NICOLE AND VICTORIA BUDDIE (Delta Eta-Adrian) Team USA Synchronized Skating Members
Nicole and Victoria Buddie are identical twin sisters from Chula Vista, California, who are used to doing most things together. From attending the same four-year college and joining the same Panhellenic organization (spoiler: it was Alpha Phi!) to competing alongside each other at the collegiate and semiprofessional levels for synchronized skating (aka “synchro”), these sisters always have each other’s back. These two have over 17 years of competitive figure skating experience at the regional, national and international levels, starting at the early age of 3 years old after their parents saw an ad for a free ice-skating class in their local newspaper. They represented the United States for five seasons with three different senior synchronized skating teams – Team del Sol, Adrian College and the Dearborn Crystallettes. Victoria and Nicole both competed on behalf of Team USA Synchronized Skating from 2015-2020. They share several synchronized skating accolades as teammates; they are both 2011 Intermediate National Pewter Medalist (Team del Sol), 2013 Intermediate National Champions (Team del Sol), 2016 International Gold Medalist (Team Del Sol-Trophy d'Ecosse), 2019 International Bronze medalist (Dearborn Crystallettes- Spring Cup), 2019 International Silver Medalist (Dearborn Crystallettes-Trophy d'Ecosse), 2019 and 2020 Senior National Bronze Medalist, Alternates for the 2019 Synchronized Skating World Championships and in 2020 they were assigned to compete in the inaugural World Synchronized Skating Challenger Series in Milan, Italy and Gothenburg, Sweden. Nicole is also a 2018 Collegiate National Silver Medalist (Adrian College) and Victoria is a 2018 International Gold Medalist (Adrian College-Trophy d'Ecosse). When it came to selecting a university to attend, the Buddie twins knew they wanted to continue synchronized skating while embracing the typical college experience of joining a sorority and being active on campus. This led them the Adrian College, a small liberal arts school in Adrian, Michigan, where they both earned Bachelor of Art degrees in Spanish and communication with minors in journalism. The sisters skated for Adrian College for two seasons, their freshman and sophomore years. Victoria skated for the senior team (Team USA), and Nicole the senior and collegiate teams. During their junior year, the twins transitioned to a more elite level of synchronized skating and joined the Crystallettes, commuting one and a half hours four times a week.
They did all of this while remaining full-time students at Adrian and active members of its Delta Eta chapter of Alpha Phi. Nicole and Victoria chose Adrian College because it made their dreams of competing in synchro on the senior and Team USA levels possible, but also because of its strong presence of Greek life despite being a relatively small institution. An older member of the synchronized skating team was also a member of a sorority on campus, and this motivated them to follow in her footsteps. “I feel like synchronized skating is very similar to sorority,” Nicole expressed. “You're surrounded by a ton of girls, and you know everything about them. So, we were already getting a similar experience, but we just wanted more.” This led the twins to Alpha Phi. “We wanted the full college experience,” Victoria added. “And our chapter was rooted in academic excellence. So many of our sisters had a 4.0 GPA. It was motivating to know you had made the cut academically. And everyone was involved on campus, like we were with synchro, so it was a good way to keep up with our studies and with campus life.” Moreover, both sisters said they thoroughly enjoyed the “small chapter experience,” as it allowed them to get to know each of their sisters personally and make
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