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Ziya Adakarie, a young, energetic and committed 9-year-old from Elsies River, represented the Western Province in the South African National Figure Skating Championship earlier this month, and walked away with gold.
Ziya Adakarie, a young, energetic and committed 9-year-old from Elsies River, represented the Western Province in the South African National Figure Skating Championship earlier this month, and walked away with gold.
Her dream and ultimate goal is, one day, to represent her country, South Africa, confidently and proudly in figure skating at the Olympics.
“Ziya’s connection to ice skating started young, at the tender age of 5, on a visit to Grandwest Ice Rink in Goodwood,” said her father, Rijaadh Adakarie.
He said she developed an affinity with the ice, marking the start of a journey that had a few obstacles, but even more opportunities.
According to Adakarie the first obstacle was the lockdown, which delayed but did not stop Ziya.
Two years later, when the lockdown ended everything more or less went back to normal, and she reconnected with the ice and it has only been upwards and further since then.
“At 7 years old Ziya joined a figure-skating club at Grandwest, the Black Panther Figure Skating Club, and thoroughly excelled to the point that she went from pre-beginner to Grade 3 in a very short time.
“She was soon approached by the Western Cape Development Programme to join, which she did, and her life has never been the same since.”
Ziya’s achievements
Ziya went from strength to strength by becoming a member of The South African Figure Skating Association (Safsa) in 2022 and also started private coaching lessons, which saw her selected to represent the Western Province in a huge competition called The Cape Inter-provincial (CIP) Figure Skating Competition.
Here she received a gold medal for synchronised skating and also for the solo-skating programme.
In 2023 Ziya also achieved the first-place podium gold medal at her club.
On Saturday 28 October that year she did exceedingly well when she received a Skill 1 status on the skills-level test, which is considered remarkable at that age.
In December last year Ziya then represented the Western Province at an inter-provincial competition, receiving a diploma, and due to her impressive skills performance was elected to represent the Western Province at the South African National Figure Skating Championship, which took place from Monday 11 to Wednesday 13 March.
“She is currently on an intermediate level and already has her Western Province Colours and blazer,” her father said proudly.
Motivated and committed
According to Adakarie Ziya is extraordinarily motivated and committed, to such a degree that she wakes up at 04:00 in the morning three times a week to be at her lesson at 05:00 and at 06:00 every Saturday, eager and energised to achieve her dream of being an accomplished world-renowned figure skater.
The fact that she loves ice skating as much as she does is remarkable in itself, telling her father “it is fun, and I feel free on the ice which makes me happy.” A better reason he said he cannot think of!
Ziya works with a dedicated team: her head coach, Vages Evetts, an assistant coach, Megan Alley, a choreographer, Oleskie, and her ballet teacher, Stosh. “We as parents are extremely proud of how far she has come in this short time of her figure-skating journey,”Adakarie said.
“Her future looks bright, and with the right emotional, mental and financial support she can thrive and make every aspect of her dream come true, including winning gold at the Olympics.”
