Harley Windsor
Harley Windsor (né Dahlstrom-Windsor; born 22 October 1996) is an Australian pair skater. With his former skating partner, Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, he is the 2017 Junior World Champion, the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy champion, the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medallist, the 2018 CS U.S. Classic bronze medallist and a two-time Australian national champion (2016, 2018).
Harley Windsor | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Harley Dahlstrom-Windsor | ||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | 22 October 1996||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Figure skating career | |||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||
Skating club | Sydney FSC | ||||||||||||||||||||
Began skating | 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Personal life
Harley Dahlstrom-Windsor[1] was born on 22 October 1996 in Penrith, New South Wales,[2] and was raised in Rooty Hill.[3] The youngest child of Josie and Peter Dahlstrom, he has eight half-siblings from his parents' earlier marriages.[4] He is of Australian Aboriginal heritage; His mother, raised near Gulargambone, has Weilwyn and Gamilaraay ancestry, and his father, from Moree, New South Wales, is of Gamilaraay, Ngarrable, and Swedish descent.[4][5][6]
Skating career
Early career
Windsor began skating in 2005 after an ice rink in Blacktown caught his interest.[2][5] Galina and Andrei Pachin began coaching him in Canterbury in late 2006.[3][7] After competing in singles, he began learning pairs and passing qualifying tests with partners from New South Wales and Queensland.[5]
Teaming up with Alexandrovskaya
Responding to a query from the Pachins, Russia-based coach Nina Mozer suggested a tryout between Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Windsor in Moscow.[7] The two began skating together in December 2015.[8] Observing the tryout, the coaches believed that the skaters would make a good match due to similar techniques and body types.[9]
Alexandrovskaya was released by Russia after a request from the Australian skating association, with help from Mozer.[5]
2016–2017 season
During the season, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor were coached by the Pachins in Sydney and by Andrei Hekalo and Nina Mozer in Moscow.[2] Their international debut came in early September 2016 at the Junior Grand Prix (JGP) in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Ranked 6th in the short program and 9th in the free skate, the pair finished 8th overall.[3] Later that month, the two competed at a JGP event in Tallinn, Estonia. They were awarded the gold medal ahead of three Russian pairs after placing third in the short and first in the free.[7][10] They finished as the first substitutes for the JGP Final in Marseille, France.[11]
Alexandrovskaya/Windsor made their senior debut in October 2016 at a Challenger Series event, the Finlandia Trophy; they placed sixth and obtained the minimum technical scores to compete at senior-level ISU Championships. In December, the pair placed 5th in France at the JGP Final, to which they were called up as replacements for Russia's Ekaterina Borisova / Dmitry Sopot. Windsor tore his patella tendon in January 2017.[12] The following month, the pair placed 11th at the 2017 Four Continents Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.
In March, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor competed at the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan. Ranked third in the short program and second in the free skate, they finished first overall, outscoring the silver medallists, Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii of Russia, by 2.05 points. They became the first skaters representing Australia to win gold at one of the ISU Figure Skating Championships and the first to finish on a podium at Junior Worlds since 1976, when Elizabeth Cain / Peter Cain took the pairs' bronze medal.[13][14]
A couple of weeks later, the pair competed at the senior-level World Championships, which took place in Helsinki, Finland. They qualified to the free skate and went on to finish 16th.
2017–2018 season
In early September, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor finished fourth at the 2017 JGP in Riga, Latvia. Later in the month, they competed at the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, the final qualifying opportunity for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Ranked fourth in the short program and third in the free skate, they won their first senior international medal, bronze. Their result also allowed them to become the first Australian pair skaters to compete at the Olympics since Danielle Carr / Stephen Carr's appearance at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.[15]
In October, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor placed first in both segments at the JGP event in Gdańsk, Poland; they were awarded the gold medal and qualified to the JGP Final in Nagoya, Japan. In December, they won gold at the final, becoming the first Australian champions in the event's history.[16]
In January, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor finished 6th overall at the 2018 Four Continents Championships in Taipei, Taiwan. They were awarded a small silver medal for their performance in the short program. In February, the two represented Australia at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[17] Windsor became the first Indigenous Australian to compete at the Winter Olympics.[18] Ranked 18th in the short program, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor were not among the 16 pairs who advanced to the free skate. They were more successful at the 2018 World Championships in Milan, Italy, placing 15th in the short program and 16th overall.
At the National Dreamtime Awards 2018 Windsor was named Best New Sports Talent.[19]
2018–2019 season
Alexandrovskaya/Windsor moved to Montreal to train with coaches Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte. Despite beginning the season with a bronze medal at the 2018 CS U.S. Classic, the move was unsuccessful, and both struggled with health and fitness concerns.[20] They finished sixth at the 2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, and then made their senior Grand Prix debut, finishing seventh of eight teams at both 2018 Skate Canada International and 2018 Rostelecom Cup.
Windsor developed a chronic foot inflammation that compelled them to miss both the Four Continents and World Championships.[21]
2019–2020 season
After their unsuccessful season, Alexandrovskaya/Windsor moved back to Sydney and were joined there by former coach Andrei Khekalo. After months of experimentation, a solution was found for Windsor's foot inflammation that allowed them to resume training on ice.[20] Alexandrovskaya/Windsor placed ninth at the 2019 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, and then finished seventh at the 2019 Skate America, their lone Grand Prix assignment.[22]
On February 26, 2020, Windsor announced that he and Alexandrovskaya had dissolved their partnership due to Alexandrovskaya's ongoing health issues.[23] Five months later, Alexandrovskaya died by suicide.
