Team Braemar in Milan

Day 5: Team Braemar woke up at 6am excited and ready to go! We all got ready, had a quick (and delicious!) breakfast, and then it was off to the competition rink for official short program practice. We warmed up in the sunny outdoors, which was nice with all the fresh air and space. We then went into locker room #5 to get ready for our official practice. Official was great and steady, leaving us confident for the competition later that night. 

We returned to the hotel to start makeup, and then we had absolutely amazing spaghetti! Following lunch, we continued with our team makeup. Once everyone was finished, Team Braemar was transformed into Cruella! And we were off to the rink! Unfortunately, the weather became a little overcast, so we could not really warm up outside, but it turned out that warming up inside was just fine! We became very energized by our warm up as we were focused in on our team and our program. It was then off to the locker room.

We all got ready, making sure our skates felt good and sliding on our long red gloves. We were ready to go, and feeling the benefits of all the run-throughs of our programs at home.  We were no longer nervous because we had done our short program so many times. We were just excited to go out and perform for the audience and judges. We had a strong short that seemed to get stronger as it went on. After our skate, waiting in the kiss-and-cry felt like forever! We finally received our scores, which was a total of 48.30 points! We were so happy-it was the highest short program score we had received all season! We got back to the hotel, had a once again delicious dinner, quick floor practice and we were off to bed, antsy to skate our long program the next day. We are feeling ready and prepared for the long program!

Ciao Bella!

Sage Kelner & Jillian Christie

Captains for Team Braemar Junior

Buon San Valentino (Happy Valentine’s Day) from the Hockettes!

We’ve had a jam packed first two days, but we are soaking up the Italian culture and eating lots of tasty food! We arrived in Milan on Thursday, toured the city, saw the beautiful Duomo, and took lots of pictures. We skated a short unofficial practice and got used to the ice. The rink is amazing, and it has an incredible atmosphere that we are looking forward to compete in. After we skated, we went back to the hotel to eat dinner and get some sleep for the next busy day.

To kick off our day we started with an unofficial practice at eight, and received valentines from our loving parents. We then went on a forty-five minute bus ride to Lake Como! As soon as we got there we thought it would be fun to do a little off-ice practice of our program in the city square. With the background of the lake, we had lots of locals watching us run through our short program. After we finished they all clapped and asked what we did, and where we were from. We then boarded the boat and got to see the views of Lake Como and the Swiss Alps. It was one of the most beautiful cities we have ever seen! We did a little shopping, ate a great lunch, and came back for the Team USA dinner.

We started off our dinner with playing a couple games to get to know each other as Team USA. We enjoyed our dinner and talking to the other U.S. teams. One of our favorite parts about international competitions is being able to talk to teams from all over the world. We loved interacting with all of the other skaters. We are so excited to represent Team USA tomorrow as the competition begins! We hope that all of Team USA has great skates and an incredible experience here at the Spring Cup!

 

Love,

Lindsey Maynard and Maddie Shipman from Hockettes Junior

The Red, White and Blue

I am writing to you after returning once again from one of the most incredible competitions held in the Synchronized Skating community, the French Cup! This year was extra special as the competition celebrated its 20^th anniversary. Spending time around those who made the competition come to life, it was clear what a special sport La Patinage Synchronis has truly become.

               

Before the competition began all of the athletes marched through the streets of Rouen following the flag of their country, just as my fellow dreamer Ashely Tomich described earlier.  This parade was no little event. There were local citizens waving from shops and windows as we weaved through the streets chanting for our countries. What stood out was a group of young French citizens who actually followed the United States team, chanting alongside us  “USA, USA”!

               

After having a blast at the parade it was time to get to business. The next two days were filled with competition at the novice, junior and senior levels. The junior and senior competition each had over 15 teams competing! We took the ice for our short program Friday night, bringing some spice with our “Belly dancing Evolution” program. We were very pleased with our skate and earned a season best score of 67 points.

               

Saturday night was the long program competition. After preparing to skate we were taken to a small room next to the rink where the roar of the crowd could already be heard. When we began to walk through the swinging doors, the rink came alive. There was not an empty seat in the arena. Even the stairs were filled with people hoping to get a look at the ice. As we lined up, removing our guards we could already hear the chants, “USA, USA, USA”! Absolutely nothing could beat the surge of energy that came from hearing “Next to the ice, representing the United States of America, The Haydenettes”! In that moment there was a wave of emotion and an unexplainable high. It was a moment worth all the hard work, dedication and sacrifice. And after that moment, we got to do what we love most, skate.

               

Overall we ended the competition feeling very happy with both of our skates. The level of competition is constantly growing in our sport, challenging us all to push ourselves even further.  We can’t wait to get back to the rink and continue working toward our end of the season goals!

