I've talked about this phenomenon before, but in Pokemon there typically exists a scale determining what types you'll find among the gym leaders. Early gym leaders often have bad types such as Rock or Bug, while the Dragon experts are reserved for the 8th and final slot.

Ice is one of those types that only appears near the end. The earliest Ice gym leader, Melody from Galar, is still the 6th gym leader you'll face in that region.

Sinnoh also has one of these freezing cold lunatics, and her name is Candice.

Candice is a young girl who has become the gym leader of Snowpoint City, way up north in the Sinnoh Region. She hands players the Icicle Badge upon her defeat, allowing the use of the HM for Rock Climb.

Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl

Candice can be challenged right after the player makes it to Snowpoint City. Her gym design is really fun, you get to slide across ice and plow right through big snowball obstacles. With enough speed you can even slide up ramps!

In Diamond and Pearl, Candice is one of the victims of the Sinnoh Dex effect. Essentially Sinnoh is famous for its many cross generational evolutions to older Pokemon, such as Tangrowth and Magmortar. As a result a large portion of the newly introduced Pokemon belong to this group, as well as Sinnoh having the largest pool of legendaries at that time, meaning there aren't as many 'regular' Sinnoh Pokemon. Due to the lack of variety, a lot of type experts are forced to use Pokemon that don't even share that type and only somewhat thematically have something to do with it.

Candice utilizes a Hail strategy, common for Ice experts. She has four Pokemon, leading with a Snover, a Grass/Ice Pokemon new to Sinnoh. Cool! It has the Snow Warning ability, automatically setting up Hail upon entering the battle. It's permanent as well, unless you get rid of it by using something like Sunny Day. She also uses Sneasel, a fast but frail Ice/Dark attacker. Her next Pokemon, however, is a Medicham? It's a Fighting/Psychic type Pokemon.... I assume this is in reference to monks or martial artists meditating in freezing temperatures outside, so I guess it fits? There is a big temple in the city to be fair. Candice's signature Pokemon is Abomasnow (not Obamasnow), the evolution of Snover. It's strong but any fire move sends it to the shadow realm. Candice uses the same team in the remakes, albeit with better movesets and held items.

They really gave her a makeover in Platinum though. She keeps the Sneasel, now leading with it, and the Abomasnow. Though it's no longer her signature Pokemon! The other two are replaced with a Piloswine, which for some reason hasn't evolved to its new Sinnoh evolution..., and her new ace Froslass! This is a scary Ice/Ghost type Pokemon that becomes almost untouchable in Hail due to its Snow Cloak plus Double Team strategy. Meanwhile it fires off Blizzards that will never miss!

Candice can be rematched in Platinum and the remakes. Her two pre-evolutions, Sneasel and Piloswine, evolve to their new Sinnoh evolutions Weavile and Mamoswine respectively. Neat! They are some of the most powerful attackers in the game, so be careful. The other two stay the same, and Candice adds the new Ice-type evolution of Eevee, Glaceon, to her party! It's fun to see a gym leader use an Eeveelution.

Pokemon Black 2, White 2
Candice can be fought at the Pokemon World Tournament, alongside her fellow Sinnoh Gym Leaders. She can be challenged in the Sinnoh Leaders and Type Experts challenges. She uses a lot of her old Pokemon, on top of the new addition Glalie. Not going to lie, a bit underwhelming with the cool new Ice types added in Unova.

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Candice does not appear in any main line games beyond this point.

I do really enjoy Candice as a gym leader. Most Ice type experts are very stoic and 'cold', which makes sense thematically, so I like having a warm and happy girl represent the type instead.

Candice has a tight friendship with Fighting gym leader Maylene, even inviting the latter to join her for a training session in Snowpoint City. Maylene speaks very highly of Candice when approached by the player.

Candice also has some interests outside of Pokemon battles such as romance. She shares this with her friend Maylene, and I enjoy seeing two young girls actually act their age. Most characters in Pokemon are all about battling, so it instantly makes them more realistic and relatable. I hope we see a cameo of her in the future!