Sports
Barr sisters provide unusual family vacation

Apr 3, 2008

Meghan and Mollie Barr are not only sisters, but talented figure skaters as well.

The Ridgefield duo had one more thing in common last month, however, when they both competed in an international synchronized skating event for the first time in Croatia.

In fact, they both made it there on different teams, 15-year-old Meghan with the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team out of Westchester, N.Y., and Mollie, 19, as a member of the skating team at Miami University in Ohio, where she’s a freshman.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough for the Barr family, the two sisters finished one-two at the seventh annual Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy, which was held in Zagreb, Croatia, March 14-15.

What was a surprise, however, was the outcome as the Skyliners upset favored Miami as well as outscoring teams from Australia and Croatia.

“It was really exciting,” Meghan, a sophomore at Ridgefield High School said. “We went in there thinking about getting second place, but when our coach told us we finished first we all went crazy. It’s something we never expected to happen.”

Why should they have? After all, Miami of Ohio had defeated the Skyliners in all of their previous meetings, so why would this one turn out any differently?

“When we got off the ice after we skated, we all thought we had a good performance,” Meghan said. “But we still thought we were going to get second because Miami always skates better than us.”

Not this time, though, as the Skyliners won the gold medal while Miami captured the silver.

“We had beaten them every time before,” Mollie said, “so it was like a shock when we lost to them.”

Synchronized skating consists of 12 to 20 athletes skating on ice at one time, moving as one flowing unit at high speeds while incorporating skating skills, speed, and footwork during a program set to music.

The Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team was started in 2001 and quickly earned the reputation as one of the top synchronized skating organizations in the country. Drawing figure skaters from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, the Skyliners have five teams, or “lines,” ranging from six to 18 years of age at the beginner, preliminary, juvenile, novice and junior levels.

The junior team, with 20 girls ages 14-18, finished sixth in the nation last year, and as a result the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) awarded the Skyliners a bid to their first international competition, the one in Croatia three weeks ago.

The irony in all this is that Mollie Barr, a 2007 graduate of Ridgefield High, was a member of last year’s Skyliners team that earned the international bid. But by turning 19, she was done competing with the Skyliners program and wasn’t going to be able to be part of their trip to Croatia.

But Meghan, who’s captain of the nationally ranked Novice team, and who moved up to the junior team this year, would be making the trip.

So would her parents, Charley and Susan Barr, her three brothers and another older sister. Everyone except Mollie. Or so they thought.

“Originally I couldn’t go, but everyone else in my family was going to go to watch Meghan,” Mollie said. “So I was kinda bummed out because I was on the Skyliners team last year that got the bid, but I wasn’t able to go with them this year.

“But then my college team also qualified and was going to go Croatia so it was cool.”

There was no guarantee, either, that Mollie and Meghan would both go to the same event. The USFSA assigns teams that qualify to different international events, but it just so happened the Skyliners and Miami of Ohio were both assigned to Croatia.

That’s when this became a family vacation that even the Griswolds would be envious of.

“Mollie and I made jokes about it all the time about who was going to win votes from all our siblings,” Meghan said.

“The whole thing was kind of funny,” Mollie agreed. “We were thinking of ways to bribe the rest of our family to see who they would root for. All my brothers and my sister really got into it.”

As it turned out, it was a win-win situation for the Barr family.

“I’ve been competing for a while and that was my first international event,” Mollie, who’s been skating for 13 years, pointed out. “So it was a big deal and it was real special to be there.”

Competing against her sister and her former team just made it more special.

“Actually, Meghan and I have never been on the same team,” Mollie said. “She was always on the team below me.”

“I was always younger,” added Meghan, who’s been involved in figure skating for 11 years, since she was four. “We were both happy to be there together.”

And for once, it was Meghan who won the family bragging rights.

“Mollie beat me in all the other competitions during the season,” she said. “So it was nice for a change to get a chance to beat her instead.”

Performing to the music of Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary,” the Skyliners won the fans and the judges en route to their first-place showing.

“Proud Mary is a great song to skate to and it really pumps you up,” Meghan said. “It got the crowd going, too. You always want to draw the audience in.”

It worked, and when it was over and the Skyliners were announced as the winner, one of the first to congratulate Meghan was her sister.

“I know she was upset when they didn’t win, but she came up to me right away and told me how happy she was for me,” Meghan said. “She said we deserved it.”

“I was on that team and I know how hard they all worked, the skaters and the coaches, so there was no bitterness,” Mollie said. “I thought it was great my little sister got the gold medal.”

She wasn’t the only one.

“It was great having the whole family there,” Meghan said. “I could hear them cheering from the stands when I was on the ice. It was a lot of fun.”

“I had very mixed emotions,” Susan Barr, a former skater herself and one of the Team Moms for the Skyliners said. “We didn’t expect the Skyliners to win, so we were just hoping to finish first and second. But then when they won, I was in the locker room and everyone was so happy they started crying. Then I realized Mollie was in the next locker room and everyone in there was crying, too, because they didn’t win.

“The most emotional moment for me, though, was seeing both of them up on the podium with medals around their necks. Then when they raised the American flag and played the National Anthem, it was amazing.”

And it was one family vacation the Barr family won’t forget.


© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers