Finland’s Iida Karhunen made a remarkable outing at the 2024 Junior World Championships where she finished fourth. She outperformed several strong competitors who had previously showcased their skills on bigger stages such as the Junior Grand Prix Final and the European Championships.
Many spectators might have heard her name for the first time at the 2024 Junior World Championships in Taipei, but Karhunen had already enjoyed a very successful 2023-24 season. She delivered clean performances at both of her Junior Grand Prix assignments in Linz and Budapest, placing fifth and seventh, respectively. Her resilience was especially evident in Budapest, where she had to skate her short program in completely new skates due to her suitcase not arriving in time. This incident highlights one of Karhunen’s main strengths: her strong mind.
We met the 16-year-old from Lappeenranta, Finland, during a five-week camp in Imatra, Finland, which was organized by her longtime coach Marina Shirshova, to get to know her a bit better.
“I started skating when I was two years old,” the skater recalled. “I followed my older twin sisters to the ice.”
While her sisters have both stopped the sport, the youngest sibling, Iida, remained dedicated and continued to pursue her figure skating career.
Coach Marina Shirshova remembers the early days.
“She skated with me from a very early age on,” she said. “She was super young. Then she went away for a year and came back when she was maybe six or seven years old. I have worked with her ever since.”
Her coach noticed her potential from the very beginning.
“From a young age on, Iida stood out from the other skaters,” said Shirshova. “She was always so small and always had great skills for the level she was at. She is very quick to learn something new. And she is also very eager to learn. She takes everything new as a challenge.”
“I like trying new things and challenging myself,” Karhunen added. “Figure skating has always been fun for me.”
Her recent success during the 2023-24 season motivated the skater even more.
“I feel very happy about last season,” said Karhunen. “At the beginning of the season, I never would have thought I could place so high at the Junior Worlds.”
Coach Shirshova offered a bit more detail.
“It wasn’t an easy way for Iida to the national team,” she offered. “It was a bit of a pity with the age rule. She was just a bit too young to move up to the senior ranks earlier, so she had to compete two more years in Juniors.”
The coach recalled Iida’s first Junior World Championships in Calgary, Canada, in 2023 where she just missed qualifying for the Free Skate.
“Before that event, she won the European Youth Olympic Festival,” said Shirshova. “Practices were going great, so we expected more at Junior Worlds, but she got injured before her skate. Nevertheless, she wanted to skate, but she did a big mistake in the short program, and it wasn’t enough to qualify for the free skate. That was very disappointing for her, me and her mom. But I think it was also a turning point, because at that moment, she decided she would do anything in her power she could for the next season.”
Due to not qualifying for the Free Skate at the Junior Worlds in Calgary, Finland had lost their quota for the Youth Olympic Games in Korea.
“But due to her great performances on the Junior Grand Prix, Iida got her spot back,” Shirshova remembers proudly. “That was a great success. It was her mistake, and then her own personal victory. That made it double sweet for us!”
The Youth Olympics were a great experience for both the skater and her coach.
“I personally haven’t been to the real Olympics,” admitted Shirshova, “but it gave us a feeling like being at real Olympics. It was super well organized. There was an Olympic village, a lot of activities, and the athletes were exchanging pins. It was an overall great experience for both of us. We also really liked being in Asia. It was very beautiful. Unfortunately, a mistake in the short program cost her around two overall placements, but it surely enlightened her spark to qualify for the real Olympics.”
It was a positive experience that set the athlete up for her perfect performance in Taipei.
“I don’t know how she did it,” the proud coach said with a laugh. “It is a strong part of Iida that she treats every skate the same. Like it would be her everyday practice. She was in the last warm up group in both the short and the long program, but she didn’t feel any extra pressure. She enjoys these kinds of situations. She used her moment perfectly.”
“I was a little bit nervous, but not too much,” Karhunen recalled. “Right after the competition, my team celebrated with champagne, and I had Sprite. Back at home, my mom baked a nice cake, and we celebrated with our entire family. I also got a lot of messages from many people who congratulated me. It made me very happy!”
When asked about her consistency throughout last season, the skater said, “A lot of practice!”
