Bolingbrook Students to Compete at Synchronized Skating Finals

Two Valley View School District 365U students are members of the Downers Grove Dazzlers Intermediate Level synchronized ice skating team that will compete for the U.S. Figure Skating Synchronized Skating National Championship Feb. 26-March 1 in Colorado Springs.

Jane Addams Middle School 8th grader Kalysa Pampuch and Bolingbrook High School senior Jessica Key were also part of the 18-member squad that qualified during sectional competition the last weekend in January.

Pampuch, an honor student who has been involved in synchronized skating since she was seven, became interested in skating when she received a free lesson pass as a Jamie McGee kindergartner. She has been with the Dazzlers for five years and a member of the Intermediate Team the past two years.

“This is truly a team sport. They all work very diligently and have given up other opportunities to be able to practice at an early time,” said Kalysa’s mom, Sandy. “All of their hard work has paid off. It was exciting to watch their enthusiasm when they realized what they had accomplished (qualifying for nationals.)”

Key has been skating with Dazzlers for seven years.

“It’s been awesome,” said Jessica’s mom, Laura. “It’s been fun to watch them.”

Synchronized skating is a relatively new sport in which competitors skate on the ice as a team, moving at high speeds and as one flowing unit. The discipline was originally called precision skating in North America because of the emphasis on maintaining precise formations and timing of the group.

he Downers Grove Dazzlers also went to nationals last year, securing a 4th place medal.