Humans of SSHS: Saratoga’s Own Star Skater, Lillian Bergbom 

March 27, 2023  by Elijah N’dolo (‘24)

Saratoga Springs High School sports several exceptional athletes, but one, in particular, stands out. Senior Lillian Bergbom competes at an elite level in a sport few know and even fewer participate in: the obscure figure skating discipline of synchronized skating.

Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, Bergbom’s introduction to synchronized skating came when she saw Saratoga High alumna Whitney Flansburg perform the sport at the Weibel Avenue ice rink. From that moment, Bergbom knew that synchronized skating (commonly referred to as synchro) was the sport for her. She began by training solo to develop the skills necessary to maneuver with ease on ice skates and eventually joined the Saratoga Springs Shining Stars, Saratoga’s synchro team.  

Bergbom’s skills rapidly progressed, and in 2021, she tried out for one of the top synchro teams in the United States, the Boston-based team the Lexettes. The Lexettes, the junior team for the top U.S. team the Haydenettes, accepted Bergbom to train with them, but Bergbom did not initially perform with the team. It was not until the current 2022-2023 season that she officially joined the roster and performed with the Lexettes in their various domestic and international performances. But what even makes up a synchronized skating performance? 

 Synchronized skating is a unique figure skating discipline due to the number of skaters on the ice at once. Eight to twenty skaters, although typically sixteen, rapidly traverse the ice to spin in and out of shapes and formations, all the while performing blocks, intersections, circles, and other technical elements. “There are two programs,” Bergbom explained, “a short program and a long program. Often you do a more fun, upbeat piece for the short program and a more lyrical piece for the free or the long program.”  

The judges score the performers using the International Judging System, which includes technical skills, composition, interpretation, transitions, and difficulty of the elements. “There’s a lot of power and movement,” Bergbom said, “so it’s an aggressive sport, but it can also be a really beautiful performance to watch.” Because of the number of performers, synchro remains the only discipline of figure skating not present in the Winter Olympics, but with a strong push from the rapidly growing synchro community, Bergbom hopes that this will change in the coming years. 

This year, in addition to the three domestic performances, Bergbom and her team competed in Milan and Salzburg. An unexpected nomination to the U.S. World Team also sent them to Angers, France, to compete in the 2023 World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships. “When we travel internationally, we meet all the other countries’ teams, and interacting with them is so fun,” Bergbom said. “I think meeting people from other cultures is really cool.”  

But the traveling element of participating at a high level in a sport as Bergbom does has not been a solely positive experience. Since the Lexettes are based in Boston, Bergbom and her parents have had to drive six hours, three days a week after school from November to March to attend practices. With the additional time commitment of performances, Bergbom has had to miss a lot of school, sometimes for weeks at a time. But she did not allow this challenge to halt her academic success and has continued to shine academically taking a courseload riddled with APs and challenging classwork.  

Another challenge Bergbom faced was learning how to work together as a team, especially under high-stress conditions. “We all have individual goals, and we also all have team goals,” Bergbom said, “and it’s difficult to learn when to put your goals first versus the team’s goals. People get frustrated at practice because they’re not doing exactly what they want to be doing, but maybe it’s actually better for the team.” But this same team sentiment is one of Bergbom’s favorite parts of competing in synchronized skating, and she even goes as far as to describe it as a familial environment.  

Bergbom was accepted to the nursing program at the renowned Boston College, a college within twenty minutes of the Lexettes’ training facility in Lexington, Massachusetts. Another two years await her with the Lexettes after which she hopes to graduate to the Haydenettes. Her ultimate dream is to represent Team USA in the Winter Olympics, and with synchro’s new rise in popularity and Bergbom’s exceptional talent, this dream may well become a reality.