Sweet Sixteen Ice Stars

One, two, three, four. Bend your knees!

We're not first to the puck. We're last. Unacceptable!

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

It takes years of practice...

Keep going, keep going, keep going!

-..hard work...

-What is that? You're like a little old man at the end.

-..and dedication.

-Speed, speed. Faster, faster, faster. Come on.

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

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,

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

-With our love.

-I'm going to cry!

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

Yeah, it's really tough.

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

The Ice Centre is second home to figure skaters Josh and Kloe.

They've been sharing the ice for five years after Kloe

moved to England from Hungary to follow her skating dreams.

If Kloe hadn't moved here, I don't

really know what I would have done, so I'm really glad Kloe is here.

And obviously, she's my best friend, as well, so it makes it even better!

I have friends at school,

but at skating we are literally like a family.

Kloe's very, very good at making me feel better when obviously we have

the bad days, and we spend loads of time outside the rink together.

It's 6am, and Josh and Kloe

are about to start their ballet training.

But today is no ordinary day.

Today is Kloe's 16th birthday,

and so I've got a surprise in store for her after, off ice.

I wrote it in a letter for her, so I'm going to give it to her,

and hopefully when she reads it she'll find out what we're doing

and she'll get really excited.

I got a lot of things from Alexia, Sasha

and everyone from the rink, and I'm so excited!

All the excitement will have to wait, though,

as first it's time for their ballet session.

-And up.

-PIANO PLAYS

Arms. Hold your arms. And a single. And a double. And a single.

And a double.

All right, guys, you can finish there. Well done.

Kloe, have a lovely birthday. Yes, I hope you have a lovely evening.

-Kloe?

-What?

-Can you, er, can you come over here, please?

-I'm really scared!

-This is your surprise, my last present to you.

Can you open it?

Please?

-I'm going to cry!

-Read it!

-No!

"Because you mean absolutely everything to me,

"I wanted to make your sweet 16th the most amazing it could ever be."

-We're going to London?!

-Yeah.

-When? Tomorrow?

-It's OK.

-I was so not expecting that!

I thought we were going to go to town!

Josh, you're so cute!

SHE SQUEALS WITH HAPPINESS

-How did you pull that off?

-I don't know!

And I'm so happy! Awww, thank you!

-Thank you!

-That's OK.

It's 8pm on the Arena Rink, and speed skater Izzy is hard at work.

I started skating when I was around six years old. I think I chose

speed skating over figure skating or hockey because it's different,

it's quite a weird sport but I kind of like that.

No-one knows what it is!

Speed skating, it's kind of similar to running,

I guess, on the track, it's just on the ice,

and it's who crosses the line first wins.

So, I've been British champion twice, and I've also made Star Class finals,

which is basically like a European championship, so that's pretty cool.

Up until recently, Izzy's championship form has taken a dip.

Speed skating blades are longer than any other type of blade,

which can make the difference between winning and losing.

You can be one of the best skaters, but if you don't have the right

blades or the right boots, you're not going to be as good as you can be.

Last year, it was probably...

It didn't go that great, and I wasn't sure why.

Her coaches decided to swap her blades,

and now things are looking up.

They put me onto these ones,

which are actually Elise Christie's old blades.

I feel like a completely different skater.

Elise Christie is probably currently the best in the world at the moment,

so it's pretty amazing to be able to train on her blades.

It's pretty cool.

With around 36 centimetres of sharp blade,

speed skaters need extra protection on the ice.

So, this is a cut-proof undersuit, and you wear it underneath this.

This is my club suit, green and red for Robin Hood.

It's got all this cut-proof material around it,

and that obviously prevents cuts from the blades.

And, yeah, this has saved me a lot of times!

So, with figure skating, things like that, obviously you've got all

these really nice dresses on and you make yourself look really nice.

Speed skating, that doesn't matter as much. We do look a bit silly.

It's kind of funny telling my friends what I wear.

At the end of the day, you're kind of not really there to look good,

you're there to win.

So she's setting her sights high.

I'd like to get on the GB team, which is quite a big goal, I guess!

Today, that goal is feeling even more achievable.

She's been invited to train with the Olympic speed skating squad.

Yeah, it's a massive deal!

Very exciting. A bit nerve-racking, but it's good.

This is going to be the first time that Isabel goes on the ice

with some of Britain's top skaters,

who are also some of the top skaters in the world.

She's the only one that's getting this opportunity,

because she's demonstrated that she's got something special

that we want to work with and help nurture.

First up is the Team GB warm-up.

Three, two, one, go.

Then switch.

Last ten.

I can't even hold it!

And rest.

-So, how was that, Izzy?

-Yeah, a really big step up.

Usually for a warm-up I'll take sort of 20 minutes, maybe.

This is a lot longer and a lot more exercise!

