User:JLoonstra/sandbox

Dani Alyssa Loonstra
Dani Alyssa Loonstra (Dani) (born 31 December 2004) is a Dutch figure skater. She is the 2022 Dutch Junior National Champion, JGP Krasnoyarsk contender and 4th at the 2022 Bavarian Open.

Personal life
Loonstra was born on December 31st, 2004 in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. After passing her exams at HAVO level in the school year '20-'21 she continued her study at VWO level at Thorbecke V.O. Prinsenlaan in Rotterdam. Loonstra has a younger sister, Gabi Yentl, who also figure skates competitively at Novice level both nationally and internationally.

Early career
Dani caught the skating virus after a visit to the Eindhoven ice rink at the age of three. Closer to their home, in the city of Barendrecht, her parents got her a membership to the Drechtsteden Dordrecht Figure Skating club (DDD) in Dordrecht where she was allowed to start her lessons at the age of four. Her fist lesson taken on January 3rd 2008 at the old Tom Menken Ice Rink and currently still trains at the new facility, Optisport Sportboulevard.

Season 2014-2015 saw Loonstra win her first National title in a category, that back then, was known as Teens. In the 2015-2016 season Loonstra competed at her first official National Championships in the Basic Novice Category ending up 3rd. 2017 saw Loonstra compete in the Advanced Novice category occupying third place on the rostrum at the Kempen Trophy (B) in the 2016-2017 season. During that same season Loonstra won the short program to overall end up as runner up to Lindsay van Zundert after a third place in the Free Skate during the Dutch Nationals. A poor performance on her short program during the Nationals in the 2017-2018 season saw her finish fifth after having skated the third best Free Skate amongst the Dutch contenders. That same season she reached the second place at both the Diamond Trophy in Antwerp (B) as well as the Ice Talent Trophy in Hasselt (B) in both cases beating Van Zundert to the podium.

Loonstra's home club organizes a yearly recurring summer camp know as Dynamic Dordt Days where she has been trained by many international coaches and trainers amongst whom, Manon Perron (CAN), Samuel Morais (CAN), Dave Ferland (CAN), Pamela Morin (CAN) and. During her early years of competition Loonstra also attended several summer camps abroad in Andorra and Granada with trainers such as Brian Orser (CAN) and Javier Fernández (ESP)

2018 - 2019 first Juniors season
At the age of 13 Loonstra progressed into the Junior Ladies Category where she competed in her first Juniors competition at the Skate Southern International 2018 in Lee Valley Ice Centre in London ending up 4th overall. A season where Loonstra was introduced into the International world of Figure skating beyond the realms of the BeNeLux with competitions in Riga and Budapest. The Ice Talent Trophy in Hasselt (B) proved to be a comfortable competition for Loonstra who, after winning silver in the Advanced Novice the year before, again won silver in Juniors during this season on an all Dutch podium led by Lindsay van Zundert and completed by Tessel Clercx.

Dutch Nationals in this season saw a large group of ladies qualified to compete in the final during the ChallengeCup. Loonstra placed 4th for the Nationals and 10th overall in the ChallengeCup.

After Javier Fernandez himself had stopped with competitive figure skating and Brian Orser's support at his summer camps appeared to have changed, Loonstra decided to continue her summer camps elsewhere. Summer of 2019 she was selected to come and join the Skating School of Switzerland for a summer camp for the first time, where she trained with no less than Peter Grütter, Salome Brunner, Robert and Anna Dierking and off course Stéphane Lambiel.

2019 - 2020 season
The 2019 - 2020 season preparations started in Switzerland during the 3S camp in Champéry followed by intense domestic training schedules to prepare for the early in season, 18-21 September 2019, debut into Junior Grand Prix' being awarded the Gdansk Junior Grand Prix by her Skating Union KNSB. Loonstra placed 26th. She then went on to the Tallinn Trophy where she placed ninth, followed by a tenth place at Skate Celje and another ninth place at the Bavarian Open that same season. Watching Shoma Uno, with whom she had shared ice time in Champéry on multiple occasions, turn the house on fire and win the Challenge Cup with ease, Loonstra herself had to settle for third place at the Dutch Nationals in her second Juniors season.

2020 - 2021 season
A season in which focus was towards making sure Loonstra passed her HAVO exams, which she did, allowing her to continue to study at VWO level before aiming for University in the future. November 2020 Loonstra did compete at the NRW Trophy where she placed 6th. Most other competitions during this season where cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Challenge Cup and Dutch Nationals this season where only continued for Senior categories and as such there was no National Champion in Juniors this season. Early in 2021 Loonstra was infected with Pfeiffer's disease and while staying in Champéry in mid summer was also tested positive to the COVID-19 virus Delta variant. Recovery was slow especially the stamina impact from Pfeiffer was hard to overcome.

2021 - 2022 season
Again an early season start with being named to the JGP Russia  held in September in Krasnoyarsk where she finished 12th. This competition was followed by the NRW Trophy where after her Free Skate it became very clear the stamina challenges had not passed completely as Loonstra needed a chair to be brought in as she could not make it to the Kiss&Cry area. Loonstra finished 5th, only 0.02 ahead of local competition from Julia van Dijk. Later that season, during the Bavarian Open, Loonstra skated her seasons and personal best competition score at 137.47 points to finish 4th in her group and ninth overall in both Junior categories combined. Loonstra finished off the season in style by winning the Nationals at the Challenge Cup in Tilburg earning a spot in the TeamNL going to the EYOF2022 in March 20-25th Vuokatti Finland.