Julia Sauter – the Olympian: “My heart is full”

Two weeks after the Olympics, we finally get to talk to Julia Sauter at length about how her entire experience in Milano-Cortina has been.

Remember, Julia was Romania’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony on February 6th in Milano, she then came back to her rink in Ravensburg to keep a sense of normalcy in her training, she returned to the Olympic Village a few days before the women’s event, had the skates of her life in Milano Ice Skating Arena, had a post-free skate reaction in the Kiss and Cry that became viral, a trademark moment of these Olympics, she was Romania’s flag-bearer once again, at the Closing Ceremony in Verona, she came back to Ravensburg to the sweetest welcome organized by the people at her club, the little ones making her an arch of flowers, tears flowing on Julia’s cheeks, she then felt the exhaustion of it all through a cold that had her in bed for a couple of days, then being the special guest at one of her husband’s hockey games as a celebration, interviews with the media throughout, local TV in Ravensburg coming to the rink to get to know her better, then attending a competition in Oberstdorf with the kids she is coaching – and, on a Wednesday evening, at the beginning of March, while Julia returns from the rink, we finally come back to the experience of the Olympics.

That glowing experience that left her beaming with joy, but also emotionally drained, working on herself to find the energy needed for Worlds in Prague, the next peak to conquer after the highest peak at all, the Olympics in Milano-Cortina.

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And we’ve already told Julia this would be a different kind of interview, starting with the memories of the Olympics, of course, but also focusing on the reactions surrounding her presence in Milano Ice Skating Arena.

About the inspiration that Julia Sauter proved to be, about those performances that made everyone in the skating world finally see her for who she was.

Julia-Sauter-skating-with-her-soul.

This is a conversation about Olympics, nevertheless, but also a conversation driven by all of you reacting to her skating, with so many positive, praiseworthy, authentic, emotional remarks, seconds, minutes after her short program, after her free.

We read them all, we gathered them all, we came back to them all, and – at the end of a long day at the rink, recovering after the highest of highs in her career – we had Julia face them, and comment on them all.

And this was an audio conversation only, but she smiled through it all, we’ve guessed it from Julia’s voice.

We talked preparation, staying focused (but also cracks in the wall, when thinking about possible placement), motivation, Roxana Hartmann’s coaching, Julia’s giant triple Lutz, her incredible Lutz-Toe combination born this season, on a casual training week in Swindon, UK, while working with Zoe Jones who said “Why don’t you…?”, we talked satisfaction, people finally seeing her and praising her, just like she was praised at the beginning of her career (she was a wunderkind in her native land Baden-Württemberg, remember?), we talked colours, longevity, components, pieces of the puzzle, longing for a Grand Prix invitation, doing what she does for the love of skating.

All in all, a conversation that deepened our knowledge of Julia Sauter-the skater and her career, but mostly about the beautiful human that Julia is.

On the week of Worlds – Julia’s sixth Worlds –, we give you Julia Sauter-the Olympian.

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Interview by Florentina Tone

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Florentina Tone: Julia, I have a long list of questions, but I want us to start with almost the end.

And by the end, I mean your reaction in the Kiss and Cry when seeing your free skate scores – a reaction that became viral, “a trademark Olympic moment”, as someone called it.

What went through your mind when those scores showed up – and you got 127.80 points for the free, and 190.93 overall? That is, for those who don’t know, 17 points higher than your previous personal best…

Embed from Getty Images

Julia Sauter: It was just so much joy!

I have been working for a long time towards a good competition, where I had no visual mistakes, so… I don’t know, I wasn’t really realizing what was happening, because I was in such a focus mode!

But to have points like 190, it was just so much joy, because it was all coming together on ice, and I just realized it in that moment.

You “tanked” your previous personal best, there’s no better word for it – did it cross your mind, while waiting, that you were going to get around 190 overall?

