About me

I'm Sarah van Berkel (-Meier), former figure skater and now self-employed in sports communication. I discovered my love for ice skating at an early age. At the age of two, I stood on the ice for the first time, and when I was four years old, I attended the children's course. My own memories of this have faded, but my parents' stories and various photographs always bring them back to life. My whole family is crazy about ice sports. My sister became Swiss champion twice with her synchronized skating team, the «Starlight Team», and took part in various World Championships. My aunt Eva Fehr was my coach, my mother is an international judge. My father and my uncle played ice hockey, my two cousins still do.  

In childhood and adolescence sport was a hobby, where the focus was on fun and not on performance. However, the idea of an performance-driven approach developed more and more, so I tried it as a professional skater after my Matura. The highlights of my career include eight Swiss Championship titles, three participations at the Olympic Games and two European Championship silver medals. The first of these in 2007 I won as the first Swiss woman in 26 years. I saved the best for last though: At the last competition of my career, I unexpectedly won the European Championship title in front of my home crowd in Bern, thus ending my career at its peak.

After that, I skated in ice shows in Europe and Asia for years, graduated from the Ringier School of Journalism and worked as a sports editor at Schweizer Illustrierte. Today, I am married to the former triathlete Jan van Berkel and a mother of two sons. I work in sports communications, as an expert in figure skating for Swiss TV SRF and occasionally as a coach on the ice. I am also involved as an ambassador for various charity organizations.