               

Keep on Dreamin’-

Lindsay

Au Revoir, la France! Recap on Our French Cup Experience

What an honor it was to be offered the privilege of being a part of the 20th French Cup Synchronized Skating Competition!  The amazing week started on Tuesday when we landed at the Paris-de Gaulle Airport.  Our tour guide, Desiree, led us to our bus and took us on our tour of Paris. The first stop of the day was lunch at the Hard Rock Café-Paris. We were then shown many beautiful historical monuments like the Arc De Triomphe, the Notre Dame, the Palais de Justice-Paris, the Lock Bridge, and many more.  Our favorite part of the tour was when we had the opportunity to not only see the EiffelTower, but to also be able to go to the very top.  The beautiful panoramic views of the “most romantic city in the world” were breathtaking.  Soon after our exploration of the Eiffel Tower, Desiree took us to shop at one of the most famous streets in the world; the Champs Elysee.  Before we knew it, we were loading our bus with shopping bags in one hand and a quick Parisian dinner in the other.  It was time to continue to Rouen.

As Wednesday arrived, we headed down to the lobby for a nice team breakfast.  Soon after, we were off to the competition rink for our first practice.  It was really nice to be able to get familiar with the ice and our surroundings.  We were really happy with what we had put out there especially after an eight-hour flight and a long day of touring.  Dinnertime quickly approached and we went to our favorite pizzeria, Pizza Pai, where we also celebrated a teammate's birthday.  We surprised her with a cute card and some really good cake.  It was a fun night. 

Wednesday quickly blended into Thursday and we were up at breakfast and quickly at the rink for the next practice.  With another solid practice under our feet, we were feeling very confident in what we had to offer.  We were so excited for the competition to finally begin.  With a two-hour break, we headed back into the city of Rouen for a quick lunch and some more exploration and shopping time.  We had another successful practice that same day that left us feeling better than we did at our earlier practice.  It was nice to hear our coach, Holly, telling us how proud she was of our consistency and teamwork.  With those last practices under our belt before competition, it was time for the competitor’s parade.  It was exciting to walk the streets of Rouen with all the other competitors from different countries around the world.  It ended with a fun flashmob in front of the Palais de Justice-Rouen.  It was a blast! When that was finishing up, Katilyn and I made our way into the building for the draw ceremony with Holly.  After the welcoming speeches, the ceremony began and we found ourselves walking up to this adorable little macaroon stand where we picked a random blue macaroon. The number we’d be skating was on the bottom.  We were ecstatic that we picked twelfth to skate in the short.   We then joined our team at dinner and told them the news about the skating order for the short program.

Competition day quickly snuck up on us and we were boarding the bus for our official practice.  We met up with our team leader, Rick Perez, our team doctor, Carrie, and helping hand, Lois Long, who all gave us encouraging speeches.  Our official practice left us with positive vibes and feelings of readiness and confidence.  We were eager to show everyone a great short program.  We returned to the hotel for rest time, a quick lunch, and then got ready for the competition.  When the primping was finished, we put on our beautiful dresses and hit the road.  We took the ice and the atmosphere was incredible.  It was filled with school children, families, teams, and other spectators.  The two minutes and fifty seconds flew by and before we knew it, we were in the kiss and cry receiving our scores.  We were extremely pleased with our performance and couldn’t wait to show everyone our free skate. The long day ended with a quick dinner back at the hotel and everyone was so happy to get to bed.

Saturday was more or less the same as Friday.  We woke up and went to official practice after our breakfast.  With a quick warm-up, we were lacing our skates for our last practice in France.  Although it was not a perfect practice, we felt good about saving our best performance for later that night.  Like Friday, we arrived back at the hotel for some rest time and a quick lunch.  It was then time to primp for our unique long program.  With our crazy makeup and zig-zag parts, we walked out of the hotel to our bus.  It was time to take the opportunity to show everyone how much we had improved.  While we still did not have a perfect skate, we were incredibly proud that we had two clean skates, and overall, a successful week.  As the competition ended, we ended the day with a quick celebration with our families at dinner.  It was nice to see them after the long week. 

Congratulations to all the teams who competed this week, it was truly a great competition!  We were so thrilled that we were able to compete with some of the best teams in the world.  We want to thank Rick Perez, Lois Long, Cathy Dalton, Carrie (our awesome team doctor), our coaches, managers, and families for all of their support and love.  The Crystallettes are proud of all the immense work everyone has put forward and we cannot wait until the next competition.  Next stop, NATIONALS!!! Can’t wait to see everyone!

Au Revoir,

Sharon and Katilyn