Ice-skating wasn’t her first career choice, but with a little encouragement from her parents Noemi Bedo now has a job doing what she loves best
Noemi Bedo looks happy and settled in her surroundings at the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink, smiling broadly when she meets with Abu Dhabi Week. The young blonde Romanian is dressed perhaps rather inappropriately for outdoors, in trousers and a padded jacket, but entirely appropriately for her occupation.
Describing her role as her “dream job”, it’s perhaps no wonder that the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink assistant manager and head ice skating coach at the dedicated skating area is content. Despite an active and long working day, the former Olympic competitor says she wouldn’t dream of changing her job.
“Being an ice-skating coach I suppose is still a bit of a novelty here in the UAE,” she says with a smile.
“It’s an unusual job compared with your average nine to five, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Noemi runs us through one of the coolest jobs around, and what a typical day on – and off – the ice involves.
5.45am “I’m up and on the ice already,” she says, with a glimmer - rather than the tiredness we would expect - in her eyes.
“I don’t mind getting up early, it’s the life of an ice-skater to be honest. When you’re growing up with a career in ice-skating in mind, your whole life is about being on the ice.
“Although I didn’t actually choose to become an ice skater when I was growing up,” she admits.
“It was my parents’ idea. Winter sports are really big back home in Romania; whether it’s skiing, ice hockey or figure skating, it’s very important to us. I lived up in the mountains and it was the norm to take lessons in one of those winter sports,” she explains.
“My parents decided I should practice one of the sports, and so at the age of five or six, I was taken to try out for ice skating.
“So that’s how I got used to early mornings; I was up and ice skating from 6am as a child. I would get up and skate, go to school, and then go skating again.”
It’s a slightly different story for Noemi these days; rather than being taught, she’s now the teacher.
“I was 20 when I decided to go into coaching. I had suffered a knee injury and underwent an operation. I managed to get back into skating and even won a competition, but there is a lot of politics in the sporting world. I decided I’d had enough,” she says without a hint of regret.
“I began coaching and at one point taught the national team in Romania. It was a great experience, being on the other side of the sport; once I had been competing in the junior Olympics, now I was teaching the skill to others.”
And while the children at Abu Dhabi Ice Rink may not be to Olympian standard yet, Noemi enjoys every second of coaching.
“Some of the kids are really serious about skating so they will come before school, which is part of the reason I start my day so early. It’s thoroughly worth it though, seeing the students develop.”
8.30am Noemi has already spent a few hours on the ice, so she takes off her skates and cherishes warming up with a hot drink before heading back out on to the ice.
“I enjoy the chance to meet up with some skaters and enjoy a coffee or hot chocolate and some breakfast.”
9.30am Ice skates back on, Noemi is back out onto the rink to teach everyone from hobbyist mums, to young, keen skaters.
“The mentality is changing here now; ice skating is becoming a sport, rather than just a hobby. Part of my role is helping with that shift, turning it into a sport and getting skaters addicted to it.
“I started with about ten to 15 kids, and now I have a team of four coaches with more than 80 students of all ages and they come every week; they’re very dedicated, which makes it a pleasure to teach.”
Noemi also admits that when she does get a moment free from lessons, she likes to take to the ice for herself.
“For me personally, I forget everything when I’m out on the ice. I’m getting a little out of shape now – but I love to practice the lay-back spin; I get dizzy though!”
12pm Noemi takes time to stop for lunch before settling down to plan lessons, teach some more on the ice, and prepare for the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink’s regular performances.
“I love preparing for our winter shows,” she enthuses. “We get a huge positive response from the public, and our students love to get involved too.
“There’s a lot to plan. Preparing for a show take a good two months of preparation, with lots of hours put in. And then it takes a good ten weeks for the students to learn,” she says.
Following on from the success of their Ice Rink’s last show, ‘Alice in Cartoonland’, Noemi is already keen to come up with ideas for the next show.
“I love creating a story and thinking of a theme that will work well for all audiences. I choose everything from the costumes to the music and plan the choreography in the shows. I love to add comic elements that entertain adults as well as children; I find parody works very well. And fairy tales are always popular, but I like to create a little twist,” she adds.
5pm Coaching and creative tasks for the day complete, Noemi kicks off her skating boots and changes for dancing shoes instead.
“We have the ice rink for skating until 5pm, before ice hockey begins and we have to be off the ice. This is my cue to finish for the day,” she says with a smile.
“I love to dance so I like to try salsa lessons in Abu Dhabi after work – I’m always trying to drag one of the other members of the Zayed Sports City team to join me!” she says.
Final thoughts “I have lived in the UAE for five years now and I love every part of the experience. I love the kids I work with and seeing the students develop; I love my job!”
And if she wasn’t teaching skating?
“Despite not having chosen this career for myself originally, I do honestly love what I do. I have a lot of fun and love coming to work
here everyday.
“I suppose if I hadn’t have become an ice skater, I would have maybe gone into the arts; dance is a passion of mine. It would certainly have had to have been something creative – perhaps art or travel, or maybe your job!” she jokes.
We can safely say however, that we’re perhaps better off not swapping shoes. And hers seem to fit her perfectly, anyway.
Charlie Kennedy