No, because to me it was such a…

So, in the beginning of the season, and last season, and the years before that, those were the points that I needed to chase, that was my goal.

But year after year after year I would not reach what I needed to reach, so for me, literally, 180 was like a long-term goal.

And having the 190 points for the first time in my career, and I wasn’t expecting any points!, I felt really, really joyful and so happy in that moment!

When I least expected, that’s when it came, and it came way higher.

“I WAS SO FULFILLED! I JUST WANTED TO GET HOME AND CELEBRATE WITH THE PEOPLE I KNOW”

Julia, we’re already two weeks after the Olympics, and maybe the lights are starting to dim a little – but if you look back, what do you see? Because there was so much going on there for you – the Opening Ceremony, the performances itself, the relief after… I mean, what stayed in your mind?

I just have really great memories: every day was great during the Olympics. Like: I just enjoyed every single thing.

It was the Opening, and then every practice day was great, it was so fun.

And to be in the Village, it was just like an all-around celebration, a joyful and fun event for me, and I will always keep it like this in my mind.

And, obviously, I had great performances, but it was the whole package which was really nice and great, and then I could really enjoy this full moment for me in my skating career.

You wrote me at a certain point, maybe the day following the free skate: “My heart is very full”.

Yeah…

Is your heart still very full now, two weeks after it happened?

Yeah, I feel a lot more fulfilled than I expected.

And not just for the Olympics alone, I think it was more the performance I put out, because I feel that as a skater you always want to have those great performances, that’s why you’re doing it, to have those moments – and to have an all-around moment like that was something I had not achieved in my skating career up until that point.

And when you came home, I saw the little skaters at your rink were so welcoming, with flowers, hugs and tears – it felt so very emotional, for me too… So I think what I want to ask you is if you think that your performance, your presence at the Olympics will inspire them in a way…

I think so. I mean, they see that everything is possible if you put in the work.

To me, even after the performance, I was like: I was so fulfilled!, I just wanted to get home and celebrate with the people I know…

Because we were completely alone in the Village, so… you just wanted to share that with the people who were supporting you all year round.

And for them to actually organize that… Like I knew they were organizing something, but I would have never expected that so many people showed up, also from the past, from my early skating career, even my first coach, for example, was there, but also people from the entire club.

It didn’t matter who it was: recreational skaters, adults, the little ones, the figure skaters – it was really nice, and they organized it in such a cute way, and it was… My heart was so full after coming back home.

And I was tired, I remember, I so not wanted to go there in the beginning, because I was just so exhausted from travelling all day, but it was really, really nice! [and you sense that Julia has a big, big smile on her face right now.]

“WHAT’S NOW MY GOAL? WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS? – I HAD TO ASK MYSELF THOSE QUESTIONS”

People say the Olympics are very time and energy consuming, and it’s very hard to recover afterwards – how was it for you? I know you had a lot of interviews these days, events you needed to attend, and a cold on top of that…

How was the “down”, as they say, after you experienced the highest of highs at the Olympics?

Well, when you’re a little bit older, you know how it goes – the little curve, when you’re going on the peak, and you train the peak for a while, and then you have the competition, and it always goes down… But for me, I usually don’t get sick.

But I got sick on Wednesday – I just went back to the rink on Tuesday for training, and I got sick the day after.

It’s very normal, I think, and somehow expected…

So for me… I was almost happy to be back home, because I felt my energy was really low, I was just getting really tired by the end of the week. Like even when we were there, after the competition, I feel I was still recovering from everything, because there’s always something going on!

And you’re not in your normal day there, energy-wise, you never recover fully. So I got super tired towards the end, but it was all positive, obviously.

But coming back home, getting sick and then going back to training was very challenging, because, for the first time in my skating career, I had to really refocus: What’s now my goal, you know…

What do I want to achieve at the World Championships? For what am I doing this right now? – I had to ask myself those questions because, for me, it was the first time that I was not motivated.

