Nicole Rajičová

Nicole Rajičová or Rajic (born August 13, 1995) is a Slovak-American figure skater who represents Slovakia in ladies' singles. She is the 2014 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb bronze medalist, the 2013 Merano Cup silver medalist, the 2013 Bavarian Open bronze medalist, the 2013 Ice Challenge bronze medalist, and a five-time Slovak national champion (2013, 2015-2017, 2019).

Nicole Rajičová
Rajičová in 2015
Personal information
Alternative namesNicole Rajic
Country representedSlovakia
Born (1995-08-13) August 13, 1995
Garden City, New York
Height1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
CoachIgor Krokavec, Nikolai Morozov, Tom Rajic
Former coachSteve Rice, Peter Johansson, Milada Kubikova-Stastny
ChoreographerNikolai Morozov
Former choreographerPhillip Mills
Skating clubSKP Bratislava
Training locationsHackensack, New Jersey
Began skating1998
ISU personal best scores
Combined total169.03
2019 Europeans
Short program64.08
2019 Europeans
Free skate104.95
2019 Europeans

She placed 24th at the 2014 Winter Olympics and 14th at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Personal life

Nicole Rajičová was born August 13, 1995 in Garden City, New York.[1] She is also known as Nicole Rajic; Rajičová is the Slovak feminine form. Her parents, Anna and Tomislav Rajič (Tom Rajic), moved to the United States from Slovakia.[2][3][4] She received her undergraduate degree from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center.

Career

Early years

By the age of five, Rajičová began taking figure skating lessons in Long Island from Milada Kubikova-Stastny (Šťastná-Kubíková),[4] a former Olympian for Czechoslovakia. Early in her career, she competed as Nicole Rajic in U.S. regional and domestic events.[5]

2011–12 to 2012–13

Rajičová debuted internationally for Slovakia in December 2011 at the Golden Spin of Zagreb. She began appearing in ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) events in autumn 2012 and became the Slovak national champion at the 2013 Three Nationals Championships.[6]

2013–14 season: Sochi Olympics

Rajičová competed at two JGP events in September 2013, placing eighth in Košice, Slovakia and fifteenth in Gdańsk, Poland. Her first senior ISU Championship was the European Championships in January 2014 in Budapest, Hungary. Ranked fourteenth in the short program, she advanced to the free skate and finished seventeenth. In March, she competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia; she qualified for the free skate by placing twenty-first in the short program and finished twenty-fourth overall.[7]

Rajičová just missed qualifying for the free skate at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan after placing twenty-fifth in the short program.

2014–15 season

During the 2014–15 JGP season, Rajičová placed fourth in Ljubljana, Slovenia in August and fourth in Zagreb, Croatia in October. In November, she competed for the first time on the ISU Challenger Series (CS), finishing sixth at the 2014 CS Ice Challenge. In December, she won the bronze medal at the 2014 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb.

In January, Rajičová finished eleventh at the 2015 European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, having ranked eighth in the short program and twelfth in the free skate. In early March, she competed at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia; she placed fifth in the short, thirteenth in the free, and eleventh overall. Later that month, she finished fifteenth in Shanghai, China at the 2015 World Championships after placing fourteenth in the short and fifteenth in the free.

2015–16 season: Grand Prix debut

Rajičová placed ninth at the 2015 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy. Making her Grand Prix (GP) debut, she placed seventh at the 2015 Skate America and 2015 Cup of China. At the 2016 Europeans in Bratislava she placed twelfth, and at the 2016 Worlds in Boston she placed thirteenth.

2016–17 season

Ranked seventh in the short, sixth in the free, and sixth overall, Rajičová achieved her career-best continental result at the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

2017–18 season: Pyeongchang Olympics

Rajičová was given two Grand Prix assignments for the season, the 2017 NHK Trophy, where she placed tenth, and the 2017 Skate America, where she placed ninth. At the 2018 European Championships in Moscow, she placed ninth in the short program and sixth in the free skate, finishing in sixth place.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Rajičová again represented Slovakia. She finished thirteenth in the short program and fifteenth in the free skate, ranking fourteenth overall. She concluded the season at the 2018 World Championships in Milan, where she placed twenty-seventh and for the first time in four years did not qualify for the free skate.

