A Special Surprise Ice Stars

There's too many of you on this team who think you're better than

what you are.

Keep on the edge. No! Back, back, back.

Making it as a champion skater doesn't come easy.

It takes years of practice...

-It's good! Keep going, keep going.

-..hard work...

-One more, then I'll be a very happy coach.

-..and dedication.

Yeah, yeah. Stop, let's go for it.

Go for it, go for it, go for it...

But even then, only a few will become tomorrow's...

This is the Ice Centre in Nottingham. It's where future

Ice Stars work hard to get to the top.

With two rinks, it was built to honour Torvill and Dean,

the city's famous Olympic gold medal winners.

And there are plenty of others who want to follow in their footsteps.

Coming up, things don't go to plan when Josh competes in Luxembourg.

I cut my finger. I think I just sliced it with my blade.

Kaira finds out that her dad's been keeping a life-changing secret...

Kaira, what's your dad doing on the ice?!

Huh?

..and Rais and Aren meet head-to-head on the ice.

I just want to beat my brother because I just want to be,

I want to be better than him.

It's a busy morning at the rink.

All over the centre, rehearsals have started for the annual gala.

But before they start practising for that, figure skaters Josh

and Kloe have an international competition to prepare for,

where they'll be representing Team GB.

Coach Gurgen expects them to pull out all the stops.

I would like it for my skaters to be champions everywhere,

not just in national competitions,

I would like it in international

competitions, European, world, Olympics.

Skating for Great Britain has meant

that Kloe has made some huge sacrifices.

I'm actually from Hungary, so my... Only me

and my mum live in England and the rest of my family, my sister,

my dad and my grandparents live in Hungary still.

And we moved to England just for skating.

School was definitely hard because of my English

and because I didn't know anyone there.

At first I remember not talking for about, I think,

three months or something, but then

I think one day I just thought,

"You know what, I'm just going to try," and everyone understood what

I was trying to say, so since then...I talk.

SHE LAUGHS

Kloe and Josh have practised hard for the competition,

which will be in Luxembourg, but in training, Kloe injured her foot.

Normally if I had an injury like this, I will stay off for at least four days.

And then Josh struggled landing his new jumps.

You've just got to make sure you get back up there and just keep going.

But, ready or not, it's time to leave for Luxembourg.

Kloe and Josh have just moved up to the junior level in competitions.

They are travelling with friends Alexia and Becky, who compete at the novice level.

I think we would all agree with each other that when going with parents,

you're almost kind of mollycoddled, so it is better, it is better

when you're on your own because you don't have someone fussing

over you and you are allowed to concentrate and get in the zone.

Josh and I normally keep ourselves to ourselves on international

trips, but Kloe and Alexia giggle and take selfies.

I told you I can't take photos with this hand.

THEY LAUGH

I look drunk. What is this?

It is actually really funny because in the beginning, me

and Kloe didn't get on at all, we actually really hated each other

and we had quite a few arguments that got quite vicious.

-No, this is bad. This is actually bad.

-Why don't we do this way?

-Because I don't like it that way.

-Well, I do.

-OK.

-OK.

Then, I think Budapest 2013, we had to share a room

and I don't know what happened.

We either insult each other and we'll be fine about it

and we can make jokes and... Yeah, it is really good.

I look so bad.

-No, you don't.

-I do.

-OK, the first one was bad, but this...

THEY LAUGH

With just a short flight to go,

it's not long before they touch down in Luxembourg.

Here we go.

Do you think I should hang dry my gloves, or wash them?

Because they smell. Smell them.

SHE LAUGHS

-OK, wash them.

-Should I?

-You do one and I'll do the other.

-OK.

THEY LAUGH

Oh. Oh. Anyway, high five.

THEY LAUGH

It's a figure skating life.

The girls may all be good friends, but they are also rivals.

Especially Alexia and Becky, who compete in the same group.

We don't really focus on the fact we are competing against each other, I think.

No matter what happens, we always come up to each other and congratulate each other.

It is kind of weird, because we do get on, but then again we are

rivals so there is that kind of rivalry...

sort of friendship.

When we are off ice, we are kind of friends.

When we are on the ice, we're not friends at all, it is

all about competition.

They may not be showing any pre-competition nerves,

but coach Gurgen is feeling the pressure.

The parents pay everything.

Kid's flight, kid's competition

entry fee, the hotel, food, everything, you know.

And...

parents will be happy if kids are skating well here.

Josh is used to winning his competitions. But moving up a level

means things are going to be a lot tougher.

In the programme, I mean, there is a lot more to worry about now I've got to the higher level.

It's not like beginners any more, you know you're going to do...