But I was still a little bit sick – and now, after I asked myself those questions and I figured a little bit more out for myself, I’m working hard and hope that I can go back in shape.

[WHERE WE EXPLAIN JULIA OUR INTENTIONS – INVITING THOSE REACTING TO HER PERFORMANCES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE INTERVIEW

Julia, I read so many great comments about your performances on social media after your short program, after your free – I don’t know how much you read during the Olympics, but there were so many beautiful things written out there, and I would like us to go back to them.

And I would read some of those comments, and I would like you to also comment on them, if you may. It was almost an anthology of praises, and I want you to know, and remember those.]

There we go: you skated your short program in Milano not very long after Adeliia Petrosian, and she received a big score, and then you took the ice, and some people wrote on X things like: “If I said Julia Sauter deserves higher PCS than Adeliia?”, “If I say she should be in first…”

How does it feel to know that people are actually acknowledging you and your skating, they watch you and keep you in such high regard…

[Julia starts laughing, and you sense the emotion:] I am actually amazed!

I don’t know, it’s very hard to say this without any negative or mean point, but for so many years I was so isolated, and I feel like for so many years I was not able to be really who I am.

And last year you already saw a couple of parts, but this year I feel I know myself better, and I’m more proud of who I am again – and before that, it was never the case.

And I feel that people finally see me, and maybe it’s easier for them to build a connection with me, because I show who I am. Does that make sense? That’s how I feel like.

It’s funny, because I feel like what people are saying right now, that’s what people would say to me when I was skating as a child.

So that’s really nice to hear and, obviously, they understand where I’m coming from and they see the joy that I have for the sport – I really like that.

Sometimes I feel like: Am I one of those skaters people feel something more when they see me in an arena, and they see me live, than if they saw me on a TV or something…?

Because I was very emotional, and I’m an emotional personality, so…

It’s actually very nice to get these reactions from people – and it comes from you, it comes from putting yourself out there, and letting people see you, see the real you…

Because in the past maybe nerves got the best of you, whereas this time these positive emotions that you were carrying really let you shine there…

I mean, at the end of the day, this is really what Roxana [Hartmann, Julia’s main coach] was working on so hard for me.

She is the piece to the puzzle!

I cannot put it into words the amount of research she was trying to do, to figure out a way how to be myself on the ice, to get me so consistent, to get me be able to trust in my practices.

Obviously, not every competition is gonna be like this, but even when I’m not having a good competition…

For me it was already such a shock when I responded the way I responded for Europeans. For the first time, I saw myself being more grow up, and it’s just been continuing like this – and it’s honestly her work.

Her work and your work, it’s a 50-50, the way we see it…

I’m a good worker, but… it’s really her!

It’s her believing in me – it’s just the way she lets me be myself and still trying to make me a better person, and how to be more positive, because I’m a very negative person.

And she’s just putting more and more positivity in my life and it’s unbelievable.

Yeah, and it’s very nice that you got to live this moment at this big competition, and have your moment in the Kiss and Cry. That was the cherry on the cake, because you could see on your faces that you were thrilled!

[Julia is laughing heartily]

THE STORY OF THE TRIPLE LUTZ AND THE TRIPLE LUTZ-TRIPLE TOE COMBO. AND WHAT A STORY!

One other thing that people were praising was your technique. Some wrote: “Can I say Julia Sauter has a very good tech, especially on toe jumps? Very rare nowadays”; “Her landings… On the blade and not the picks. Soooo satisfying to listen to”; “Her 3Lz is absolutely textbook”; “Loved the Lutz and the performance!”; “That combination was soooo good!”…

And I remember you learned the triple Lutz and the triple Flip quite late in your career, only a couple of years ago – but then this combination, triple Lutz-triple Toe, is very, very new to you, and you actually landed for the first time in competition, in perfect condition, at the Olympics!

How did it come to life, which was the success rate in training?

