icenetwork.com

Best friends off the ice, Tyler Broderick and Olivia Oltmanns became the 2008 U.S. juvenile pair champs last year in Salt Lake City. (Jo Ann Schneider Farris)

By Jo Ann Schneider Farris, special to icenetwork.com

(09/02/2008) - Olivia Oltmanns and Tyler Broderick met in the lobby of the arena at a skating competition in St. Joseph, Mo., when the children were eight and nine years old, respectively. They had so much fun playing together during the off-time at the competition that they decided to try ice dancing together during some free ice time. This fun day led to the idea of getting together in a skating partnership.

There was a "minor problem." The children lived four hours apart.

Tyler and his parents began making frequent trips to Sioux City, Iowa, from their home in St. Joseph so that the children could skate together in ice dancing. Also, Olivia's mother, who coached skating in Sioux City, coached Tyler in his singles skating. Since both children were good at singles, they thought they should also give pair skating a try.

In 2007 and 2008, the team qualified for junior nationals in both ice dancing and pairs, and they made the final round in both events. On top of that, Tyler qualified for the juvenile boys event two years in a row and made the finals both times. At the 2008 Southwestern Regional Championships, he won the juvenile boys title.

At the 2008 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, after the team won the juvenile pair event, Tyler still had the singles event ahead of him. He now recalls that it was hard to concentrate and stay focused on that upcoming event when he had just learned that he and Olivia had become the 2008 national juvenile pair champions!

Olivia has another major accomplishment under her belt: she passed her senior moves-in-the-field test when she was only 10 years old.

The children say that the highlight of competing at junior nationals in Salt Lake City was winning the national juvenile pairs title, but they also enjoyed making many skating friends.

"Making so many ice skating friends is the best part of figure skating," says Olivia.

Another thing that makes their partnership work is that they are each other's best friends. Their parents describe it like the relationship of twins. They say that the two can't imagine skating with anyone else. Skating is fun all of the time.

After their exciting win at junior nationals in 2008, the team has left the ice dancing discipline behind, but they say that they didn't much care which discipline they skated as long as they could skate and spend time together.

In August of 2008, the pair relocated their training from Sioux City to Prior Lake, Minn. Their primary coach has always been Olivia's mom, Trudy Oltmanns, who is now training other pair skaters at Prior Lake. The children are excited about beginning an online education program with a Minnesota online public school, since they will study together and with other competitive figure skaters right at the rink.

Olivia and Tyler have now competed in five different pair skating competitions since their win at junior nationals in 2008, and a recent highlight was winning the intermediate pairs event at the 2008 Indy Pairs Challenge in August. The pair looks forward to the upcoming 2008-09 competition season and hopes to win more medals. They also hope to stay together for their entire figure skating careers.