Taylor would like to thank her kind sponsors:
Did you know that ice skating celebrated its 100th year in Australia in 2004?
And that it has one of the highest participation rates of any winter sport in this country?
In Australia, ice skating began at the Glaciarium in Hindley Street, Adelaide, in 1904. Due to the popularity of ice skating, ice rinks began popping up all over the country, with the first one in Brisbane opening at Mowbray Park in 1961. Back in that era ice shows were a regular event, with visiting international shows such as Ice Capades well patronised. New rinks continued to be built, with the current facilities, Iceworld Acacia Ridge, opening in 1979, followed by Iceworld Boondall in 1994. Acacia Ridge has spawned many National champions and international representatives. Our current Ladies international representative to the World Championships is based at Acacia Ridge. Indeed, Stephen Bradbury, Australia’s first winter Olympic gold medallist, trained at Acacia Ridge, where his father currently manages the facility. So what of the future?
Meet Taylor Dean, Australia's 2014 Winter Olympics figure skating representative hopeful...
Taylor is the current Australian Junior Ladies Silver Medallist, is an international representative, and was awarded the 2008 Morgan Innes Skating Scholarship (for skating potential). Taylor was selected in 2008 to tour Australia with Dutch "Waltz King", Andre Rieu, in his "A Romantic Night in Vienna" World Stadium concerts. She is the youngest female skater to be chosen!
She’ll be 18 in 2014, the perfect age for competitive ice skating, and from now till then she knows how much hard work is needed to become internationally competitive. She’s comitting 15 hours training a week to achieve the goal to represent her country.
This will involve interstate and international training and competitions, and overseas coaching to train alongside international level skaters, so financial support is very much required.
We, her parents, have been doing it alone, but need your help to continue preparing Taylor for this international event to ensure Taylor is ready and able to compete and bring home the gold for Australia.
Michael Santer (Editor Ozskater magazine) writes in the October '07
edition of Ozskater:
And we have some dynamic youngsters coming through the ranks too...
the "Kerry kids", Taylor Dean from Queensland and Oliver Porter
from Western Australia. If we can continue to nurture these talented
young skaters, the future will be very promising!
We’ve started the ball rolling with a fabulous YouTube film which will carry your logo every time it’s played.
We’re asking you to dig deep to assist us in providing Taylor with the financial and moral support required for an athlete to represent her country and participate at the Olympics.
Contact us to find out how your sponsorship dollars will be able to assist.