So, occasionally, at the end of the seasons, when I’m in a really good shape, I would try different things – and sometimes I would do a triple Lutz-triple Toe…

Last season, for example, I did a lot of triple Flip-triple Toe, that was easier for me – especially because my triple Toe-triple Toe is very wild [bursting into laughter].

So sometimes I would just try to see what other options I would possibly have.

And I started my season in Oberstdorf and after that, I went to Swindon for training. And, one day, I would land a Lutz and I just added a triple Toe, just to see… I don’t know, I just landed one.

Sometimes I have stupid things on my mind [laughing], and Zoe Jones…

Obviously, when I’m in Swindon, I work with Christopher Boyadji, but you work with the entire team. And I was working with Zoe, and she was like: Why don’t you put a triple Lutz-triple Toe…

And I said: I had the same thought a couple weeks ago, but it’s not really there – and she was like: Hmm, okay, I just think you should go for it. She kept it like this.

And then the next day, I did it again, and she said it again, and then, at night, she sat me down and she’s like: I think you should do it.

And I started talking to Roxana, I called her and I said: Do you think maybe we should go for it? Because the triple Toe-triple Toe it’s just always so wild…

And then, I remember, I did four short programs with triple Lutz-triple Toe that one day, and it was obviously not working right away. And I said: I’m fine not having clean short programs right now, but I have a feeling that towards Europeans it could become something.

And then from there on, we just kept working.

I mean, it was a long process: the first time I went for it, I fell on my triple Lutz in my short program, and then I had one more try, I did triple Lutz-double Toe, and then I did again triple Lutz-double Toe, and then the triple-triple at Europeans…

It was actually sad, because the rate at Europeans had been really high for my triple Lutz-triple Toe: in my practice the day before, I landed 7 or 8 in practice. Way, way more consistent than my triple Toe-triple Toe ever was.

And then I just kept working – for me it’s easier to handle my height even on soft ice, because with the adrenaline, I don’t get as stiff with the triple Lutz then when I do triple Toe-triple Toe.

For me, doing a triple Toe-triple Toe on adrenaline is very difficult; it’s OK in practice, but it’s really hard in competition settings.

But how come you have such a good technique on the Lutz?

Well, my double Lutz was already good as a child, to be honest.

Do you credit someone with having this good technique?

[Julia starts laughing:] No, I’m sorry, but… I actually did a double Lutz on my first try! I’m not joking!

Literally, I had never worked on the double Lutz before. But back then, when I was 7 or 8, they did like a testing, and they were just for fun saying: “Hey, Julia, try a double Lutz!”, and I went into the double Lutz!

Like, seriously!

And it was pretty much the same with the triple Lutz, because I was working really hard for the triple Flip when I got my new boots and, in one practice, one or two practices, I actually landed the triple Lutz.

And I had never tried it since… One time, when I was 15-16, I did a triple Lutz, I was working on it a little bit, but then I actually hurt my ankle. And I would never do a triple Lutz until that day that I told you about.

It just looks as if you had it for an eternity, that good it is!

Last year, I would, for example, only be able to do maybe 3 or 4 triple Lutz, because I was not trained – but this year, with all the consistency that Roxana put into my practice, it doesn’t matter when I do it anymore.

I actually didn’t take any time off in the summer, besides two weeks. So I was working really, really hard, and our goal was to be a lot more consistent in practice already.

Obviously, there are days where I fall on the Lutz and everything, but I can usually do 7 to 9 triple Lutz now, whereas before that, I would be too tired to even do that.

It’s like one of the best assets right now…

Yeah, but I really worked hard for it.

“I LIKE SHOWING ALL MY PERSONALITY”

Julia, if you were to choose a color to say it represents you, would you say that red is that color? Someone on X even called you “Lady in red” after your short program performance, you were also called “Our first lady”, for being very elegant, very classy… [I can hear Julia laughing]

I don’t even know! [laughing still]

I think a person has so many different colors – and I’m being totally honest with you: everyone has different faces of their personality, so I think it’s really hard to just knock it down to one.

