If you know anything about synchronized skating in the United States, you know about the Haydenettes.
With 30 U.S. championships and five World Championship bronze medals, they are by far the most decorated synchro program in U.S. history.
And at the helm for 16 of those U.S. championships and all five world medals has been Saga Krantz.
Krantz is from Finland, which as a nation has won the most World Synchronized Skating Championship medals with 29 (Canada, in second place, has 14), so perhaps her success with Hayden shouldn't come as a surprise. But as she tells it, it was not that simple.
Krantz started her skating career as a singles skater, back when synchro was a new discipline and seen more as a group hobby. But when her singles career didn't go where it needed to, Krantz switched to synchro and fell in love with how it incorporated her musical background – she played violin and piano in a conservatory until her late teens.
"I didn't want to give up on skating, so for me, the choice was to continue to skate synchro, which was a lot less time at the time, and be able to continue also my music studies," Krantz said. "I've always felt that music and skating is a perfect match together. I obviously love skating – you can't do it for this many years if you don't have a full heart with it. I enjoyed it because it was more similar to maybe ice dance, that you're moving to the music."
Krantz thrived in a team setting. Coming from a very small town, she was on the ice with most of her off-ice best friends.
"The team aspect is something that you either love it or it's not for you, and I call myself a people person," she said. "I love to laugh with people. I love to share my ups and downs with others. And I've always liked the working together and being able to share the joys and the downs and the process of coming up with something with others."
Krantz's first coaching experience was as an assistant for her coach when she was 14. As she got older, she slowly began investing more and more time into it. In her early 20s, she decided she could always return to her college studies, but she had to take advantage of her skating opportunities now.
She coached Helsingin Taitoluisteluklubi in Helsinki, Finland, for four years before the opportunity with the Haydenettes came along.
"I was like, 'I'll give it a try, and if I like it, I'll stay, or if they like me, I'll stay,'" Krantz said before laughing. "So it's been 19 years now. It worked out. It was supposed to be a, 'Let's just see how it goes.'"
Krantz moved to Boston for the job in 2005, taking on a significant amount of pressure when she assumed leadership of the U.S.'s synchronized skating dynasty.
That also happened to coincide with the new ISU judging system being put in place.
"I almost consider that it was a blessing, because everything changed completely for everybody," Krantz said. "Hayden got a new coach, but they got a new judging system at the same time, with new rules and everything. So I've been able to grow with the organization – and it was a very successful organization – but at the same time, you were facing a completely new system of everything, so I was able to kind of make my own way at the same time, but not without making mistakes. But I was also surrounded by a really nice club who was very supportive."
Since then, Krantz's record with the Haydenettes has been nearly unblemished, with just two silver U.S. medals coming in 2006 and 2009. The team won its World bronze medals in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016, also winning the free skate in 2016 to receive a small gold medal. But with up to 50% turnover possible each season, Krantz says that past results are always just that: firmly in the past.
"When you get 50% new skaters, sometimes even more than that, you can never repeat what you've done in the past," Krantz said. "Your coaching cannot be the same. Your drills cannot be the same. Your programs cannot look the same. So you have to start completely fresh every single year. And I put a lot of time in trying to get to know my skaters, just so that I know what they are capable of doing or what I want them to push for. I've always also had big dreams about the future, so it's easy to challenge the team in a new way every single year. It's not easy, but that's my goal. Past is past, and now let's start fresh and new and let's see what else we can do with the sport."
Among Krantz's goals are to witness her team skate a once-in-a-lifetime program that leaves her speechless, and for synchro to earn a spot on the Olympic program.
But while she's proud of all the medals and accomplishments, that's not what drives her to get on the ice with her team each day.
"My biggest accomplishments are skaters, when they're done with skating, they see me as a role model or a friend," she said, her voice clogged with emotion. "Somebody who taught them life lessons and how to be a good person outside. So those are my biggest ones, and that's a really hard job sometimes, because the world has changed a lot. So it's more of the everyday messaging – that is the most important thing. Not so much the medals."