Warm-up over. Now let's see if she can keep up with them on the ice.

With a mixture of Olympians and world champions beside her,

she's got to work hard

and just to add some extra pressure, her idol, Elise Christie,

will be on the ice, too.

I'm so nervous!

So it's time for Izzy to get busy.

First drill, we're going to do some slow and low.

Make sure we're not just trying to sit in a low position,

that we're actually getting full extension.

OK, so on the track. Let's go.

-How are you feeling, Izzy?

-Really, really tired.

We've got another one of those to do now,

so I just have to mentally prepare myself.

Yeah, it's really tough.

After getting her breath back,

Izzy gets a chance to meet the owner of her old blades,

Elise Christie.

-Hi!

-Don't look so scared! Yeah, you look like you're skating well.

-Thanks.

-Just maybe be a bit more aggressive. Coming from me,

that's funny, because I'm the same.

But that comes with being on the ice.

Izzy's now got a chance to put Elise's advice into action

with the toughest drill of the session,

a high-speed team relay,

enough to tire out even the world's best skater.

I know the session is hard, so I'm a bit nervous about it.

OK, are you ready?

After a gruelling 20 minutes, she's made it to the end.

-How are you feeling?

-Pretty tired. Pretty breathless.

But has she done enough to impress?

I think for her first time doing it with the national team,

you couldn't expect any more than that. That was pretty impressive.

It is good to see her keeping up and getting involved, and she was

even going out in front for some of them, so she's brave.

When she gets on the team more often

and gets to train with us more often, she will definitely improve,

and I think she'll probably beat some of us in that, so...!

It's good to see.

Yeah, it was a good session. I enjoyed it a lot.

It was nice being with the big ones!

They're all really friendly, they were all giving me advice,

so, yeah, it was really good.

If Izzy keeps putting in the hard work,

she could soon be training with Team GB and her idol all the time.

But for now, Izzy is off to an international competition

in Munich to put her new-found confidence to the test.

I'm about to be picked up, and we're travelling to Germany,

so it's all very exciting.

The whole of this season, I've been travelling alone.

It's the first year

where I've been travelling with a coach or with a team.

I mean, I'm still getting used to it,

because my mum obviously used to take me everywhere and look after me.

But it's nice to have that freedom, as well.

We'll catch up with Izzy on her return and see how she's done.

Some of the centre's stars can't get enough of the ice.

They're on it practising nearly every day,

just like 16-year-old figure skater Emma.

I was seven years old when I first started skating, and my dad took me.

I really hated it, cos he was always faster than me.

I just wanted to beat him.

Everyone else in my family skates. There's me, my little sister Sarah...

..and then I have cousins who skate.

There's Jessica...

..Ryan...

..Jamie, who's in the same group as me.

We're always talking about skating, just like,

"Oh, are you landing this jump? How's skating going? Are you tired?"

I'm the oldest out of all of my family.

I try to set a good example for them, so they can look up to me,

like I'll warm up, I'll try and eat well so they copy,

set a good standard so they can aim high.

Today, Emma's helping her twin cousins with their routine

for the annual gala, which everyone is working towards.

-Is there anything you guys want to work on in particular?

-Axel.

-Axel.

Axel. Do you want to both show it to me first?

An axel is a jump with a forward takeoff.

It's a tricky one, and it takes time to get it perfect.

OK, that was good. You both landed it.

You just need to go a bit faster into it, so when you land it,

you'll flow more when you land it. I'll show you one now.

-That was good.

-Really good.

OK, so just a bit more speed going into it.

Do you want to try it again?

The thing is, Ryan, if you go faster, just don't rush the jump.

Like, it's the same rhythm. You still go down and go up.

Training with my cousins Jessica and Ryan was really good today.

I didn't realise they were that good, actually! Their axels were good.

From a slow speed, cos they've just learnt to do it,

they can both land it.

Oh, it's really good having a cousin like Emma who's a skater

because she's, like, higher and older than us,

she can give us really good tips.

If we can't do a jump, she'll help us land it, what to correct.

Emma taught me the rhythm of the jump to help me jump forwards

and not go round.

Even if I didn't land the jumps,

I still think I've learnt something new.

Hopefully, Emma's advice will help Jess and Ryan

improve just in time for the gala.

Figure skater Kloe is off to London as a birthday surprise,

thanks to her best friend, Josh.

He's arranged a day that he hopes Kloe won't forget,

and he's invited their skating friend Sasha along, too.

It's amazing!

First stop, the dizzy heights of the Shard.

My ears!

-Wow!

-Look, the London Eye!

-Yeah, look.

-Where?

-There!

-Do you see the Gherkin, Klo?

-Yeah.

-That's a pretty easy one, that.

-There's St Paul's!

-St Paul's Cathedral.

-Someone's bedroom!