Because I can be a lady in red, but I think I can also be someone with a very soft color tone…

I mean, I also really love my free skate, where I’m like just very light and very nice to watch, you know? I like showing all my personality.

“I JUST TREATED IT LIKE EVERY OTHER COMPETITION”

Now onto this: how did you remain focused in between the short and the free? Because, from what I’ve been told, it’s very easy to lose focus in the Olympic Village, with tons of things happening nearby…

To be honest, the Village, for me, I thought it was quite calm, because there weren’t that many athletes anymore… Our time, in general, was a little later in the schedule.

I think the entire craziness went down to the social media, so I turned it off completely.

I also didn’t talk to anyone besides the people I always talk on competition day, so [in between the short and the free] I slept in, went to practice, got a two-hour massage, I went to bed…

I just treated it like every other competition, to be honest, and the fact that I went home after the Opening Ceremony and processed everything, it got easier like that for me.

I think you really made the right decision here, because staying two weeks in the Village, or one week and a half….

I could have not done it.

I’m also thinking about Ilia Malinin here – some say the whole atmosphere of the Olympics, in the Village can eat you alive if you’re not prepared to handle it beforehand…

I don’t think it’s necessary the Village – it’s more all this media and, obviously, you have a very different time schedule there…

When you’re at home, you usually have two practices a day, you go rest in between – but there, for the most part, you only had one practice, except for a few days when there were two. And then, obviously, you just have your room with a bed, and if you want to like hang out somewhere else, you always have to be with someone…

But I think, with Ilia, the problem was that it was also a Team event and it was just too much in one week!

Yeah, I know, I have my opinions on the Team event…

There’s so much happening!

I think the Team event should be after the individual events…

Or it just has to be a rule where there’s: one skater, one program. Because otherwise it’s very difficult.

“SO-SO READY!”

You mentioned that Roxana did such a great job with having you ready, and having you focused, but how exactly do you manage to stay present in the performance?

[Julia is laughing:] I mean, in the short program I was, yes!

But in the free skate I was not there, I cannot remember the free skate at all – I was so focused!

To me, the first moment when I stopped the free skate, I was like: Oh, the people are not clapping as loud as in England, I think it was not good… [laughing]

Was there any reason for that? I mean, did you find the free skate more difficult to get ready for?

It was kind of hard to stay focused on myself, because the only thing on the free skate day… I started thinking about placements, because I knew a couple good skaters were behind me.

So I was not sure if I could hold my placement, but I really wanted to keep my placement.

So I started thinking about placements and that pissed me off.

I can understand that…

But when I was on the ice, and before, I always able to kind of stay focused.

There was one crack for like a minute, but Roxana and Chris and everyone, they got me right back into it. So I was very locked in on the free skate day.

The short program, I was so ready to go all day!

It was almost hard to stay focused all day, because I was so excited to go out! I was sure all day that I can skate a clean short program, and that’s sometimes very dangerous, to then not go into like: Oh, that’s easy.

Yeah, and it can also be very tiring emotionally to be so-so ready…

I was so ready!

Like all day I was like: I’m so excited, I want to go, I want to… And I’ve not had this in a long time, but I was able to pace myself.

But on the day after the short program, I was so tired – I looked at Roxana and I was like: I really hope my body is able to handle it all through the free skate…

Because we went there on Friday – and I was already practicing Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, and then the free skate was on the sixth day, and it was… For me, I thought it was really challenging.

But then I went to this massage on Wednesday night, and I just wanted the legs a little bit done – but the guy there said it’s his last shift, and if I want, he can give me a really relaxing massage. And he massaged me for two hours and I felt like this person – he really set me up, like he was able to make my body completely recover over the night, I felt so great for the free skate!

You need to thank this guy then…

Yeah, seriously!

