Dutch girl Kyra Vancrayelynghe, born in Brabant, took her first steps on the ice when she was 5 year old. She actually wanted to take ballet lessons, but in her vicinity it was not an option. Her sisters already skated, so one day Kyra went with them, borrowed some skates and has hardly taken them off since. She knew immediately that skating was what she wanted to do, to express herself on the ice.

She started training and it went well, and at the age of 8 she'd already received the "encouraging award for young talents" at the Osse Sport gala.By now the Dutch federation, the KNSB, noticed her. When she was 10, she and her entire family moved to Zoetermeer to continue the training there. With the goal of becoming a national team member in the future.
If you asked Kyra anything about skating she'd say: "Do you know what's fun? If you're hot and very sweaty, go and lie down on the ice 'til you shiver! Or look up in the ceiling while spinning! That's way cool!"

In the season of 2003-2004 she started to look around internationally and after several training camps omong others with German coach Michael Huth, he announced that he would be very interested in taking Kyra on as a student. So at the beginning of the 2004-2005 season she moved again, this time alone, to
Oberstdorf and now lives at the Sportinternaat there. In spite of her season not going so well, she really likes it in Oberstdorf. She's had a bout with serious illness and was hospitalized twice. Because of this she hasn't and won't be competing much this season, nor doing shows, but she's a tough cookie to crack: "As of now I am gonna train, train and train some more, and I'll be back next year, all new and improved!"

Isn't it hard for such a young girl to live all alone in a foreign country,without parents and not speaking the language that well yet? Of course it is, but she loves what she does so much, that none of that is relevant to her. And she's adjusting extremely well. At the beginning of her stay she and her coach spoke English to each other but then agreed to speak only German so she would learn it faster.

And Michael offered her a training deal of sorts, that every time she 'refused' a jump (meaning set it up but not actually executing it) she had to do 10 push ups. Kyra's reaction? "Ok, but then you have to do 10 push ups every time you speak English to me instead of German!"

But after a few months Kyra started to realise that this wasn't going as well as she hoped. After discussions with her parents and coach she decided Oberstdorf wasn't the place for her and arrangments for a new direction were quickly made. In the beginning of March (2005) Kyra moved to Champigny, France to train with team Gailhaguet. You can read more about her desicion and how things are going there in her journal.