Basic 1-8 Showcase: Adrielle Macdonald-1

Basic 1 Free Skate: Logan Smith-1

Snowplow Sam Showcase: Samantha Smith-1; Tucker Smith-2