Julia Franziska Sauter (married name: Sauter-Czarnik; born 18 June 1997) is a German-Romanian figure skater.[1][2] Representing Romania, she has won twelve senior international medals as well as nine Romanian national titles. She has reached the final segment at three World and four European Championships, with a top-ten result at three European Championships.
In 2019, while visiting the United States, she met and began dating American ice hockey player, Robbie Czarnik. Afterwards, Czarnik moved to Landshut, Germany to be with Sauter. They married in September 2021.[3][4]
In addition to figure skating, Sauter also worked as a kids-aid in a school, a part-time waitress, and as a figure skating coach at her training rink in Ravensburg to pay for her figure skating due to a lack of funding from the Romanian Figure Skating Federation.[4] In 2023, her club was able to provide her with funding, allowing her to quit her part-time jobs, although she continues to coach and choreograph at her rink.[5]
Sauter has expressed interest in becoming a full-time figure skating coach and choreographer after she retires from competitive figure skating.
Sauter began figure skating in 2002 at the age of four. Her childhood coaches were Diane Eisele and Silvia Jansson before Marius Negrea began coaching her in 2010 at the age of twelve.[4]
Sauter represented Germany at junior international events in 2010 and 2011.
She made the decision to represent Romania in 2011 at the age of fourteen due to not being invited to enter the elite group of figure skaters in Germany because at the time, she was unable to perform specific elements that were required of her. As a result, Sauter had to sit out of competitions for a whole year as is required when figure skaters switch countries. In March 2013, she made her first international appearance for Romania.[6][4] She competed at three consecutive World Junior Championships, from 2014 to 2016, but never made the cut for the free skate.[7]
At the 2019 European Championships in Minsk, Belarus, Sauter qualified to the final segment of an ISU Championship for the first time in her career. She went on to finish fourteenth overall.[7]
Sauter left longtime coach, Marius Negrea after deciding to move to from Ravensburg to Landshut, where her newlywed husband was living. She did not compete during the 2019–20 season, which she later cited was due to a lack of motivation, having achieved her dream of finishing in the top 30 at a World Championships the previous season as well as an ankle injury that kept her off the ice for six weeks. She also missed the 2020–21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing her from getting any ice time to train.
In October 2020, Sauter decided to return to coach, Marius Negrea and worked virtually with him until August 2021 when the ice rink in Ravensburg re-opened.[4] Prior to that, Sauter trained in Atlanta, Georgia from April to July, where her husband's parents live, and worked with Negrea virtually.[4]
Competing at the World Championships for the second time in her career, in Montpellier, France, Sauter qualified for the free skate after placing nineteenth in the short program. She came eighteenth in the free skate, moving up to eighteenth place overall.[7]
At the 2023 European Championships in Espoo, Finland, Sauter achieved a top ten finish for Romania, which for the first time would allow two Romanian woman to enter the next year.[8] She then went on to win a gold medal at the 2023 Bellu Memorial.[7]
Sauter set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the travel expenses to go to the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Japan.[9] At the World Championships, Sauter placed twenty-second in the short program and twentieth in the free skate, finishing twentieth overall.[7]
2023–24 season
In her first competition of the season, Sauter was sixth at the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial. She appeared at three other minor internationals, including a second consecutive silver medal at the EduSport Trophy.[7] Sauter was ill before the 2024 European Championships and was only able to resume training two weeks beforehand.[8] She came ninth overall.[10] This was the best result ever for a Romanian women's representative at the European Championships. Sauter said of her result that "It feels pretty good to have made the Top 10 again." and that she was pleased to be competing at the Championships with another Romanian woman.[8]
At the 2024 World Championships, Sauter came in twenty-seventh place with mistakes on two of her jumping passes in the short program, and she did not make the free skate.[11] The result came as a shock and deep disappointment to her, as she felt she was well prepared for the competition.[12]
Sauter went to the United States to train during the summer.[12] However, she began to struggle with panic attacks.[13] She also struggled to motivate herself after failing to make the free skate at the World Championships. Although her mental health improved by the end of the summer, she experienced severe inflammation in her shin in September and could not walk.[12]
In December, Sauter decided to part ways with longtime coach, Marius Negrea, and make Roxana Hartmann, who had previously mainly worked as her choreographer, her new head coach.[9] In addition, Sauter also began working with Christopher Boyadji as well as Simona Punga.[12] The following month, she competed at the 2025 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she placed seventh. This was the best-ever placement for a Romanian woman at the European Championships.[13]
Weeks before the 2025 World Championships, Sauter set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her and her coaches' travel expenses.[9] She also had issues with her application for Romanian citizenship.[12]
At the World Championships, Sauter placed sixteenth in the short program, which both qualified her for the free skate and won an Olympic quota for Romania. In the free skate, she dropped to nineteenth place overall. Following the event, Sauter shared that she was proud to have won the quota for Romania.[14]
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Romania (since 2012)
Germany (2010–12)