2018–19 season

Rajičová was assigned to two Grand Prix events, the 2018 Skate America and the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki, but withdrew from both of them, as well as the 2018 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy. Her participation in the remainder of the season was in doubt for some time afterward. She returned to training in October following an eight-month hiatus, and won another Slovak national title.

Competing internationally for the first time at the 2019 European Championships, she placed fifth in the short program, and expressed happiness with the result, saying "two weeks ago, I didn’t know if I was going to compete because I wasn’t in the shape I wished I was in."[8] She placed twelfth in the free program, dropping to ninth overall, and said that the skate "started off quite well and then my legs collapsed. It was quite a fight. I got so tired I couldn’t even handle double Axels. It is what it is. I just have to go and do more run-throughs."[9]

Programs
Season Short program Free skating
2018-2019
[10]
2017–2018
[11]
2016–2017
[12]
2015–2016
[1][13]
2014–2015
[14]
2013–2014
[15]
2012–2013
[16]

Results

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

For Slovakia
Rajičová at the 2018 European Championships
International[17]
Event 11–12 12–13 13–14 14–15 15–16 16–17 17–18 18–19 19-20
Olympics24th14th
Worlds25th15th13th17th27th32nd
Europeans17th11th12th6th6th9th
GP Skate America7th9thWD
GP Cup of China7th
GP FinlandWD
GP Rostelecom7th
GP NHK Trophy11th10th
CS Golden Spin3rd
CS Ice Challenge6th
CS LombardiaWD
CS Ondrej Nepela9th5th7thWDWD
CS Warsaw Cup5th
Bavarian Open3rd
Cup of Tyrol4th
Four Nationals2nd5th
Golden Spin12th
Ice Challenge7th3rd
Merano Cup2nd
New Year's Cup7th
NRW Trophy3rd
Ondrej Nepela19th6th
International: Junior[17]
Junior Worlds30th11th
JGP Croatia4th
JGP Poland15th
JGP Slovakia8th
JGP Slovenia15th4th
JGP U.S.13th
National[17]
Slovak Champ.2nd1st4th1st1st1st1st
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew

For the United States
National
Event 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11
U.S. Championships12th N12th J
U.S. Junior Championships8th I
Levels: I = Intermediate; N = Novice; J = Junior
gollark: The frontend ignores most errors and just entirely freezes.
gollark: The renderer leans heavily on Python's duck typing and randomly adds attributes it needs to things.
gollark: There are basically no comments.
gollark: The API is a thin layer over the database which has to accursedly convert things to ints or strings all the time because my IDs are 64-bit integers and JS only allows 53 bit ones because of course it does.
gollark: Or I have many, many screenshots.

References
  1. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2015/2016". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  2. "Krasokorčuliarska nádej Nicole Rajičová: Newyorčanka vo farbách Slovenska" [Figure skating talent Nicole Rajičová: New Yorker represents Slovakia]. Čas.sk (in Slovak). March 1, 2013.
  3. "Rajičovej otec: Pri začiatkoch netreba deti do ničoho tlačiť" [Interview with Rajičová's father]. News Agency of the Slovak Republic (in Slovak). teraz.sk. October 3, 2014. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015.
  4. "Krasokorčuliarka Rajičová: Olympiáda je môj najväčší úspech" [Figure skater Rajičová: Competing at the Olympics is my greatest achievement] (in Slovak). osporte.sk. February 22, 2014. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015.
  5. "2011 U.S. Championships: Junior Ladies". U.S. Figure Skating. January 26, 2011.
  6. "Three National Championships 2013". Polish Figure Skating Association. December 2012.
  7. "Nicole RAJICOVA". Organizing Committee of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. Archived from the original on March 20, 2014.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  8. Slater, Paula (January 23, 2019). "Alina Zagitova: 'I need to be confident in myself'". Golden Skate.
  9. Slater, Paula (January 25, 2019). "Samodurova shines; wins European ladies' title". Golden Skate.
  11. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2017/2018". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017.
  12. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2016/2017". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  13. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2015/2016". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  14. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2014/2015". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 22, 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  15. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2013/2014". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  16. "Nicole RAJICOVA: 2012/2013". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  17. "Competition Results: Nicole RAJICOVA". International Skating Union.

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