The 1400 seats in the Erika-Heß ice stadium in Berlin-Wedding are almost all occupied at the German Youth Championships in individual races. For a brief moment it becomes very quiet, all pairs of eyes are directed towards the ice surface. Then the first bars of Bryce Fox's electro pop song "Horns" begin, and the most important short program run of his life for 15-year-old figure skater Marc Delbrouck from Anzing begins.
Ottobrunn - At the moment of the first steps, Marc explains, the great tension and nervousness on this large stage suddenly gave way to the focus on the running routine and the execution of the individual elements. The ERSC Ottobrunn runner can quickly get over the fact that he just missed out on the podium in fourth place in the final calculation of the short program and free skating. "For me it was basically a success that I could even run there."
In Marc Delbrouck's case, the jump into Germany's elite class for performance-oriented figure skaters from mass sports (category B) was never made on the drawing board or stems from ambitious parenting fantasies. Mother Cathrin comes from equestrian sport, the father was in martial arts and the sons had been active in SV Anzing's athletics department since childhood.
To this day, Cathrin Delbrouck is enthusiastic about the creativity and grateful for the support of the Anzingen trainers for the specific needs of her son. Marc was born on the left without a forearm and with a shortened upper arm. He himself deals with it openly and pragmatically: “I only know it that way and it fits. It's called handicap, of course, but since I don't know it any other way, it's normal for me. And I have never experienced anything that I could not take part in at some point. ”For example, there is a unilaterally modified construction from racing to the armrest for cycling.
When it is snowing and freezing, Marc and his family are on skis and skates and develop an enthusiasm for winter sports. The Delbroucks come into contact with club sport on ice through Marc's brother John, who is four years older, when he started ice hockey at the age of eleven in Ottobrunn. “Back then I danced a lot and did ballet,” Marc was fascinated on one of his first visits to the ice stadium on the one hand by the smooth, white, glittering ice surface; on the other hand, from the hung pictures of the skid dancers in their glittering costumes. "I asked my mother if you could really dance on ice." An internet research later, Cathrin Delbrouck's answer is: "Yes. I honestly didn't know that. "
From then on, ERSCO trainer Andrea Engl took Marc under her wing and taught dance talent to take her first steps and turns on the ice. With the years and Marc's progress, classes become more time-consuming and finally begin to conflict with the training times of the Anzinger athletes. In a “creeping process”, Marc finally decides against the skating rink and for the ice rink and in Ottobrunn 2016 comes together with the former professional figure skater and trainer Vera Burding von Meyeren. "Vera took me into her performance group, trained three or four times a week and really aroused my passion and ambitions."
Since then, most afternoons and weekends have been planned for "fun and joy in figure skating" or physiotherapy, which Marc has accompanied from an early age and is a prerequisite for holistic, bilateral body growth. By the way, according to Marc's state of knowledge, there are not yet any suitable electronically controlled competition prostheses for more swing and bounce for figure skating. "The problem is the elbow joint, there is still none that is electronically movable and light enough." In addition, a suitable artificial extension would be more of a hindrance to the pattern of movement that he had appropriated.
The Delbroucks are not aware of any comparative cases. "I have never seen a one-armed figure skater worldwide," says Cathrin Delbrouck. "A lot of runners don't understand how Marc can swing and brake with just one arm." For Marc, the question of how not arises. It just does.
In the meantime, he has mastered the requirements of the third-highest freestyle class in individual races and is therefore carefully aiming for a podium at the German Cup in Dortmund (March 5 to 8). And in the long run? World Championship? Olympia? Marc and his mother both have to laugh. "Germany currently only has one starting place for the Olympics," explains Cathrin Delbrouck, "and figure skating is not part of the program at the Paralympics."
Perhaps he could switch to a large youth center, Marc Delbrouck muses. “But I don't want to lose my trainer. And I can't imagine anything as international as the Olympic Youth Games. ”However, this was also recently the case for a spotlight in the national figure skating scene.
About dance and ballet on ice
Olympic games are not an issue
