Ondrej Spiegl Explained

Ondrej Spiegl
Native Name:Ondřej Spiegl
Native Name Lang:cs
Country:Sweden
Birth Date:10 July 1993
Birth Place:Brno, Czech Republic
Hometown:Stockholm, Sweden
Coach:Alan Spiegl, Moa Lindgren
Choreographer:Moa Lindgren
Skating Club:Eskilstuna FSC
Currenttraininglocations:Eskilstuna
Brno
Beganskating:1996

Ondrej Spiegl (born 10 July 1993) is a Swedish figure skater. He is a two-time Nordic medalist (silver in 2017, bronze in 2015) and a two-time Swedish national champion.

Spiegl holds a Master's degree in sports science. Following his figure skating career, he has authored several research papers on the biomechanics of figure skating landing impact and the effects of various blade and boot models. In 2022, he founded Blade Science, a company that designs and manufactures figure skating blades with shock-absorbing capability.

Personal life

Ondřej Spiegl was born on 10 July 1993 in Brno, Czech Republic. He is the son of Vera and Alan Spiegl, a former pair skater who competed with his sister, Ingrid Spieglová, for Czechoslovakia. He has a younger brother, Lukas, who also practiced figure skating.

After living in Austria and the Czech Republic, Spiegl moved with his family to Sweden at the age of seven years and later became a Swedish citizen.

Spiegl received his Bachelor's degree in Sports from Masaryk University in 2015 (Brno, Czech Republic), followed by a Master's degree in sports science from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Science in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017.

Career

Having begun learning to skate in Austria in 1996, Spiegl practiced in the Czech Republic from the age of five years and in Sweden from age seven. He debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series in 2009 and placed 27th at the 2011 World Junior Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.

In October 2011, Spiegl competed for the first time on the senior level, at the 2011 Coupe Internationale de Nice, but he continued appearing on the junior level until the end of the 2012–13 season. He finished 28th at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Milan, Italy.

In the 2014–15 season, Spiegl won his first senior national title, ahead of Marcus Björk, and took the bronze medal at the 2015 Nordic Championships.

In 2015–16, Spiegl successfully defended his national title, outscoring Illya Solomin. He underwent surgery on both of his knees.

Post-competitive career

Following the 2016-2017 season, Spiegl turned professional and performed for Willy Bietak Productions on Royal Caribbean cruise ships in ice shows from 2017 to 2019.[1]

Spiegl also began research at the University of GIH, Stockholm, Sweden, focusing on landing impacts and injury prevention for figure skaters. This led to several grants from various universities and research organizations.[2] In 2019, Spiegl and his colleagues at GIH published their initial findings in the Footwear Science journal, detailing the effects of different figure skating boots on landing impact loads.[3]

In 2021 and 2022, Spiegl and his team published two further studies on how different ice skating blades affect landing impact and jump take-off. They also developed and tested a prototype blade with integrated shock absorbers with the aim of reducing forces that contribute to the frequent overuse injuries seen in figure skaters. They found that the prototype blade decreased the landing load compared to conventional blades without affecting jump height.[4] [5] Following the studies, Spiegl founded the Blade Science company in Brno, Czech Republic to manufacture the new blades. The company received support from the South Moravian Innovation Centre.[6]

Programs

SeasonShort programFree skating
2016–17
  • Tribal Music
  • Let's Do This
2014–16
  • Swan Lake Reloaded
  • Plunkett & Macleane
    • Rochester
    • Business
  • Finding Beauty
  • Grenade
2013–14
  • Torn
  • Resolve
  • Plunkett & Macleane
    • Rochester
    • Business
  • Finding Beauty
  • Grenade
2011–13
  • Forest Battle
2010–11
  • Transformers
  • Lux Aeterna

Competitive highlights

CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

International
Event08–0909–1010–1111–1212–1313–1414–1515–1616–17
align=left 8th
align=left WD
align=left 22nd 16th 5th
align=left bgcolor=gold 1st
align=left 21st
align=left 4th bgcolor=cc9966 3rd bgcolor=silver 2nd
align=left 9th 11th
align=left 14th 22nd
align=left 10th
International: Junior
align=left 27th 28th
align=left 15th
align=left 15th
align=left 9th 13th
align=left 15th
align=left 17th
align=left 10th
align=left bgcolor=silver 2nd J bgcolor=silver 2nd J
align=left 9th J 10th J
align=left bgcolor=gold 1st J
National
align=left bgcolor=gold 1st J bgcolor=gold 1st J 5th bgcolor=silver 2nd bgcolor=gold 1st bgcolor=gold 1st bgcolor=silver 2nd
J = Junior level

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Camp information . 2024-05-25 . Alan's Skating Camp . en.
  2. Web site: Ny svensk skena kan minska skaderisker för konståkare . 2024-05-18 . www.skatesweden.se . sv.
  3. Spiegl . Ondrej . Tarassova . Olga . Arndt . Anton . 2019-05-04 . The effects of new Edea and Graf figure skating boots and used Graf boots on the kinetics and kinematics of landing after simulated on-ice jumps . Footwear Science . en . 11 . 2 . 121–129 . 10.1080/19424280.2018.1539126 . 1942-4280.
  4. Spiegl . Ondrej . Tarassova . Olga . Lundgren . Lina E. . Neuman . Daniel . Arndt . Anton . 2022-05-17 . Comparison of lightweight and traditional figure skating blades, a prototype blade with integrated damping system and a running shoe in simulated figure skating landings and vertical countermovement jumps, and evaluation of dampening properties of the prototype blade . Sports Biomechanics . en . 1–22 . 10.1080/14763141.2022.2063757 . 1476-3141.
  5. Spiegl . Ondrej . Tarassova . Olga . Lundgren . Lina E. . Arndt . Anton . 2021-07-01 . Comparison of lightweight and traditional figure skating blades, a prototype blade with integrated damping system and a running shoe in simulated figure skating landings and take-offs . Footwear Science . en . 13 . sup1 . S53–S55 . 10.1080/19424280.2021.1917678 . 1942-4280.
  6. Web site: 9 October 2023 . BladeScience: Tlumené ostří . 2024-05-18 . www.jic.cz . Czech.