Tuscon Invitational Figure Skating Competition 2002

On March 1^st Jana, Marica, Andrea and I drove together to Tucson, Arizona to skate at the Tucson Invititational Figure Skating Competition. Our events were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday so we drove down Friday night to check into the hotel and get all the practice ice worked out.

Marcia, Andrea and I shared a room and although we had some "key" problems on Friday night because the key machine did not work and we had to call a bellman every time we left the room for him to let us back in it was great fun.

On Saturday, Marcia and I had our first competition at 3:55 p.m. This was our Freestyle (my Babylon 5 routine). I had a great practice at 7 a.m. in the morning and the ice was great. I felt really good until I saw the draw. I would be first on the ice in our group and that made me really nervous. Andrea and Jana were great in trying to calm me down and help me with my hair etc. But I was not able to shake the nervousness at all. I did OK on the warm up – but my heart was still pounding really hard. When one is the first one to skate you can’t use the whole 5-minute warm up, because you don’t want to get too tired. So here I was, trying to breath and calm down. When they called my name I skated out and did a respectable job with only a minor wobble on my spin. I was so relieved when I was done that the tears just started flowing once I was off the ice and the tension left my body. After that I was fine and just enjoyed the rest of the competition cheering on Marcia and the other teammates from the Skating Club of Phoenix.

To all of our excitement Marcia won this event and I placed 4^th (which gave me a medal as well – they usually award medals from 1^st through 4^th place at these competitions).

I am on the bottom with the turqoise dress

We then went to have our picture taken and then left to go to the Hotel to change and go out to Dinner. No big celebration yet since we all still had more competitions on Sunday and a 5:15 a.m. practice.

It was really hard to sleep that night, I kept skating my Artistic program over and over and over again in my mind. I could not stop – that was really annoying. I think I probably just got about 3 hours of sleep when the alarm went off at 4 a.m. The 5:15 a.m. practice went very well though and I went off the ice a little earlier because I had to get ready for my competition at seven. Again Andrea and Jana helped me with my hair (we used a whole can of glitter spray that weekend – LOL) and I was ready to debut my "Moulin Rouge" artistic routine to Nicole Kidman’s "Diamonds are a girl’s best Friend".

Before my Program – all ready to go!

This time I was to skate last in my group and I was very calm. We had one male skater in our group since there are so few adult male skaters that do Artistic programs that they put us all in one group if necessary. When I skate to my starting pose I smiled and looked the judges straight in the eye. Most of them smiled back, I thought that was really cool. Once I started to skate I just heard the girls scream and cheer and I got so excited that I messed up my half-flip/half-flip/half-flip combination (I only did two) but was able to cover it well. I was smiling at the judges and the audience and really sold the program – it was so much fun. The whole experience doing this routine was much different than the day before. When I got off the ice everybody was excited and many people that I walked past commented how much they enjoyed my performance and how good I looked out there… and I did not even know these people. That was a first time that I experienced this from total strangers. And while I was telling one of the coaches about the people just coming up to me, another little girl approached me and said "Your Routine was great" so the coach and I both had to laugh because it was exactly what I was telling her.

At that time I did not know the results yet and it really didn’t matter – I knew no matter what place I would get, I had done what I came for, to have fun and to get the audience involved. It took almost 30 minutes for the results to be posted although we were the first competition of the day. Andrea and I were standing there waiting for the official to post the piece of paper and when they finally taped it to the wall I saw my name all the way on the top. Andrea and I screamed, and then hugged and I started to cry (yes – lot’s of happy tears this weekend LOL). I could not believe that I really had won the Gold Medal.

One of Jana’s "rules" as a coach is that the first time one of her students wins first place she buys flowers for them. So just as for Marcia the day before Jana went off to buy flowers for me.

On top of the podium. Can you see
the German Flag in my flowers ;-)

Yes I really scanned my medal, isn’t it cool?
Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

Andrea and Marcia also competed in the Compulsory Event where Marcia placed first and Andrea second.

Marcia, Jana, myself and Andrea right before Andrea’s Artistic Competition

Then it was time for the debut of Andrea’s Artistic Dramatic program. This was Andrea’s first competition and just as she had helped me to get ready, I did her make-up and Jana helped her with her hair. Andrea was the second person to skate in her group and she did an awesome job. Her Husband and kids were there as well to cheer her on and when she got off the ice her husband came over and gave her flowers. Now the waiting started again and it took them almost as long as in the morning but finally they taped the results to the wall and Andrea was in first place. I ran over to her and her family to celebrate and of course we went to the podium area to get the Medal and pictures taken. And again – Jana went and bought flowers for Andrea.

Jana herself skated an Artistic program at the Silver level and got the Silver medal (although we all know that she deserved the Gold – must have been a French judge somewhere ;-).

Andrea on the Podium (can you see the Canadian Flag in the Flowers?)

So after a long weekend in Tucson we drove back late in the afternoon. Of course now we talked about upcoming competitions and new programs. For all my "Bruce friends" out there – I retired my Babylon 5 routine in Tucson and will be working on a new Freestyle routine as well as an Artistic Dramatic Program. I hope to see many of my friends at the Cactus Classic Figure Skating Competition at the end of July in Scottsdale to cheer me on !!!!

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