Young Skaters Assist With Figure Skating Competitions While Aspiring to the Olympics

Plush toys and bouquets land on the ice moments after skaters finish their programs — a stuffed capybara, Olympic mascots, bouquets — and young skaters known as flower kids scramble to collect them. Their brief reward is to share the Olympic ice with the world’s top athletes.

"I get nervous because I know that before I go on, there was an athlete on the ice who knows how to do really beautiful things," said 12-year-old Edoardo from Asiago. Edoardo is one of 30 children selected from across Italy to assist at the Olympic figure skating competitions.

Dressed in pink and blue, the group cheers every landed jump, gasps at quadruple jumps and clutches hands on the sidelines; for them the role is a job they clearly relish.

Italy, Asiago

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