There is that bit of, "I hope I do this

"and I hope I don't mess it up" sort of thing.

As long as tomorrow I manage to get all my big stuff out on my jumps

and my spins and get everything done really well,

then hopefully I'll get myself in a good position for a podium place.

With all his kit ready to go, there's nothing left to do

but get a good night's sleep.

Sweet dreams.

At the home rink in Nottingham,

synchro skater Kaira has been working towards her gold skating award.

It is something her mum always wanted her to do.

Last autumn, when Kaira's family were on holiday,

mum Gillian tragically had a brain haemorrhage and later passed away.

We've got all these pictures, like here,

here, um, of our mum.

Gill used to skate with the kids.

She was the one that enjoyed going on the ice.

So dad Tony decided to take secret skating lessons

so he could keep the family tradition going.

And now that he's conquered his fear of the ice,

it's almost time for the reveal.

It's Sunday morning at the Ice Centre, and a big day for Kaira.

Today, she will find out if she's passed her gold-level skating award.

-See you later, have a nice day.

-Bye, Dad.

Kaira has no idea her dad has been learning to skate in secret...

Push forward and let the legs swing round.

..and he's about to show her his new skills.

Butterflies, my stomach is going, little bit of shakes.

Exciting at the same time.

I'd just like to see the response from Kaira.

And fingers crossed, it is all going to go well.

One last go now, your forward run, forward slip chassis,

because I want to see you getting the slip chassis properly

instead of waiting too long before you put the foot out.

I think, to start off with, she will be more embarrassed that I have

evaded the synchro lesson. Then I think she'll be happy she can see me on the ice

and I've took some skating lessons, and I can go skating with them all.

Kaira doesn't know it yet, but she's passed her gold.

All right, Tony, here is Kaira's certificate,

-she passed her gold dance today.

-Fantastic, thank you.

With Kaira now in her synchro class, it's time for the big surprise.

She doesn't have a clue that her dad is just a few metres away

and is about to make his skating debut.

Has everybody been to ballet today? Who didn't go to ballet today?

You had Skate UK and thingy, though.

Kaira, what's your dad doing on the ice?!

Huh?

I don't know.

Your dad can skate!

I didn't know he could skate!

-Whose skates are those?

-Eh? Kaira,

I'd like to present you with this. That's your gold award that you won today,

that you passed. Yes.

And guess what, Dad has been taking secret skating lessons...

so that I can go skating with you and Ashley and Jack.

-Give me a kiss and cuddle. Should we go for a skate?

-No.

-Come on, don't be shy!

-Should we go for a skate?

CHEERING

SHE LAUGHS

Kaira, your dad is skating faster than you!

SHE LAUGHS

CHEERING

Come on!

CHEERING

-Not too fast.

-HE LAUGHS

Hey.

-See, what did you think? You didn't think I could skate, did you?

-No.

Aw!

That's so lovely.

My heart is actually blubbering a little bit, isn't it? That's lovely.

THEY ALL LAUGH

I think I'd probably go shy if my dad came on the ice.

OK, thanks, girls, see you all later.

ALL: Bye!

Kaira's dad is going to have to practise hard to keep up with her,

but it looks like they'll enjoy that.

Rais is an ice hockey player for the Nottingham Cougars.

He also plays for the England squad

and could soon be on his way to the big time.

I think I was about six when I started skating.

Actually, no, I was five. And I've always wanted to play ice hockey.

I've been watching the pro team in Nottingham since I was born.

I used to play hockey in the hallways or in the living room.

And by the time I was seven, I played my first season at the under tens.

Rais is not only reaching for the stars, he can almost touch them.

I'm quite a tall guy, I'm six-foot four,

and I have quite big feet, I'm size 13.

In England, or anywhere in Britain, you can't get size 13 skates.

Being so tall, Rais has to keep his energy levels up.

-Are you guys hungry?

-Yeah.

Well, that's a silly question, really, isn't it?

I don't think I've ever had the answer that you're not hungry.

But Rais's mum not only has to keep him fed,

there's his younger brother Aren, too,

who also plays ice hockey.

I started in this programme called Squirts.

All I remember is I couldn't get on without falling over

and it was very slippy.

I'm not sure if he is going to be better than me in the end, but

hopefully I will keep improving and in the end I will be better than him.

I want him to be the best that he can be,

but hopefully I will just be that little bit better.

I want to get more trophies than my brother

because it is just a little rivalry we have.

Here we've got the Midlands Conference shirt.

This shirt is the Midlands Conference shirt.

Here, I've got every medal I've won.

The one I'm most proud of, it's a medal where, a couple of months ago, we went to Amiens, in France.

This is probably my most important trophy,

my first ever man of the match award.

