A Note from Johnny
Hello skating family!
Thank you for supporting the Johnny Weir Skating Academy this summer! I have enjoyed
working with each of you and your young skaters so much and can’t wait to meet more of you
soon.
I believe in keeping everyone updated on upcoming opportunities, so I wanted to send a note to
let you know what is coming for Autumn and share the most exciting news of all: our new head
coach from Ukraine has arrived safely in the US!
Thank you very much for your time, your trust in our team, and your interest in continuing on
with us.
See you at the rink!
Coach Johnny
A Note from Johnny
Welcome, Coach Misha!
We are thrilled to introduce you all to Mykhailo Medunytsia—Coach Misha for short—who is joining us from Odesa, Ukraine! He and his parents have been safely in Romania since 2022 when Odesa was targeted by the Russian army.
Misha is a Ukrainian National medalist and competed for Ukraine internationally on many occasions, notably in the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series. After retiring from a successful professional skating career, he became a full-time coach and had his own group of young skaters that filtered up to the main coach at the rink, as is common in the Eastern European competitive skating environment.
Misha and I toured together during my final tour of Japan and share a very clear philosophy on our work with our students. It was important to me to include a coach who was raised in the European school of skating to help our skaters be competitive with the rest of the world…one day!
Misha is fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and English and will be a talented and energetic addition to our family. I will be immediately incorporating Coach Misha into our private lessons (as well as Coach Megan when she is available), so all our skaters can get to know them. I look forward to introducing him to you soon!
Private Lessons and Small Group Training
At the Academy, our primary goal is to work with all of our skaters as consistently as possible. While our daily private ice and group work will not begin until next summer to accommodate school schedules and allow our skaters to make academic plans, we are offering private lessons all day and small group training to maximize time and instruction for everyone.
Ice Time & Locations
We are doing most of our work at the Skating Club of Wilmington but are also pursuing after-school options at other rinks that will support the schedules and betterment of our students. We are currently working out options with Ice World in Abingdon, Maryland and a rink in Exton, Pennsylvania.
When we have the green light from each of our partner rinks, we will send out a complete schedule for our coaches, the ice times available to our skaters, where that ice is, and pricing for the ice as well.
Note: While we are happy to be able to offer lessons at multiple rinks to accommodate more skaters, our hope is to be coaching exclusively at The Skating Club of Wilmington by the start of next year’s summer schedule.
Upcoming Events
We are also preparing “open houses” or “clinics” to give our students and new faces the opportunity to skate with our entire coaching team in a style that will introduce students to our group-style training.
Mark your calendars for our upcoming events!:
- September 9th at the Skating Club of Wilmington
- October at Ice World in Abingdon, Maryland (date to be announced soon)
We are hoping to run the Academy during the winter holiday season, which means we will have private ice for teaching in groups and private lessons, mirroring what you and your skater can expect next summer and beyond
A Note About Next Week
The ice at The Skating Club of Wilmington will be down for a facelift from August 26th until
September 5th. During that time, we are still available for private lessons in Abingdon, MD and
Exton, PA.
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