Local skaters say Julia Sauter, a national champion in Romania, had practiced trained for the past few years in both Alpharetta and Duluth.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — For Georgia, the Winter Olympics pretty much revolve around one person: Champion local bobsledder Elana Meyers-Taylor.
But on Friday during the Opening Ceremony at Milan-Cortina, metro Atlanta’s tight-knit figure skating community will have another athlete to keep their eyes on.
Locals say a flag-bearer for Romania, Julia Sauter, has trained the past few years around here: Both at The Cooler in Alpharetta, before it shut down, and off and on at the Atlanta IceForum in Duluth.
Her husband is hockey player Robbie Czarnik, and according to Inside Skating her connection to Georgia is that his Czarnik’s parents live here.
Germany-born Sauter, 28, has won gold in Romani’s national championships singles competition nine times. She’s also finished in the top 20 in the World Championships on three occasions and in the top 10 in the European Championships three times.
Sauter is one of seven flag-bearers for Romania at the 2026 Winter Games. On Thursday she posted a video from the Olympic Village to her Instagram account.
“Can’t wait for my Olympic journey to start,” she also wrote earlier this week.
When she qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics, she wrote she was “incredibly grateful and blessed to have reached my goal to qualify an Olympic Spot for Team Romania.”
“This has been a very stressful couple weeks leading up to this and I would have not made it without the right people by my side,” Sauter wrote. “I learned so much this season and I cannot wait to start a full season with the great people around me.”