 Saturday - the calm before the storm. Or is it? A day full of practices and getting bearings awaited our blogger on her first full day.
Notes from Saturday, Jan 20
(1/20/07) - Even though the beds at the Davenport Hotel are probably the best in the entire world, I slept really poorly, a combination of jet lag and a mind that wouldn’t shut down. An hour before the wake-up call, I gave up on the sleep and ordered room service because I didn’t know the next time I would see a meal. (Turns out it was 10 p.m. and was so bad that I couldn’t even eat it.) Then Daphne and I were off to the Spokane Arena to check out practices.
Our goal was to make it for junior free dance practice, and we were only a little late. On the way to the arena, we got to see some of downtown Spokane. Most noticeably, it was covered in snow. The other fact that couldn’t be missed was that the city is decorated like I have never seen before from a host city. Businesses have “Welcome Skaters!” banners and marquees. Walkways feature skater cutouts. A gazillion foot banner of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto decorate the front of the Spokane Arena. It’s very exciting to see a city so welcoming and thrilled for all of us to be here. Everyone is talking about skating. Even our taxi driver last night bragged that he had Alexander Johnson in his cab. Not many people know their novice men skaters. See photo of the three Alex's: Aiken, Johnson and Zahradnicek.
Over at the Spokane Arena, the security staff was apologetic about the bag searches. As long as they don’t tell me I have explosive material on my laptop, they can search all they want.
We got to see some of the backstage area, which is mostly set up already. The media room is big and airy, which is always nice. Multiple warm-up areas are being utilized by some of the junior dancers and novice men. Some stationary bikes are along one wall, with yoga mats on the floor next to them. In the next space, different teams work on choreography with their coaches.
I split with Daphne and head into the skaters’ entrance to the ice. I sat with the medical staff, getting to know them and answering their questions about the skaters. Many of the medics are students at Whitworth College, a Christian school in Spokane. They are studying to be athletic trainers. As part of their January semester, they actually have a class on these U.S. Championships. The students studied injuries that occur in skating, including the damage and injuries that can be caused by boots versus sneakers. Earlier this week, the students were taken to Eagles Ice Arena, where some of them put on skates for the first time. Part of their training was learning what it feels like to be on the ice—and to fall. They didn’t realize that beginning skaters learn the proper way to fall immediately upon taking lessons. One of the senior medical team then reviewed the possibly injuries that could occur by falling the wrong way.
While a very boring volunteer week rinkside would actually be the preferred way to spend these championships for the medical team, that wasn’t the case today. During the junior free dance run-through, Pilar Bosley and John Corona took a fall that wound up with both of them crashing into the boards. Two other times they hit the ice, very unusual for a practice session like this. John paid a visit to the medical room to get his knee checked but afterwards gave a big smile and said he would be fine.
Later in the day, novice ice dancer Anastasia Olson grabbed her blade in a spin, but ended up badly slicing four of her fingers at the connection to her palm. She came over to the boards dripping blood. After some first aid, she and partner Patrick Mays went back to practice, but Anastasia bled through her bandages and had to get fixed up again. My water bottle was grabbed in the name of cleaning the blood off the ice. The ice official came over to investigate, and he wound up taking a long-handled scraper to multiple sections to make sure it was clean.
Later in the practice rink at the Convention Center, I caught up with Anastasia to see how her hand was. She said it didn’t hurt too much. They used glue to seal up the wounds, but one of the fingers bled through that, so she would need more work on it before they skate again tomorrow. I told her about the cleaning of the ice that occurred and she was rather embarrassed about the whole thing but really glad they didn’t have to stop practice to resurface completely.
At the evening compulsory/original dance practice, another accident occurred. Samantha Tomarchio—who suffered a severe concussion over the summer—fell into the boards. Samantha stood up and was assisted off the ice and did not return. By the end of the last practice, I wasn’t able to find out how she was doing.
In addition to the dance practices, the novice singles skaters were over at the arena. Nearly every one who walked in behind me stopped and slowly looked up at the overwhelming site that is “Big Nationals.” Unlike previous years, novice finals will be held in the main arena, giving the youngest competitors the chance to skate on the same ice as Olympians. Although a few of the novice skaters had competed last year, the majority were rookies. Something I take for granted after all these years is HUGE for these teens. Most had looks on their faces that were a combination of awe, pride and fear. When Armin Mahbanoozadeh asked me what the platform to my right was, I told him it was for ESPN. Again, the look of “whoa!” made me smile.
This year’s group of novice men seems to have a great camaraderie and was very chatty and friendly. When I covered the U.S. Junior Championships a couple of years ago in Jamestown, N.Y., I met some of them as juvenile and intermediate skaters. Like 2004, they were charming and personable and great representatives of the depth of U.S. skating.
I didn’t have much time to see the novice ladies. I did, however, have the chance to sit down with Ksenia Makarova and her coach/mother Larisa Selezneva. Larisa and her husband, Oleg Makarov, were contemporaries of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov and were two-time European champions and the 1988 World and 1984 Olympic bronze medalists.
Both Ksenia and Larisa were warm and easy to talk with. Ksenia mentioned that flexibility does not come naturally to her, even though she loves spins. I had mentioned hearing Tatiana Droutchinina (World champion rhythmic gymnast and the wife of Artur Dmitriev) explain at an adult camp how she would work with Kyoko Ina, stretching her until she cried and then stretching her some more. Ksenia smiled. She has also worked with Tatiana, enduring the same tears in the effort to become a better skater. Larisa said it was difficult to balance being mother and coach, because the coach knows what needs to be done to be a better athlete, but the mother doesn’t like hearing her daughter cry. Ksenia felt the bad days were worth it because she loves skating.
So day one is complete and it’s time to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. to top |