SA figure skater eyes global stage

At the time, he had no idea that one day he would become the highest technical scoring adult national figure skating champion in South Africa. “I was walking in the Northgate Mall in Johannesburg where there was figure skating. I saw these people spinning and doing fancy stuff and my jaw dropped to the floor. I signed up for a lesson or two and the bug bit me,” Bodasing recalls.

As he progressed, figure skating became his passion, and he began waking up at the crack of dawn for training at least six days a week. “Figure skating as a whole is a very unknown sport. When you think of figure skating, you don't really think of South Africa…you think rugby or soccer, but it is growing,” he says.

FIVE years ago, Shiven Bodasing knew nothing about figure skating. Today, he is preparing to take on former Olympians and world champions in the ISU Adult Figure Skating Championships in Germany.

Bodasing says he initially started figure skating as a way to decompress from the stress related to his job at the SPCA, where he served as an inspector and then manager. “In the beginning, it was an escape from the SPCA because the job can be very draining. I think figure skating was a good balance, a little bit more self-rewarding,” he says.

Three years ago, determined to see how far he could go in the sport, Bodasing packed up his life in Johannesburg and moved to Cape Town to train with his new coach, Vage Evetts. 

After a series of inter-provincial and national competitions, he is now the first figure skater to represent South Africa at an international level in the adult masters category. “I never actually thought that I would be in a position to be able to compete at this level, to be able to do the things that I do. But as I've found that the bug's bitten me and as I dedicate more time and more training and more effort into it, and I've been quite consistent, the more the results have followed and the technical ability has also improved,” he says.

Adult figure skating has two categories; artistic and then the much more complex technical category in which he competes. 

“The artistic doesn't really focus on all the difficult jumps and spins. It's a show performance mostly. And then the technical is the very, very difficult jumps, very difficult spins and all those are all graded, and they all have points and grades of execution, and you try and get your best score,” he said. 

Bodasing, who is the national adult figure skating champion with six gold medals to his name, says although the international competition itself is only a one-day event, it is “years and years' worth of training that go into that one single day.”

“Progress as an adult is difficult, you don't always see it, and it's not linear. But what I have seen is that even if you have a bad day, you're still one percent better than you were the day before. And one percent just randomly doesn't make any difference. But if you get one percent every single day …after three months, you're a whole lot better. So it's about that, it's about being consistent, it's about being determined, and it's about having a goal to work for.”

Despite his elite status, he only started figure skating at the age of 25, which comes with its own challenges, while many of those he is expected to compete against in Germany have been involved in the sport since childhood. 

“The adult body is not as nimble, and certainly not as explosive as somebody who's 16 or 17. It requires a lot more dedication. You have to do a lot of strength training, flexibility work, and stretching. It is a mental sport because the mind drives the body. It's not always about the machine; it's all about the operator,” he says.

Given the technical requirements of the sport, training is not just on the ice but a lot of it is also in the gym. 

“It's very much like ballet in that sense, where the focus is on the execution and the quality of the skating, and the lines that you create. Every edge has a specific tension that your body needs to create, a specific position of the arms and the legs and the head and the shoulders…that takes a lot of time and a lot of body awareness.”

Through his journey he hopes to inspire greater interest in the sport. 

“South Africa has never had an adult master skater. In fact, we haven't had anybody represent the adult masters division ever. This is why it's not just a personal achievement for me, but it also shows that South Africa has more to offer the world than the mainstream sports. I would like to bring some eyes to a sport that we are hoping to grow, and hopefully motivate people to see that it’s never too late to try something new.”

The sport comes at a high cost. Boots and blades, which are purchased separately, can easily cost R25 000, while preparing for an international competition; including flights, entry fees, accommodation, costumes, and renting ice time, means he currently needs about R100 000 to represent South Africa in Germany next May. The issue is exacerbated by the rand to euro exchange rate and he is self-funding the venture. To help cover costs, Bodasing has set up a Back-a-Buddy account and hopes to raise enough money to fulfill his dream.

Currently, he is finishing his articles in Stellenbosch while still working at the SPCA. “I do all their criminal prosecutions for crimes against animals. That's really my passion,” he says.

Bodasing says he is very intentional about where he puts his energy and argues that with determination, discipline, and passion anyone can overcome the odds, even when starting a demanding sport later in life.

“We always think it’s too late, or we put things off. Life isn’t promised, so if you don’t do it now, you might not get the chance tomorrow. Just do it and take the plunge. Things have a way of working out when you’re bold enough to go for it,” he says.

To support Shiven you can contact him on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sitspinsinner/

His backabuddy fundraising page:https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/the-relentless-pursuit-of-a-dream