It kind of looks like you're on a plane,

and it's really cool, cos you're so high up and you can pretty much,

like, see the whole of London, and I didn't think it was so big.

Take a picture of, like, us.

Smile!

-Are you having a good birthday?

-I am!

-Awww!

I'm so happy to have a friend like him in my life,

cos I don't think everyone gets a present like this for their birthday.

And after their sky-high selfie session,

they head off for a bit of lunch.

Oh, look, there's the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Klo.

Oh, yeah!

-Thank you.

-There's your drink.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-Cheers.

-Happy birthday, Kloe.

-Thank you!

-It's OK.

Happy birthday!

-OK, so now you're 16, you can buy a lottery ticket and stuff.

-I know!

-I think we should get one now.

-Yeah.

-If we win...

-If we win, which we aren't going to, but, yeah...

-..what could we do?

-What could we buy?

-I don't know. Where would we want to go?

-LA.

-LA?

-We're going to LA.

-We are going to LA?

-What do you think, Sash?

-New York.

-Just an American trip.

-Yeah.

-And we could buy our own rink or something.

-Buy our own ice rink?

That'd be pretty cool, to have our own ice rink. Private coaching!

Also, I think if we would win, I would probably, like, pay for, like,

Selena Gomez to, like, spend a day with me and, like, sing for me.

-Is that for me?

-Oh, thank you!

-Make a wish. No pressure.

-Wait.

-That we're going to win the lottery.

-Thank you, Josh, so much.

-It's OK.

I'm not even kidding, this is the best birthday I've probably ever had.

-Awww!

-Thank you.

-Glad we could make it special for you.

Back in Nottingham, Emma and her skating family are also

enjoying a break from the ice, with a traditional Chinese meal.

My mum and dad's restaurant is really good.

It's really yummy, all the food, and everyone coming, and my family,

so it's really nice to enjoy.

Right now, my dad and uncle are fixing up a meal for us to eat,

so hopefully it's going to be yummy!

My dad's cooking up some noodles with vegetables.

And that's really healthy, but it's not one of my favourites.

But it's still really nice to eat.

Cheers!

It's nice that we see each other quite a lot. I love the food.

It's not the healthiest,

but I guess you need to relax every once in a while

and just, like, pig out!

They might be having a day off their sporting diet,

but with the gala getting closer,

this skating-obsessed family can't talk about anything else.

What jumps do you have in your programme?

A couple of doubles, so I do double flip, double toe, double loop.

We do talk about skating a lot and, like, what's going on at the rink.

My husband started skating quite a few years ago.

It's wonderful that they're all skating, you know, all five of them.

It started with Emma,

and then Jamie and Ryan and Jessica joined in, and Sarah does tag along.

She loves it. And she'd like to be like her sister, of course.

If you get too nervous, then it's bad and then you don't perform your best,

but it is good to have nerves, because sometimes you skate better.

-EMMA'S MUM:

-'It's not easy, you know?'

All their friends all go out, especially Emma, teenager now,

it's getting harder, cos her friends

want her to go out, sleep over, you know.

Most of the time, she'll say no.

It's also nice cos we're away from the rink,

so we're not in a skating atmosphere.

So they just all come together, they all talk together and, yeah,

it's nice.

Speed skater Izzy is back

from her international competition in Germany.

Munich was an open, which basically means that anyone can go,

so anyone from across the world can go and skate there.

So that was really cool.

And after training with Team GB before leaving,

Munich was her chance to impress.

I managed to come sixth overall out of around 30,

which I wasn't expecting, either, so I'm pretty happy.

I skated the fastest times I have done this season,

back down to my PBs that I had the previous year.

It's quite exciting to be able to skate those times again.

It seems her success abroad has got the coaches

thinking about Izzy's future.

Isabel, really, she's talented.

We've seen that. We believe she's got a lot of potential.

There's a chance she could be tested to see

if she's fast enough for a scheme that helps future Olympians.

It's going to be a big commitment for her

if she wants to hit that glory at the top step.

I'd just be with people around my age, and we'd train every day.

But it would mean moving away from home.

I think we'd come home for the weekends,

but it's five days of the week where you're just without parents.

I guess that's kind of fun, as well,

but weird to think, cos obviously I'm only 16,

so it's kind of scary to think that I'd move away.

We'll be catching up with Izzy later on in the series

to see if she gets her time trial.

Figure skater Emma has been skating for eight years,

which means she's got a lot of costumes in her closet!

-So heavy.

-I know!

So Emma's showing her cousin Jess what could be passed down to her.

With Jessica, I'm just showing her all of my past competition dresses.

She is going to grow up later,

and she's going to need a dress, and dresses are really expensive,

and it would be such a shame just to, like, never use those dresses

again, so passing them down in the family is really nice.

It's sort of like I'm passing down the look to Jessica, in a way.

