Six ISI Adult National Gold Medals for Olympic Center Skaters

Lake Placid – The International Skating Institute (ISI) held its long-running Adult Nationals Championships at the Olympic Center for the first time. Over 100 skaters and officials attended and there were 169 events at the championships. The ISI is the governing body for recreational ice skating. Local figure skaters, Karen Kan and James Gann, entered the competition in nine events and won six gold, one silver, one fourth and one fifth place finishes. They entered the artistic solo, jump and spin, solo compulsory and solo surprise events.

Coached by long-time Skating Club of Lake Placid coach, Jack Devitt, this was the first time Gann, formerly an aggressive inline skater, had entered a skating competition as a solo skater. In his debut as a competitive ice skater, he had won a gold medal in pairs at the 2008 US Figure Skating Adult National Championships. Gann was admittedly nervous for his first solo performance, but said he used many of his personal growth tools to stay “present” and to enjoy himself out on the ice. His program netted a silver medal and an appreciative audience.

Kan won gold in all her events except for the “Solo Surprise” where competitors are not told what they will be asked to perform out on the ice. The event is less about skating skills than it is about having a lot of fun. In Kan’s group, the task was to put on and lace one’s skates up as fast as possible and race to the end of the rink. Kan, usually a serious competitor, laughed about entering the “surprise event” saying, “I always have my eye out for the gold medal. It’s actually a stretch for me to enter an event that I couldn’t possibly train for, so I’m proud of myself for trying it….I didn’t even know they gave medals out for fourth place!” Photos of the event can be found on www.adultfigureskater.com

Four Skating Medals and Counting for High School Student

Alyssa Mahatme, a freshman at Lake Placid High School, has a knack for excelling in both academics and sports. At thirteen years of age, she is a high honors student with a full load of academic courses, including many advanced-grade level courses. Despite her busy school schedule, Alyssa won three gold medals this year in figure skating in the Intermediate Ladies level at the Green Mountain Open in March, the Darien Open in April and the Moran Memorial Championships in August, respectively.

Most recently, she competed at the Mid-Atlantics Championships in September, finishing with a Bronze medal, and she will soon be competing at North Atlantic Regionals where, if she wins a medal, will be qualifying for the Sectional Championships.

Alyssa is most pleased with the fact that she not only skated a clean program, landed a double Lutz-double loop-double loop combination, she was the only Intermediate level skater to land a double axel in one of her competitions.

One would think that school and skating would be all this young lady could handle, but when she isn’t working hard, she enjoys cross country skiing, reading, traveling and hanging out with friends. In addition, she is an associate member of the Skating Club of Lake Placid and enjoys helping young children learn to skate through the SCLP's Learn to Skate program.

Coached by Gilberto Viadana and Michela Boschetto, Alyssa’s immediate goals include landing triple jumps this year. In the long-run, she hopes to qualify for a berth at the National Championships and to be invited to International competitions to compete with the best in the world. She believes that such experience would not only help her develop her fullest potential as an athlete, but also as an individual.

Leg Does Not Deter Skater from Her Dreams

Ciana Cerruti was nine years old when she was preparing to pass her pre-preliminary moves and freestyle figure skating tests at the end of last summer. Two days before her test, she suffered a broken leg and spent the next four months in a cast. Undeterred from her set-back, Cianna, a member of the Skating Club of Lake Placid, spent much of her time dreaming of skating, drawing daily pictures of skaters and using her terry cloth skate blade “soakers” as pads for her crutches. Not only that, she reminded her family regularly that she was still “going to find a great piece of music to skate to”.


As soon as her orthopedic surgeon gave her the green light to skate, she was back on the ice. Within two weeks, she passed the two tests she had been preparing for months before. This summer was a different summer than last for Cianna. She proudly appeared in two Freaky Friday skating shows as one of the Seussical characters, the Siamese Cat, along with her skating buddies, Sandra Harper and Christie Sausa, and showed off her new skating solo routine in the Saturday Night Ice Show. She also passed two more skating tests the same weekend.

Ciana’s coaches have included Barbara Colby, Lorna Aldridge, Kami Healy-Netri, and Tammy Lalande. Ciana’s current goals are to enter competitive figure skating this season and she is currently working on landing her axel and double Salchow jumps. Her favorite things about skating is wearing beautiful dresses, being graceful and waving to the crowd. Those that know Ciana would say that her love of skating, her determination and attitude makes her an inspiration to all children and skaters everywhere.

Dream Fulfilled for Local Skater at State Games

Colorado – Christie Sausa, a member of the Skating Club of Lake Placid, held a dream from the age of twelve that one day, she would qualify for the State Games of America and figure skate at the World Arena in Colorado. This year, Sausa’s dream came true when she medaled at the Empire States Games in the Open event. This year’s opportunity was especially poignant because it was rumored that the Empire States Games would not allow Open events next year, and so Sausa felt it was her last chance to qualify.


Nineteen year old Sausa skated to “Lawrence of Arabia” in the Junior Ladies figure skating event. She said she was happy and proud to represent Lake Placid and New York at the Games. She didn’t think she was going to be able to attend the event at first until she was able to raise money for the plane ticket.

Sausa is a Judge and Accountant for US Figure Skating and is interested in journalism and psychology. She is a special contributor for the Lake Placid News, and her blog, www.lakeplacidskater.blogspot.com, has gained worldwide readership. She is an avid community volunteer and is a member of the Lake Placid Kiwanis Club, Lake Placid Wilmington Connecting Youth and Communities Coalition, Skating Club of Lake Placid and Lake Placid Speed Skating Club, of which she is a Board Member. Interestingly Sausa competes in speed skating as well as figure skating.

Sausa says of her Colorado experience, “It was wonderful and one I will always treasure!”

Eleven Year Old Skater Wins Gold

Philadelphia – Eleven year old Elena Gonzales-Molinos from the Skating Club of Lake Placid recently won a gold medal in her pre-juvenile skating event at the Liberty Open Summer Skating Competition. Only having skated four years, Molinos is happy to be able to execute four of the double jumps and is currently working on the most difficult one, the double axel. She skated to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, and her coaches are the Italian team of Gilberto Viadana and Michela Bosqueto.


Molinos is originally from Venezuela and her goal is to be the first Venezuelan to represent her country in the sport of competitive figure skating. Molinos and her family were living in Boca Raton FL and moved to Lake Placid three years ago after spending a summer here and “falling in love” with her coaches, the friendly people and the beautiful town of Lake Placid.

Molinos’ next competition will be the Mid-Atlantic and North Atlantic Regional Championships this fall.