“I DO IT FOR MYSELF, AND I DO IT FOR MY OWN SATISFACTION – I DECIDED THAT YEARS AGO”

Coming back to people’s reactions after the short, after the free, they are really acknowledging your longevity in the sport.

Someone wrote: “Julia is a perfect example of why we need grown women in the sport, she is 28 and still technically improving”. Then: “Julia randomly having the season of her life in her tenth senior season at 28 years old”; “Julia Sauter improving and having the skate of her life at the Olympics at 28”; “Career best score at the Olympics at 28… some can!”; “I’ll always root for any 23+ female skater”…

So I was wondering if you have any advice on longevity in the sport… What kept you going?

Skating is really hard – but, at the end of the day, I really love this sport and, as long as I feel like I can improve and get better, it’s easy for me to keep working.

That’s it – but I also had the luck to not have had really bad injuries in my skating career, so it was easier for me to keep continuing.

Obviously, you have little injuries, sometimes you have inflammation in your legs, but for the most part of my skating career, I was actually always healthy. So I never had to take a certain amount of time off because I was injured like other skaters, you know?

About that, I remember that many years ago, Mao Asada said on longevity the exact same thing: that she was lucky not to have had big injuries, and that she was always taking care of her body and doing everything that needed to be done in order to keep it injury-free.

It’s very difficult, because now you have those juniors, and they’re all so great, and they’re so good, they train so much and I almost feel like the moment when their bodies grow it’s so overused that they cannot deal with the amount of workload anymore.

And it’s sad to see how much they’re struggling – and I feel a problem is they have been from strong countries, and they always have younger ones who are pushing the sport….

But who are also pushing them out…

Yeah, exactly! And it’s very difficult, it’s challenging…

Like: take the example of the Polish girl, Ekaterina Kurakova.

She’s been really good as a junior, really good!, and then her body changed, she got older, she started struggling… And she was someone who, 4 years ago, would break 200 points and then, the last two or three years, she was struggling, if you really look at the competitions.

But she’s pushing herself through it right now, and I think you could already see it from last year that she was already climbing up.

And this year, she’s almost back to her new normal, to her new higher standards.

And you don’t see often someone pushing through anymore, because it’s too difficult to keep on competing.

And I think she’s already someone to look up to, because you can really see how she had to fight herself out of this and, to me, I admire something like that. I mean, it’s very difficult to do so, especially for smaller federations – it’s not easy.

You know, talking about smaller federations, someone even mentioned that your components would have been higher had you represented a different federation, and it is true…

Yeah…

In your case, everything that you do and all the results out there are yours, are purely yours, there’s no one or nothing actually working in your favor…

It’s difficult, but I stopped, years and years ago, I just stopped…

I mean, I decided I did it for myself – I do it for myself, and I do it for my satisfaction, and I’m not doing it for results.

Obviously, having a good result is always nice, but this is not the reason why I do it.

YES, JULIA WOULD LOVE TO GO TO A GRAND PRIX EVENT NEXT SEASON

Julia, I have something more to ask you – because among the things that people wrote after seeing you at the Olympics, there was this large group of comments like: “Julia Sauter Grand Prix let’s gooooo!”; “Julia Sauter you can’t possibly retire now, you are getting GP spots next seasons!!!”; “Give her a GP already!”

So I’m going to ask you this too: Would you wanna go to a Grand Prix event next season? Of course, you went to GP Wilson in Sheffield some years ago, but would you consider another one if you get the invite?

[very determined:] Yeah, yeah!

That’s the question I’m having right now, but it’s very hard to get one.

I already looked up at all the guidelines and it’s very frustraaaating [and you sense it in Julia’s voice:] I cannot work myself up in rankings that much more, because I don’t have a Grand Prix where I would have the chance to work harder.

So I’m not in the Top 24 there, then by seasons best I’m not in – I think the 24th place is almost 200 points up. It’s ridiculously high. Yeah, so I’m not in there, and then it depends…

And you have to end up between places 7 and 12 at the World Championship to get one guaranteed.

