Several days ago, the Lithuanian city of Kaunas played venue
for the European Figure Skating Championships where Romania was represented by
two athletes, Julia Sauter şi Ana Sofia Beşchea. After the short programme, Sauter
ranked 10th with 58.59 points while Beşchea came in last with 37.52 points.
Sauter went further into the freestyle contest which she
ended on the ninth position with 109.81 points. Julia Sauter eventually ranked
ninth in the competition thus obtaining the best performance in the recorded history
of the Romanian figure skating. And for this performance, Radio Romania
International has designated Julia Sauter, athlete of the week.
Julia Franziska Sauter was born in Weingarten, Germany on
June 18, 1997. She is currently competing for CSU, a sports club based in Braşov
southern Romania. As a junior she competed for Germany until the age of 14 and
in 2011 she decided to obtain performances for Romania. She stayed one year outside
competitions and in 2013 she participated for the first time for Romania in an
international competition. She has made a constant progress and went 35th
in the European Championships in 2015. A year later she went 27th
and then 25th in 2017.
In 2019, in Minsk, Julia Sauter ranked 14th
outperforming the best Romanian skater until that time, Roxana Luca, who in 2005
came 15th in the European Championship. Roxana Luca, now Hartmann,
has been part of the Julia Sauter’s team, helping her with choreography. Julia’s
progress continued with a tenth place in Espoo, Finland in 2023, a performance,
which she overcame this year. Julia
Sauter has been training since the age of 12 under the guidance of Marius
Negrea, a former athlete who represented Romania in two winter editions of the
Olympic Games: in Albertville, in 1992, and Lillehammer, in 1994. She is presently
training in Germany and married US hockey player Robbie Czarnik. After playing
in the American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League, Czarnik went to
Germany and is currently playing for second leaguers Ravensburg Towerstars. (bill)