"Let it Be" Overseas!

Greetings from Austria,

As we prepare for our final day here in Salzburg, I would like to reflect on yesterday and competing our short program at the Mozart Cup.

DREAMer Dana Manson shows off her "Bun Flag"

We kicked off the morning with a fabulous European breakfast at our hotel and prepared for our official practice. Before leaving the hotel, we got the chance to review some video from our unofficial practice the previous day. As we headed off to the rink, I was sure to hand out American flag toothpicks to everyone for their hair in order to add just one extra piece of USA flare to our outfits. Arriving at the rink, we walked through the doors with extreme confidence and excitement for what we knew we were going to do out on that ice. After

warming up, we were led to a lock
er room that was not the most ideal of setups, but we were ready to make the best of it. We skated a very solid official practice, with our USA fan club cheering us on from high up in the stands. We were very proud of the way that we had just left the practice ice and felt extremely prepared to compete.

Visiting with former USA athlete Alex Boisselle, now competing for Germany

Back at the hotel, we got ready for the short program competition, twisting our hair, gluing on eyelashes, and sewing in brand new barrettes that we were very excited to wear to for the first time. We watched our official practice footage and an inspiring pump-up video made by one of our very own DREAMers, Ashleigh Ostin. We headed off to the rink eager to compete and accomplish our goal of leaving a strong impression on the not only the judges and technical panel, but the audience as a whole as well. As we stood rink-side, we could feel the energy of the crowd and could not wait to draw them in and engage them in our performance. With USA support on both sides of the arena, we skated a powerful short program to a rendition of “Let it Be”, each of us fully invested in every movement. We were very proud of our performance and the way that we had represented the U.S. through our skate. We also got the opportunity to watch the remainder of our division from the stands and cheer on California Gold, along with the U.S. junior teams, Skyliners and Saint Louis Synergy. With the short program competition behind us, we are sitting in 4^th place with a score of 59.02, behind 3 past World Champions, Marigold Ice Unity FIN, Rockettes FIN, and Nexxice CAN.

Today is a new day and we are ready to transform and “Suit Up” to perform our “Deck of Cards” themed program to an entirely new audience, skating lucky number 13! Please feel free to tune and support Team USA from home by watching the Mozart Cup live feed at http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1743329/events/2700693

More after the long program!

Love & Honor,

Ashley Mulhern

Team USA

Miami University Senior Team