So all of those criteria, I don’t follow or I’m not in there, so I would have to hope for an invitation, and this is very hard if you’re from a very small country with no federation.

But if there was a possibility for this to happen, is there a particular Grand Prix event that you would like to attend for any particular reason?

Yes, Japan. I love Japan.

But, obviously, for me travelling to a bigger competition overseas is always special – it doesn’t matter if it’s the US, Canada or Japan. I will also feel honoured to take one in France or in Finland, and China sounds also exciting, I have never been there. But it’s very hard to get one, to get into that circle.

But especially for me now, it would be much easier – if I continue – to have a goal, to be in top shape right in the beginning of the season.

Because I always train alone in the States in the summer, so I think it would be easier to have a goal, in order to keep on continuing this workload.

We will see, I mean, there’s no decision made until June anyway, so we’ll see.

As for the Worlds approaching, I think you shouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself: you already had a dream season so far…

There’s pressure still, because you need to make the Final – but, yeah, I’m trying to work myself up there. Right now, I just take it one day at a time, I cannot go too far ahead.

It took me a few days…, but I think I’m on my good way now.

I think everyone is doing the exact same thing, because it’s so hard, for each and every skater out there, to find energy, find motivation for post-Olympics Worlds…

I’ll just take it as a challenge.

I mean, at the end of the day I’m really grateful that I can experience that.

People reacting to Julia’s performances at the Olympics:

“Julia Sauter ROU is becoming one of my favorite skaters. She’s had to fight for everything (Go Fund Me) and she delivers on Olympic ice. Just wow. Only one review on a spin, not a jump”.

“Julia is such a beautiful skater and I couldn’t be more happy for her that she’s had competitions like this and Europeans”

“So thrilled Julia Sauter got her EPIC OLYMPIC MOMENT just now in the FS!”

“How many times am I going to tear up today? Julia had the skate of a lifetime today. The smile thru the end of the program… The beautiful spins… The loving touch of the ice on her spiral… Divine”

“To deliver the finest performances of your life upon the grandest stage in the world – a dream we wish for every skater to fulfill”

“Julia Sauter is having such a great Olympics! Sauter-heads, we up!”

“What a beautiful moment for Julia Sauter. Congratulations to her, so well deserved”

“Julia deserves the whole world and more”

“The competition of her life, but make it the Olympics!!!”

“Julia Sauter’s free skate going straight into the Olympic moments TM”

“Shin, Gutmann, Sauter, Karhunen, GLENNN!!!!! ALL had me all in my feels! This women’s event SO FAR has been such a wonderful, cathartic palate cleanser”

“Really overjoyed for Julia Sauter in these Olympics. She broke her PB for all three scores. Seeing her ecstatic reactions is always a real treat. Congratulations, Julia!”

“Did Julia just do the best skate of her career? OMG that was glorious”

“The joy coming out Julia now”

“Julia Sauter having another free skate of her life at the Olympics, I’m going to cry happy tears”

“If she skated for a bigger federation her scores would be huuuuge”

“Julia Sauter is my goat”

“Julia Sauter is so clearly a skater who is doing this for herself and it’s beautiful to watch”

[Interview by Florentina Tone
All competition photos at 2026 Olympics by Danielle Earl
Other photos – from Julia Sauter’s archive, from Julia Sauter’s Instagram
Homepage and featured photo by Danielle Earl]

JULIA SAUTER’S JOURNEY as told by Inside Skating:

Get to know Romania’s Julia Sauter. A strong-willed, self-made skater

In focus: Julia Sauter and Ana Sofia Beschea, Romania’s skaters at 2024 Europeans

A year in the life of Julia Sauter. And her ultimate goal: earning a spot for Romania at 2026 Olympics

The Golden Hour. Julia Sauter is living her Olympic dream