A medal from the Best of British camp I did,

from getting the hardest shot in the whole camp.

This was my first trophy, and I got it when I was seven.

Well, here we've got this plate, I think it is really cool.

OK, boys, we get that you're good.

Rais might have more medals,

but that just makes Aren even hungrier to beat his older brother.

There is a saying that says, "Hard work beats talent,"

so even if you've got talent, you still need to work hard.

That's better.

-Rais helps me to get even better.

-Go on, try and pick a corner, yeah?

That's better, that's much better.

Although the boys may share tips, it's all about who's the best.

He drives himself to try be as good as me. Obviously, I want to beat my brother,

I don't want my younger brother beating me in any way,

but if he gets anything close to it, then in his age group

he looks better, so it drives him to be a better player.

But not everyone shares this love of late-night hockey.

I was taking shots, obviously, and I think

six or seven pucks went over

and we cracked a hole in the gate. The neighbours,

they complained, and my dad has now got to pay for a new

panel in the gate, so they're not too happy about that.

Straight in the hole.

The day of the figure skating competition in Luxembourg

has arrived.

It's where the best young figure skaters from around the world

come to compete.

Josh, Kloe, Becky and Alexia

have been selected to represent Great Britain...

..and Josh is the first of the group up on the ice.

Yeah, it is exciting, the first day, yeah. It's very exciting.

It's not an event the public come to in hundreds

but it's all about getting noticed by the judges...

and Josh has a little tactic to get their attention.

You've just got to smile at them, really, cos if you don't look very

happy, they won't be very involved in the programme,

so as long as you stay, like, happy, if you smile, they tend

to like you more and they'll maybe give you more points, hopefully.

Think I'm going to walk outside.

As he's only just started at junior level,

Josh has never competed against much older skaters...

..like 18-year-old Adrian from France.

You will get people that will try and intimidate you

and will just generally look at other athletes like,

"I'm going to beat you," sort of thing.

When you psych other people out, they're not in their zone

and they won't be able to perform to their best.

One of the competitors, Michael from Denmark,

has taken to the ice before him.

He's older, bigger and more experienced.

But Josh has something up his sleeve -

a superstition that he hopes could just help him win.

I always make sure I put my left boot on before my right boot,

that's the only thing I ever do. I don't know why. I just do.

Just something I've got into the habit of doing, I guess.

But I think it helps. Well, we'll see, shall we, when we come off?

Josh has been practising a triple jump

and his rivals are only doing doubles.

-Most of guys skating with double lutz.

-Yeah.

-OK?

We are doing extra triple.

You good now, OK, man? Come on.

If Josh can land his triple,

this newbie could be looking at a win.

Josh lines up for the big loop.

He's hesitated and goes for a different jump instead.

APPLAUSE

COACH SIGHS

He's frustrated, knowing that he's made a mistake.

Now he has to face coach Gurgen.

Yeah, single.

You can do double or triple but single is no point, you know.

It's massive.

You have to learn skating without mistake.

But when Josh feels overwhelmed, Gurgen softens.

I'm not upset but that I would like, if you not will do that.

It wasn't how I wanted it to go. I mean, there was some...

big mistakes in there that cost a lot of points

and dropped us a lot of places so...

I think I feel disappointed cos I just wasn't concentrating.

It's just annoying to fly out here and do all your preparation for

months to do this and your moment that you've had just goes wrong.

I need Kloe to come here and cheer me up. Kloe always cheers me up.

She's always good at doing that.

Kloe's come to the rescue.

I think if Kloe wasn't here and Kloe hadn't moved here

from Hungary, then I don't really, perhaps, know what I would have done.

So I'm really glad that Kloe is here

and obviously she's my best friend as well, so it makes it even better.

It's time for the girls now, and Kloe's up next.

She was disappointed with her performance here last year,

but she's determined not to let that knock her confidence.

I just want to do better than I did last year

and, just for myself, I just want to do everything I can.

Just don't be scared. Go and doing your job. This is yours. OK?

I'm on in about ten minutes, I think.

Nervous now.

I hope she is skating better than last year

and she will have a better result.

Please, OK? Clever and fighting for all. Kloe, please, you can do that.

Come on.

I always get really nervous, so that's not very nice,

but I guess everyone does.

It's a good start and her friends are with her all the way.

If she can manage her new jump, the competition could be hers.

After months of practice, this is it.

Oh, she's fallen.

But in competitions, it's all about the recovery.

If the judges think Kloe's takeoff was good enough,

they might not mind her falling.

APPLAUSE

Sometimes we have days when we fall on jumps that we can literally

do in our dreams and that's when you just think, "What's happening?"

Kloe recovered well but coach Gurgen isn't happy.

