Welcome!We are a bunch of ordinary young people. We have lots of plans for the future and at the same time we are learning how to live this life on our own. We are also the Unique, skaters. We spend most our freetime together practising on ice or at the gym. Not only are we giving almost all of our time to the team, but we have sold our souls to Team Unique. All our thought and activities are somehow all the time connected with our aim to reach higher and higher in our sport. But we are not only sporters, we are a Team. A team that faces good and bad days together. This team has a dream - the World Championship. We have a dream of a programme that comes near to perfection, a dream of glorious rejoice of skating together and a dream of enjoyment that brings a tear in the eye of the beholder, too. Team
There are 23 skaters in our team and we are between the ages of 16 to 27 years. We have a skilled and versatile coaching team around us lead by the head coach Miru to pilot us towards our destination. Skating has always been a part of our lives, we love it. Skating together gives us the greatest pleasure. We hate the moments when nothing goes right, but we love the days, when we are told that we have done well. We constantly want to improve ourselves as sporters to become more professional, so we don't concentrate only on skating but also on restoring, the diet and on improving our physical condition. Above all we keep in mind the effort to improve as a team. All in all we are 23 very different persons and together we form this wonderful TEAM called UNIQUE! -WE ARE UNIQUE- CoachesMirjami Penttinen, head coach Jussi Kirjavainen, physical coach
HistoryThe Junior Years 1993-1995Team Unique was founded 1993, before that the team was known as Les Rousettes. The themes of the early programmes were The Ghost, The Bird, Samba and The Spider. Pia Ek (former Kokko) was responsible for the coaching. During these years Team Unique won twice the Finnish Junior Championship and once the Scandinavian Championship. The Years of Change 1995-2000The coaches of the team changed twice. The Canadian coach Kathy Merner trained the team in its first senior season and the themes were Blues and the Kite. The team surpassed the expectations and gained representation in the first World Challenge Cup. When the next season started there was another Canadian, Traci Boland who took the coaching in her hands. The themes were The Surf and Cirque de Soleil. The season didn´t go as well as the former. The team ended up in the fourth place in the Finnish Championships. A new coach started again, now it was Merja Laakkonen´s turn. The programmes were made to the piano music à la Robert Wells and the Mirror. The fourth place was gained again. Next season started with a big bunch of new skaters and a new coach. Pia Ek was back to coach the team. The programmes were Blues and India. The season ended with a bronze medal in the Finnish Championships. When Pia Ek was coaching for her last season, the team skated to the music of Swing and Secret Garden. It gave great pleasure to everybody to gain a silver medal in the French Cup and renew the bronze one in the Finnish Championships. Towards the Top of the World 2000 →The coach changed again and Mirjami Penttinen (former Paakkanen) took the lead. There were major changes in the whole coaching team. The project to make top sporters had started. 2000-2001
2001-2002 There were some new members in the coaching team again. Miika Vesalainen took charge of the physical training, dancing with Marianne was included in the training programme and Hannele Nykänen saw to the psychological training. Team Unique did an unforeseen rap-programme which enchanted also the audience in every hall wherever they performed. Also the free programme the Clown aroused strong feelings both in skaters and the beholders. The expressive skills of the team improved immensely during this season. The free programme was a great success in many competitions, both at home and away. So it was a disappointment to achieve only the third place in the Finnish Championships. Nevertheless the season had been so successful that the team was elected to represent Finland in the World Championships. The free programme failed in that competition and the team became sixth. All in all it feels good to look back on this season.
Marianne was replaced by Lilli Helpi. Because of the alterations in the competition rules, lift-ups increased the rate of difficulty in the free programme. Team Unique was in good physical condition and this was no problem to the team. The physical strength became the trademark of Team Unique. The good feeling of the success of the former season filled the skaters with competitive spirit and hunger for winning. The Night Sky - short programme and Blues Brothers as the free programme brought the team the first silver medal in Finnish Championships and a ticket to Canada to the World Championships. Tough competition and close enough, bronze medal was near, but the fourth place was what the team brought home. 2003-2004 The themes of the season were promising, the effective Matrix as the short programme and the intensive The Red Dragon as the free programme. The trials went well, both gave silver medals. But to everybody´s disappointment, of course, the team failed in the finals and gained a bronze medal in the Finnish Championships. 2004-2005 A motorbike gang took the ice in Team Unique´s short programme. The theme was the Terminator. The free programme was an earnest and touching story about Peace and War. The team had paid a lot of attention to the requirements of the technique by the new rules and this was shown in the difficulty of the programme. We were sorry not to be able to show our skills in the world championships where the new judging system was used for the first time. Our organisation had a significant season, since it was the 130th anniversary of the foundation of HSK. There was among other events a gala performance based on the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. It was an animated skating performance and Team Unique performed as dogs. 2006-2007 Short program 06-07: Mad about the boyFree Program 06-07: Rollercoaster of love
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The team had been training on ice, off ice and ballet, but Riku Valliala started now the physical training. Also Tamara Baulkina-Selin stepped into the coaching team to focus on stately carriage and stylish lines. The theme of the short programme was Adagio by Sarah Brightman and the free programme was An Adventure in the Jungle. During this season Team Unique ensured its place at the top in Finland and ended up as third in the Finnish Championships. And the hunger increased.
2002-2003