Macquarie Ice Rink is special to whole community: Chantelle Kerry
Star Australian ice dancer Chantelle Kerry has made an impassioned plea for AMP Capital to back down on its plans to demolish the much-loved Macquarie Ice Rink.
Chantelle Kerry knows the emotional torture of getting so close to stepping up the pinnacle of sport — the Olympics — and being robbed of a place at the last minute.
And the North Parramatta ice princess does not want to battle those same mental demons as she sets her sights of winning a spot on the Australian team with ice-dancing dancing partner Andrew Dodds for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
At this stage of their Olympics preparation, there appears only a few main obstacles to the national champions — who qualified for last year’s world championships in Italy in their first season together — booking their ticket to Beijing.
The first is bad luck, whether it’s in the form of an injury or equipment failure on the big stage.
The second — and arguably greater threat — is the loss of their training base, Macquarie Ice Rink, a recently revamped site at a cost of $3.5 million, where the world’s best come out to train.
Kerry, whose mother Monica MacDonald competed at the Calgary Olympics with partner Rodney Clarke, has a steely resolve in her quest to right a wrong when she missed out on a figure-skating singles crack at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
However, before she recounts that nightmare, she has sent a strong message to AMP Capital, owners of the Macquarie Centre where the ice rink is slated for demolition early next year to make way for a retail podium.
“Where’s the angry emoji?” the 22-year-old said with an icy stare after early-morning training today.
“I think they underestimated how strong and big of a community we have, and just how many people who love the Macquarie Ice Rink.
“It’s a big part of the Ryde community. And if you lose the ice rink, you lose what makes our community so great.”
Kerry began skating at the North Ryde centre when she was still in nappies, alongside brother Brendan, a two-time Winter Olympian. She has nothing but food memories for her local ice rink.
“It means everything to me. I don’t think I’d be where I am without it,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as this anywhere else around the world.”
Kerry — who qualified for the Youth Winter Olympics when she was 15 — is bouncing back from three years of battling anxiety issues and depression after her Sochi setback.
She recalls the devastation of missing out on Sochi selection.
“The year before Sochi, whoever was ranked the highest of the Australians at Skate Down Under was meant to get sent to the Olympic qualifier,” the four-time national singles champ said.
“I ended up winning the event but there were some back-room politics which happened and they didn’t send me.
“I was so prepared (for the Olympics). I’d learnt new elements, which had pushed my skating ahead in the singles. And then there were some rules not followed by other parties and it went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“The Australian Olympic Committee had told us to take it there, confident the process would work it out in my favour.
“But it didn’t work out for me. I was there when they gave the decision and I completely broke down. I was so devastated.”
Three years later, she was on her skates again, only for foot stress fractures to curtail her comeback.
It was then she turned her attention from ice skating to ice dancing.
“I basically had to relearn what I was doing, but it reinvigorated me,” she said.
All local eyes will be on Saitama in Japan from March 18-24, when her and Dodd take to the ice at the worlds.
The pair has one simple goal.
“We want to advance past the short program, where only the top 20 qualify for the free program,” she said.
“Both Andrew and I are perfectionists and work well together. We compete for each other, of course, but we’ll be doing this, too, for all of the people in the Ryde community who support us.”
In return, Chantelle and Andrew will be sent bucketloads of best wishes from Sydney to Saitama in March, when tens of thousands of supporters also hope AMP Capital performs a perfect backflip and frees the iconic Macquarie Ice Rink from the bulldozers.
Meet the talented young artists from ARTEXPRESS 2025
The annual art exhibition which shows some of the most outstanding and exemplary artworks across NSW by HSC visual arts students has opened. Meet the students and see their amazing works.
Drunk P-plater’s car stuck above freeway in boozy drive
A drunk P-plater was three times over the limit when he wedged his sedan on a narrow pedestrian overpass above some of Sydney’s busiest expressways. See what happened in court.