You lose now two and a half points for this axle

because it will be under rotated.

If you will do clean and then fell... but you did under rotated and fell.

And now the painful wait for the scores.

Some people actually don't wait for their scores if they skate bad,

but our coaches don't let us do that,

so we have to stay there even though sometimes we look sad.

I never really cry there, cos I think it's embarrassing cos I'm just

going to do better next time.

While more and more competitors take to the ice,

all Josh and Kloe can do is hope they do better tomorrow.

Back in Nottingham, it's time for brothers Rais

and Aren to meet on the ice for a little bit of sibling rivalry.

I think my brother's pretty good. Definitely.

I think he's a bit better than I was when I was his age.

There's always a friendly competitiveness.

Rais and Aren are obviously brothers that really work hard

together and actually, I think, bounce off each other

and I think that's quite key.

You see them out on the ice enjoying themselves,

but also there's obviously that sibling rivalry.

I definitely try to be way better than my brother,

cos if he scores goals against the goalie that I can't,

I mean, that does not look good.

Oh, nice one, Rais.

Oh, no, Aren's missed.

Aren, you know when you shoot the puck,

it needs to go a bit harder and a bit more early, cos the goalie...

Your dekes aren't really working till you shoot it.

If he's giving you a bit of net, just use it.

Good advice, Rais.

Let's see if that helps.

Yes!

So, big brothers can be useful after all.

The best thing about being on the ice with my brother is that we

can see how each other's doing and help each other with our game.

You know, it's always nice to see the younger of the two

actually sometimes win over and it really challenges Rais to

actually make sure he's on his game - but I guess with Aren, it also

pushes him along to make him a better player as well.

It's day two of the international figure skating competition

in Luxembourg and time for Alexia and Becky to see

if either of them can make it to the international top ten.

They'll skate in the novice category.

The girls arrived together but from now on, it's each to their own.

It's also kind of hard when you get to a competition

and on the day, we are kind of quite standoffish and we won't really talk.

I mean, after we skate, she'll either hug me first if I've skated after her

or I'll hug her first, but before that it's pretty much a non-talking show.

Alexia hopes to wow the judges with a double flip.

But then Becky lands her perfectly, too.

Alexia is known for her body-bending spins,

but Becky has her own up her sleeve.

APPLAUSE

Both girls have put in performances to be truly proud of.

It's competitive, but we really enjoy it

and we don't mind who comes higher or who comes lower.

We're happy for each other no matter what happens.

Let's hope they're still happy when they get the scores.

I'm eighth and Becky's tenth.

Top ten. Good.

Top ten for both girls. Wow.

Can Kloe do the same with her second routine?

OK? Come on. Go.

Poor Kloe. She's fallen again.

But this time, has she entered the jump well enough to score

the points she needs?

She's performed an amazing routine.

Although she's not happy with her fall,

Gurgen reminds her of the positives.

You have to keep that because your spin was really good now.

All spins was good. Beautiful, laid-back, you know. Flying.

Just one second, you just...

After the fall, you just, one second, lost yourself.

Overall, I came around 20th, so I could have done so much better

and I think I could have been in the top ten at least, so...

It's probably the worst feeling after a competition, cos I just think

I just want to go back straightaway on the ice

and I just want to do better, cos I know I can.

But Josh still has a chance to turn things around.

You can't just dwell on yesterday and then ruin today's performance.

You've got to make sure today's a new start, a different programme,

so you've just got to start from the beginning, start fresh again.

He needs a better performance today if he wants a place on the podium.

Perfect landing, Josh.

This is looking good.

Even Gurgen is smiling.

APPLAUSE

Yes!

Great performance.

But he's looking worried.

Come out.

I cut my finger just before I was about to go on, so, yeah,

I had to deal with that halfway round.

I think I just sliced it with my blade.

It looks pretty bad.

I definitely felt like I did better than yesterday.

There's still one group to go and I'm currently in second place so...

But hopefully I won't drop too many places

and we'll stay within hopefully top five, maybe top seven.

-Oh.

-Two points...

-BOTH: ..off third!

THEY LAUGH

We lost the bronze medal today.

But I'm happy, because Josh today showed for me he can fight.

He did very, very good flip, very good lutz.

But Kloe is disappointed with her performance.

I just think that Luxembourg is not my place to compete.

I'm not going to lie, but that's what I think.

But if we do come back next year, I'll try my best again

and I hope it will go better.

Next time on Ice Stars...

..the ice dance girls go to the disco in search of new partners...

..speed skater Izzy pushes herself to the limit...

Yeah, it's really tough.

..and there's a surprise in store for birthday girl Kloe.

-Read it out loud.

-I'm going to cry!