In February 2022, an Australian documentary was released titled, "Harley & Katya," which detailed Alexandrovskaya/Windsor's relationship and partnership.[24]
2020–2021 & 2021–2022 seasons
Windsor did not compete during the 2020-2021 season. In August 2021, it was announced that he had paired up with Russian-born figure skater, Maria Chernyshova.[25] Chernyshova/Windsor made their international debut for Australia at the 2021 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb in December 2021, where they finished fifteenth. The partnership ultimately dissolved following the 2021–22 figure skating season.
Following this partnership, Windsor suffered an ankle fracture after taking a hard fall on a jump attempt in practice. This injury required surgery that he had done in September 2022.
Windsor briefly went to Sochi, Russia in May 2023 to work on his pair elements with Dmitri Savin and Fedor Klimov.[26][27]
Programs
With Alexandrovskaya
Season | Short program | Free skating | Exhibition |
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2019–2020 [28] |
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2018–2019 [29] |
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2017–2018 [30] |
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2016–2017 [2] |
Competitive highlights
CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix
Pairs with Chernyshova
International | ||
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Event | 21–22 | 22–23 |
GP NHK Trophy | WD | |
CS Golden Spin | 15th |
Pairs with Alexandrovskaya
International[31] | ||||
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Event | 16–17 | 17–18 | 18–19 | 19–20 |
Olympics | 18th | |||
Worlds | 16th | 16th | ||
Four Continents | 11th | 6th | WD | WD |
GP Rostelecom Cup | 7th | |||
GP Skate America | 7th | |||
GP Skate Canada | 7th | |||
CS Finlandia | 6th | 6th | ||
CS Nebelhorn | 3rd | 9th | ||
CS Tallinn Trophy | 1st | |||
CS U.S. Classic | 3rd | |||
CS Warsaw Cup | WD | WD | ||
International: Junior[31] | ||||
Junior Worlds | 1st | |||
JGP Final | 5th | 1st | ||
JGP Czech Republic | 8th | |||
JGP Estonia | 1st | |||
JGP Latvia | 4th | |||
JGP Poland | 1st | |||
National[31] | ||||
Australian Champ. | 1st | 1st | ||
WD = Withdrew |
References
- Jarvis, Danielle (14 September 2016). "Lift of faith". Mt Druitt St Mary's Standard (East).
- "Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR: 2016/2017". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 20 May 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Braithwaite, Alyssa (12 September 2016). "Meet the Indigenous figure skater who has his sights set on the Olympics". Special Broadcasting Service.
- Kearney, Neil (3 February 2018). "The extraordinary story of Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- Noonan, Belinda (3 September 2016). "Aboriginal figure skater and his unlikely partner take on the world". Burwood Scene. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
- "Rooty Hill's Harley Windsor Australia's first world figure skating champion". abc.net.au. 20 March 2017.
- Noonan, Belinda (1 October 2016). "Historic gold medal for indigenous figure skater". Burwood Scene. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
- Armstrong, Kerrie (15 May 2017). "Breaking the ice". Special Broadcasting Service.
- McMurtry, Andrew (18 October 2017). "Andrei and Galina Pachin guide Australian figure skating stars to the next level". Hills News. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
- "ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Tallinn Cup 2016: Junior Pairs Result". International Skating Union. 30 September 2016.
- "ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2016 / 2017 Junior Pairs". International Skating Union. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
- "From Russia and Rooty Hill to a place at Winter Olympics". The Australian. 14 February 2017.
- Flade, Tatjana (17 March 2017). "Alexandrovskaya and Windsor earn first Junior World gold for Australia". Golden Skate.
- Jeffery, Nicole (18 March 2017). "Olympics: Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya win junior title". The Australian.
- Jeffery, Nicole (2 October 2017). "Australian skating pair qualify for the Winter Olympics". The Australian.
- Flade, Tatjana (30 April 2018). "Australia's Alexandrovskaya and Windsor keep writing history". goldenskate.com.
- "Athlete Profile - Harley WINDSOR". pyeongchang2018.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018.
- "Indigenous Australian figure skater Harley Windsor makes history". The Guardian. 14 February 2018.
- "Dream of love, and success will come (pp32-34)" (PDF). AIATSIS - The Koori Mail. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
- "Бывший тренер Волосожар и Транькова: звали в Китай, уехал в Австралию" [Former trainer of Volosozhar and Trankov: called to China, left for Australia]. rsport.ria.ru (in Russian). 21 October 2019.
- Cloutier, Claire (20 February 2019). "Coach Richard Gauthier handicaps pairs field for Worlds, analyzes rules changes". Figure Skaters Online.
- Slater, Paula (20 October 2019). "China's Peng and Jin win first Grand Prix gold at 2019 Skate America". Golden Skate.
- Riordan, Joey (18 July 2020). "The health issues behind Aussie Olympian's 'sudden passing'". 7 News.
- "Harley & Katya". Creative Spirits. Creative Spirits. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- "Первенство ГБУ "СШОР "Воробьевы горы", "Мозер Тим": МС, ПАРНОЕ КАТАНИЕ ВК – Короткая программа: СТАРТОВЫЙ ЛИСТ" [Championship GBU "SSHOR "Vorobyovy Gory", "Mozer Team" : MS, PAIR SKATING VK – Short program: START LIST] (PDF) (in Russian). 16 August 2021.
- "Harley Windsor: "After Alexandrovskaya's death, I was broken. On social media, people wished and continue to wish death upon me and write many terrible things."". FS Gossips. FS Gossips. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- Windsor, Harley. "Ankle Surgery". Instagram. Instagram. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- "Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR: 2019/2020". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR: 2018/2019". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 30 January 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR: 2017/2018". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 25 May 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Competition Results: Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR". International Skating Union.
- "Harley WINDSOR". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2017.