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Today has teamed up with Barry Mittan to provide you an insight into
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| Papp Has Pop |
| Published on June 30, 2008 |  
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Bela Papp
June 30, 2008
Article by J. Barry Mittan
 Finland has a surplus of excellent ladies competing at the international level, but not as many men. Bela Papp, a 14-year-old who was born in Kuopio, Finland is one of the promising newcomers. Papp won the Nordic Championships in novice men in 2006 and finished first in Finland in junior men this season.
"It was my goal to win Nationals so I could get a place at the Junior Worlds and do two Junior Grand Prixs next season," Papp noted. "I liked competing with all the people and I learned a lot."
He also competed in his first ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid, New York, where he finished 12th and the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he placed 28th.
"I started skating when I was five," Papp recalled. "There was a pairs skater living in my house that my mom was coaching and I wanted to try it too."
In 2007, Papp moved with his family to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada and has trained with Joanne McLeod and Neil Wilson since that July. "I'd only seen her on TV before, but she's a great coach and I liked her," Papp said of McLeod. He trains on ice for two to three hours a day, five days a week and does another three hours a week in off ice conditioning.
His short program included a double axel and a triple toe-double toe combination. In his long program, Papp included a triple salchow-double toe, triple toe-double toe and double axel-double toe-double loop combinations. He has landed all the triples up to the loop in practice, but admitted that his triple loop and triple flip were inconsistent. "I'm hoping to have my triple flip and triple lutz solid and in all my competitions next season," Papp added.
Maikki Uotila-Kraatz, Victor Kraatz, and Tatiana Voitiuk choreographed Papp's programs for the 2007-08 season. "Tatiana created the programs last season, and then Victor and Maikki redid some parts this season," Papp explained. "Next season, I think Victor will do my new programs."
Both of his programs used the same music as the 2006-07 season. He skated his short program to music from the "The Godfather" soundtrack by Nino Rota, "Acoustic Alchemy", and "The Netting Hill". "I saw a trailer on the Internet for 'The Godfather' and liked it," Papp said.
For his long program, Papp used "Satori Mix" and "Stobe's Nanafushi" by Kodo and "Scorchio" by Bond. "I like fast music, so that's why I used the music for the long program," he said. "And it was not so classical. Next year, I'll probably keep the long because I didn't use it much, but I'll change the short."
Papp's off ice interests include soccer, golf, and watching sports. "I played on a traveling team for a few years before I moved to Canada," he said. "Now I play only with friends for fun. I also like to play with water guns with my younger brother. He's also a skater. And sometimes I play online computer games. I used to have a web page but I didn't keep up with it."
Papp is in the eighth grade at Burnaby Central School, where he likes to study math and science. "I'm planning to study sciences or languages in university, but I'm not sure yet," he said. "I'm hoping to skate for ten more years for sure."
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