“When I work with Iida I feel like it’s real sport,” her coach added. “She does what the coach wants. She is willing to do many repetitions. And she also works really hard off-ice. She is happy with everything. Her mom is very supportive. She trusts me as a coach, and this is very important for a good student-coach relationship.”
Iida Karhunen poses with choreographer Adam Solya in Imatra, Finland.
During the off season Karhunen states her focus is on learning her new free skate and working on her artistic side.
“My new free skate is totally different than last year’s,” she said. “It’s a classical piece. I really like it!”
Choreographer Adam Solya explained the music choice that he selected together with Shirshova.
“We wanted to step away from the style we had before,” he said. “We want to work on her artistic identity. It’s a big task for junior skaters to show maturity on the ice at such a young age.”
“While we were creating her new Free Program to Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake, I could really tell she was very open to new ideas,” he said of her new routine. “We created little stories for every part of the program for her to be in the character and express her feelings. She can rely on her inner feelings that she can express herself in a natural way. It is important to me to keep her very natural and individual, the way she is right now, but to increase her maturity in skating and performing.”
This is Solya’s second year working with Karhunen. Last season he created her short program “Le Jazz Hot” which she will keep for the 2024-25 season.
“This jazzy, playful music was also new for her,” said Solya. “We chose it purposefully in order to develop her artistic identity. She needs to be ready once she enters the senior ranks. It’s not just about the jumping ability, it should be balanced with the artistic side, in my opinion.”
“Session by session, I see progression in her artistic abilities,” he continued. “She is responding really well! For young teenagers it can be especially scary to express emotions on the ice, but for her, it looks very natural, and I explore new sides of her every day. This is very beautiful to see.”
Technically, Karhunen has very solid triple-triple combinations. This includes the triple loop as the second jump in combination, which she showed already in competition. Recently, she has been working on the quad Salchow with a harness.
“I did a lot of harness training with German coach and former ice dancer Rene Lohse,” said Karhunen. “It’s still a little bit scary without the harness, so I don’t plan to perform this jump in competition any time soon.”
“It was a great opportunity to do the harness training with Lohse, who came here to the summer camp to work with her on the quads,” adds Shirshova. “We don’t have this opportunity regularly in our club, which is a bit sad. In the harness, she learns in a safe way how to jump the quad. It takes time, and she needs to believe in herself. Then I am sure she will be able to land it also without the harness.”
The coach is also aware of the fact that training quads carries a huge risk.
“We need to be careful with these jumps, because it’s a little bit dangerous and health and safety should always go first,” she pointed out.
For the 2024-25 season, the coach prefers to keep the focus on the consistency.
“The most important for Iida is to skate clean,” she said. “She always tries to do that, in every practice. In competitions we never think about placements or points. We want to skate clean and then we see if it was enough.”
Karhunen herself formulates her goals more concretely.
“It’s my dream to win a medal at the Junior Grand Prix this season,” she said. “At the Junior World Championships, it would be great to make the top five again!”
Karhunen names current World Champions Kaori Sakamoto and Ilia Malinin as her idols in figure skating.
“I especially admire their speed when they skate,” she explained.
As a long-time career goal, the skater wants to “qualify for the Olympics” and “win a medal at the European Championships.”
Karhunen will be age-eligible for the senior ranks for the 2025-26 Olympic season.
“It is not easy of course, because there will be tough selection among the Finish skaters,” noted Shirshova. “But the hope is there as she will be 17 for the Olympic season. I think Iida is currently the technically strongest skater from Finland. It is my first priority to keep her safe and injury-free. We have to be very exact with technical stuff and go step by step. But we know we have the chance.”
Meanwhile, the teenager is also focusing on her education.
“School has always been pretty easy for me,” Karhunen admitted. “The subject I enjoy the most is science. But next year I will go to high school, so maybe it will be a bit harder.”
Balancing school and training means long days for the skater, as she trains on the ice in the early mornings before school and has another training session after school. In her spare time, she enjoys playing different card games and baking.
Karhunen characterizes herself as “hard working and a perfectionistic in some aspects.”
“At first I am a little bit shy when getting to know new people, but if you get to know me, I become a lot more outgoing,” she said.
A dream travel destination for her is visiting and skating in Japan. Definitely within reach for the two-time junior national champion who will open her season at the Junior Grand Prix in Bangkok next month.
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