The sixth edition of the Pure as Ice 2019/20 took place at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships in Nottingham, Great Britain at the National Ice Center and Motorport Arena in collaboration with Smart Test AntiDoping.
The ongoing COVID-19 situation and the circumstances surrounding it had a considerable impact at this Event. This was a unique experience that is attributable to the unique situation that the World is facing. There were few cancellations by teams traveling to this competition as a sign of precaution towards the Coronavirus situation that understandably led to minimal Skater interaction. The organizing committee did a great job in ensuring that all medical and safety protocols were adhered to and the preventive measures were followed for the protection of all particpants in this Event.
There wasn’t much participation at the Booth as compared to our previous Events as Skaters were more focused on their training and competition and wanted to avoid interaction as much as possible. We completely understood given the situation and respected their privacy towards the same. It was encouraging to still see young Skaters approach the Booth to learn and explore about Anti-Doping and Clean Sport, winning goodies in the process. Our volunteers were happy to speak to them and conduct the quizzes maintaining physical distance at the same time.
We, at the ISU believe that Education is always an essential first step towards Clean Sport Knowledge rather than Doping control for our young Skaters and we hope to continue such similar endeavours to significantly reach our younger Skaters. It was unfortunate that the situation did not make our Outreach program easy but we understand this situation and hope things return to normalcy globally. We are confident that once this is over, we shall come back with a bang for the next season with more programs, quizzes, seminars, goodies and continue our fight towards Clean Sport.
It was a wonderful season and we shall continue to broaden our scope of Clean Sport Education with our future programs next season to unify Skaters in solidarity for Clean Sport, that is the #PUREASICE spirit!!