Petra Lahti in her free skate routine costume which was inspired by Mauao. Photo / Brydie Thompson.
Petra Lahti in her free skate routine costume which was inspired by Mauao. Photo / Brydie Thompson.
Tauranga-born Petra Lahti has set her sights on representing New Zealand in the next Winter Olympics for ice figure skating.
Lahti, 16, is one of two figure skaters proving Kiwi talent on the international stage. She competed at the national championships in Christchurch on October 17to 19 where she won the senior women’s category.
“It was a great experience overall,” she said.
In the competition, there were about 180 competitors. Lahti said ice figure skating wasn’t a popular sport in New Zealand, but it was growing.
Before going to the national championships she competed in the South Island championships in Gore to qualify. After winning in Gore, she qualified for nationals; and after winning at nationals she has qualified for junior worlds.
Lahti is on the NZ A Rep Team and will be working towards representing NZ in the ISU Junior World Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, from February 25 to March 1.
Petra Lahti performing her short programme routine. Photo / David Kinch Photography
In September next year, Lahti will compete at the ISU Olympic qualifying competition, most likely to be in Oberstdorf, Germany.
It is there that she will aim to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano, Cortina. “There are only a few spots up for grabs there. It’ll be exciting.”
Lahti was born in Tauranga and spent three years here before moving with her family to Finland.
Once settled in Finland, they started looking at sports for Lahti and her brother, Kristian.
Both siblings started playing ice hockey. “Then my mum and I went and watched the figure skating show and I said to her, ‘Actually, I want to skate like that, I don’t want to do ice hockey’ and that’s when I decided that I was going to do figure skating and I fell in love with it immediately.
“Figure skating has been my whole life since I was 3,” Lahti said.
“Skating is a great sport; I really recommend it to everyone. It’s such a good mix because it’s athletic and artistic, it’s such a good combination. It’s a beautiful sport.”
She attends high school full-time and trains for ice skating six days a week; about 20 hours in total. She does two ice sessions a day and off-ice training like going to the gym, a dance class, physio, plyometrics or a jog. “It’s pretty vigorous. It’s a lot on top of full-time school.”
Lahti has two routines that she performs at competitions – the short programme, which is two minutes and 50 seconds long and can include only three jumps; and the free skate, which is four minutes and can have seven jumps.
Her present free skate routine has a theme based on a documentary called The Earth From Above.
Petra Lahti performing her free skate routine. Photo / David Kinch Photography
Her choreographer, Monia Lindfors, came up with the idea and even took part in the design of the costume.
“I showed her pictures of the Mount, that’s where she got the colours for the dress.”
