Skating sisters who just love to learn new tricks

TWO sisters from Woodcote have earned success in figure skating despite only falling into the sport by accident.

Leah and Ellie Coley started ice skating when they were six and four after joining a club at Oxford Ice Rink on a whim.

They then attended a session at the rink for fun but found they had a natural talent for it, skating unaided by the end of the session.

The pair stormed through the junior programme within a year, with Leah also training in Europe. Together they have competed across the UK while balancing their studies at Langtree School.

Ellie, now 13, who competes as an individual, said: “We were just doing it for fun and then me and Leah really liked it so we went back again. We saw that there was a Learn to Skate programme and we just went through that very, very quickly.

“I really liked it and I wanted to keep going back. In primary school we were there all the time, like every day we would be there. Me and Leah just didn’t ever want to get off the ice. I saw all the older people doing cool tricks and I would say that I wanted to try that.

“Our coaches took us aside and said that we were doing very well because, by the end of the session, we were just whizzing around the ice. I was shocked and confused by what they said because we were both still really clumsy.

“But I got the hang of jumping and spins very quickly and, after a year, I was doing competitions.”

Ellie added: “I did gymnastics when I was younger and we went to a Christmas show one year with the skating and I realised that’s what I wanted to do.”

In November, Ellie and Leah, who is 16, competed in the British Figure Skating Championships. They competed across two categories at the event in Sheffield after qualifying earlier in the year. The girls were the only competitors from Oxford Ice Rink to qualify.

Ellie was competing for the first time in the basic novice category, after competing in the British Novice Championships, also in Sheffield. She is ranked 29th in the country for her level.

She performed a routine to a music medley from Puss in Boots dressed in a red and black dress which has been made especially for the dance.

Her routine included new choreography featuring a double flip and a salchow jump, an edge jump where the performer makes one or more full turns in the air.

Ellie said: “This was a very new routine. In between the qualifiers we made it up and it had a lot of harder jumps. It was a bit scary but when I got started it was fine.

“I was a little disappointed at the end because I knew I could have landed more of the moves but I was happy that I got there.

“The double flip and the salchow, I knew I could easily do but it was the pressure that got to me. I enjoyed the choreography and the arm movements and my step sequence because it had a lot of components and a lot of Spanish arms.”

Ellie, who is in Year 9, had been practising at least four times a week to perfect her routine.

She said: “I’ve been practising loads. Closer to the competition, I was practising at lunchtimes, too.

“My friends were very proud of me because my mum told me at lunchtime that I’d qualified and my friends were like, ‘That’s so cool’. I was very proud of myself as well. You have to practise and work and work. If you fall over, you just get up and do it again.

“I’ve just been doing this on my own but I’ve been trying to find a partner to do pairs because I’d really like to do it but there are not many boys in higher levels.”

Leah won a silver medal in the advanced novice pairs category with her partner Jacob Casey, 19. They were crowned British champions in the category in 2023 but had just 10 weeks to train together to try and go one better after Mr Casey suffered a back injury.

She had to perform two different routines, one which was two minutes and 30 seconds long and another that was four minutes and 30 seconds.

Their short programme performance was to You’ve Got Nothing to Lose from Julie and the Phantoms. For this, she wore a turquoise outfit embossed in gemstone sparkles with sheer sleeves. Mr Casey wore black trousers and a matching fitted top, also embossed in gemstones.

Their long programme performance was to Phantom of the Opera by Lindsey Stirling where she wore a black long-sleeve, sparkly dress.

She said: “I was feeling really happy. We tried really hard to get gold but we didn't have enough time to practise. We did some lifts and throw doubles, throw jumps and a death spiral and we learned a new lift a couple of weeks before the championship.

“It was quite a big audience compared to the other championships so I was a bit nervous but when I land something I feel really happy.

“We were off from training for about eight months but I was still able to practise my figure skating. It was tricky though because I couldn’t do any of the lifts without Jacob.

“I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to come first because I wanted to keep my title but it was fun – I like competing and when you do well it makes you feel good.”

After placing second, Leah and Jacob, who is from Warwickshire, were invited on to a podium where they were given flowers and the National Anthem was played.

Leah was eight when she decided she wanted to take up ice skating permanently. She partly puts her success down to her love for sport and good balance.

She said: “When I passed all my Learn to Skate levels, is when I started to like doing it. I love doing the jumps and I used to go and watch shows and that’s when I saw pair skating with dancers getting thrown and in lifts, that’s what made me want to do it.

“With Learn to Skate, they gave you badges every time you moved up. Once you’ve finished all the levels you could get private coaching and compete. The better you get, the more jumps and spins you get given and I just went for everything.”

Leah and Ellie are both coached by Emma Davies and Richard Beamish at the Oxford School of Skating.

Leah said: “I really liked the choreography of our programmes and I liked the lifts. It was fun because there was a lot of arm movements in it. The death spiral was dangerous because I was almost lying on the floor.

“I also had to balance practice with my mock exams. During my mocks, I don’t really skate much because I’m revising but it’s balanced out because I go skating most mornings before school. In the future I'd really like to go into shows like Disney on Ice.”

Their mother Charlyne said: “I think Leah and Jacob were a little bit disappointed to get silver because they knew they had it in them to get the gold. They just didn’t have enough time to get back to that training. That was creating a new routine, learning a new lift, remembering what they had to do, getting all the elements.

“Just to get there is great and Ellie qualifying in her first competition to go to the qualifiers was amazing.

“She only just scraped into the championship but out of so many girls that compete in that level, it’s quite amazing to even get there.

“On top of that, she tried two jumps that she’d never done before. It didn’t go exactly to plan but she gave it her absolute all to give it a go. I’m incredibly proud of them.”