I like the purple one because of the pattern and the colour.

That one's OK, but I don't like it as much.

Skating costumes aren't cheap.

Brand-new ones can cost hundreds of pounds,

and Olympic dresses can cost thousands.

Do costumes like, get more points or is it just your technical thing?

It doesn't really give you points, but I guess it makes you feel better.

So, would you like to maybe choose a dress and try one on?

-I'll have the purple one.

-The purple one.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Cos I like this one.

I think she's excited.

Jessica's really sort of like a girlie girl, I'd say,

and I guess she likes really sparkly things.

-I really like it!

-Actually, that's not a bad fit, is it?

Can you move in it, like move your arms a bit, twist a bit?

Yeah. It's really, like, easy to move in it.

-Some costumes are, like, stiff.

-Try and touch the floor,

cos sometimes dresses, if they're too short, they give you a wedgie,

-so you don't want that! Does it feel good?

-Yeah.

It's really nice to try on someone else's dress, cos they, like,

have memories in it, so I can have memories in it, as well,

and it'll be really nice to, like, have their look in it

and it'll be really fun to just skate on the ice and have fun.

Recently, ice dancer Chloe was nearly picked to be partnered

with new boy Adriano.

But in the end, he chose Ella.

It's really, really, really hard to find a boy that does ice dance,

cos they get teased by their friends, they get called names.

So she teamed up with fellow solo skaters Lauren

and Kershia to try and find a partner.

There's so many girls without partners. And it's really sad,

because they are really talented, and it's upsetting to see.

They've already tried Plan A, a partner-finding website.

-Got one.

-I have one.

-From Latvia.

-Latvia?

But with no luck, they're trying Plan B.

Every Friday night at the Olympic Rink, it's disco night,

and the girls have decided to go talent spotting.

-Hi!

-Hi!

Are you ready for this?

I've actually seen some people that are quite decent skaters,

-so...

-As long as they're not in hockey skates.

You could always transfer them out of hockey skates.

They might surprise you. There might be a star just waiting to be born!

-OK, are you ready for it?

-Yeah.

-Yes. Let's go.

Fingers crossed, girls.

MUSIC: Girls Chase Boys by Ingrid Michaelson

I'm feeling quite nervous, cos I don't know

if there's going to be anyone really good enough, but people can

surprise you, and I'm hoping that there'll be some good ones.

There are lots of boys on the ice, but they need someone tall...

He's quite tall.

-..with good balance...

-Yeah, but he's really wobbly.

-Yeah!

..and strong enough to lift them.

Him trying to lift us up?!

Finally, they spot someone who might be right.

I think maybe the best thing to do is to, like, actually kind of

talk to them, cos then if you're actually face-to-face,

it's a little bit easier to kind of judge, like, what they're like.

So the girls waste no time and take Raph and Josh

off the ice to assess them.

Basically, like, we're ice dancers, so, like, we need a partner, really.

You know, like what Torvill and Dean did?

It's kind of like that, but we need a partner.

-Now we have to skate by ourselves.

-We can only compete with a partner.

-Do you come here quite a lot, or is it just...?

-We come here quite a lot.

Do you mainly come for the disco sessions, or...?

I've come before for, like, y'know, like, the family one on Sundays.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I come Thursdays, Friday nights and Saturday nights.

You're actually quite tall, aren't you?

-How tall are you?

-Six two.

Makes me feel even smaller!

It's like a whole foot taller than me.

Do you think you'd find it weird, like, skating, like,

quite close to a girl, like, all the time?

-Doesn't really bother me.

-So it'd be quite natural?

-Yeah.

-Could you imagine coming on the ice at five o'clock in the morning?

-No.

What's the earliest you'd come here?

-Eleven. Ten.

-Half ten.

-So, would you guys actually ever consider ice dance, or...?

-I would.

You would?

With the assessment over, the girls leave the disco to compare notes.

Yeah, they were actually quite tall for their age.

I can't believe how old they was.

When they told me they'd actually consider doing it...

-Yeah, they weren't just...

-SHE SCOFFS

-They thought about it.

-Although, to be fair, when I told them it was

five o'clock in the morning, their faces dropped a little bit.

I think you need to find somebody that can already skate like we can.

Yeah, who's done the levels.

I think if we was younger, I think it'd make a big difference,

because we'd be able to grow them and bring them through with us.

Yeah, they're talented, but they're just not the right age

and level and it's not really going to happen.

It looks like the girls' search will have to go on.

Next time on Ice Stars,

food poisoning threatens Liam's chance to make it into Team GB...

Us three don't feel too good. These two have been sick. I haven't yet,

but I can feel it coming up soon.

..Ella's determined not to let others

stop her from chasing her dreams...

I'm not going to give up because of what people say about me.

..and disaster strikes for synchro captain Emily.