Questrom Students Win Bronze at World Synchronized Skating Championships

Synchronized skaters Caitriona Curry ’26 and Jacob Galbraith ’25 are on a short three-week break after helping their team, the Haydenettes, the most decorated synchronized skating team in U.S. Figure Skating history, win the World Bronze Medal at the 2025 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland. For virtually 11+ months out of the year, the team trains relentlessly for the International Skating Union’s annual World Championships. The U.S. Haydenettes are back on the podium for the second year in a row. Last year, they won the Silver Medal at Worlds—the first World Medal for Team U.S.A. in synchronized skating in eight years.

This year, the Haydenettes gave a thrilling performance featuring music from The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, with shades of rich purple and maroon for their flowing costumes.

At this year’s World Championships, the Haydenettes competed against 20 teams from 16 countries. To even qualify, they had to perform at the top of their game at the U.S. Nationals, which featured seven of the best teams in the country—including a combined division. The team trains under coach Saga Krantz, who the skaters describe as a “creative mastermind.”

Caitriona has skated with the Haydenettes for four years and Jacob for three. Both are members of Team USA, which means they compete in ISU-sanctioned international competitions. Synchronized skating is not currently recognized as an Olympic sport, but Caitriona says their training mentality is exactly like preparing for the Games.

“Unfortunately, synchronized skating is not in the Olympics yet,” she explains. “However, part of being a Haydenette and being on Team USA is to highlight the talent and strength it takes to be a synchronized skater. In order to be added to the Olympics (hopefully 2034), synchronized skating needs to gain more mainstream media attention as well as funding and support from the IOC (International Olympic Committee).”

Caitriona and Jacob have participated in efforts to raise the sport’s visibility. The Haydenettes have performed at the World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden, Harvard’s Evening with Champions benefiting the Jimmy Fund, Skate America 2022, the Frog Pond and Bryant Park Tree Lightings, and were honored on the field at Fenway Park for their silver medal win in 2024. They’ve been featured on Good Morning America, ESPN, and local Boston news stations—all part of a collective campaign to increase exposure for the sport.

“One of our teammates was interviewed last year and said we don’t want to wait to make it to the Olympics to train like Olympians,” Caitriona adds. “Rather, this type of champion attitude and determination starts long before that. I think we try to hold ourselves to the highest standards of athleticism and be the best skaters we can be!”

Caitriona and Jacob, along with many of their teammates, relocated from all over the country to train at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA—the Haydenettes’ official home since 2020. The Hayden Synchro program originally started at the J.W. Hayden Recreation Center in Lexington, Massachusetts. Jacob, originally from Durham, NC, started skating at age 10 when his family took group lessons. His sister gravitated toward ice hockey and now plays for BU’s Women’s Club Hockey team. Jacob gravitated toward synchro—and his dad, who also took the lessons, opted out and now cheers from the stands.

Caitriona, from Pleasantville, NY, has been skating since she was just 13 months old. Her mother, a former figure skater and now a synchro coach, introduced her to the ice. Caitriona moved to Boston right after high school to join the Haydenettes. Both skaters originally enrolled in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences—Caitriona on a pre-law track and Jacob on a pre-med path—before transferring to Questrom.

“There’s a pretty large BU community in Hayden Synchro,” Caitriona notes. “Even if we’re not all on the same team, a lot of us share that common interest and it’s really cool.”

Synchronized skating involves 16 skaters performing complex shapes, choreographed lifts, and technical elements judged by a nine-member panel. Each team earns a technical score and a performance score, rated from -5 to +5. Outside of Worlds, teams participate in the ISU Challenger Series, where their placement in two international events contributes points toward their world standing.

Jacob says the bond among teammates is like no other: “Our teammates are basically our family members. We spend all of our time together. We push each other every day to be better skaters and better people.”

Caitriona agrees. “You don’t always know your new teammates at first—you may have skated with them back home, or maybe they’re brand new to your life. But we spend so much time together and work toward a really niche common interest that we get close, very fast. That’s a really cool aspect of synchro.”

She adds, “Another cool part of the relationship is that a lot of us are in college, but not all at the same ones. So we have similar yet different experiences. It’s really cool to all come to practice and talk about our lives outside of skating.”

As full-time Questrom students, Caitriona and Jacob say their professors have made a meaningful difference. “I’ve really found myself in Questrom and blossomed into my confidence,” Caitriona says. “Skating definitely helped with that, but my professors have put a lot of faith in me and my journey, especially this semester. I’ve just had a really amazing bunch of professors—Professor Sandra King, who was really into the skating and even planned to attend the World Exhibition at TD Garden, Professor Paul Piwko, and Professor Jennifer Mandolese. They’ve all been so supportive.”

Jacob also mentioned his accounting professor, Lynn Li, whose daughter figure skates. “She totally understood the schedule and was really supportive through Nationals and Worlds,” he says.

After their bronze-medal season, May marks a time of transition. Skaters get a short break, then meet incoming teammates and begin training again for the next cycle.

“We’ve been spending some time with teammates after Worlds just kind of celebrating and being in each other’s presence, because it’s weird to go from seeing them every day to nothing,” Caitriona says. “But it’s also been really nice to get caught up with my schoolwork and make good connections at BU. This is definitely the time for me to enrich myself in our school campus and culture since we have a little less skating. That’s been one of my priorities this month—and I’ve been happy with that.”

Parts of this article were optimized with the use of AI.

Interview by Katie Gauthier