I know this was Graz's first attempt of hosting an international event and i know they will learn from their mistakes, but most of the competition was hard to swallow. For a start spectators were expected to pay 20 euros a day per ticket so only competitors managed to actually watch the skating. We arrived to find out the hotel we were staying at was a Marriott hotel, for skaters who can hardly afford to fly here let alone stay for the week in a very expensive hotel.20euro each way for the bus to the hotel from the airport so with 5 of us travelling to the event it was cheaper to hire a car for the 5 days, good job because they decided to charge for the bus to the main rink and a separate charge for the bus to the practice rink. On top of that we had to pay 40 euros for the entry to the competition and 30euros a day for meal tickets…. For those of you that are good at math, that’s a lot of cash, especially with the euro so strong. Britain had a huge team there too, for a lot of our younger British skaters this was their first international and may now believe this is how all competitions are run.
Practice was at some different rink each time never on the main competition rink (I know its only ice but it does make a difference!) and one of the practice rinks was outdoor with a roof but no walls. Then on the day of the long our practice was cancelled due to a hockey practice taking place at the same time… We got a free meal ticket though. 2 clean programmes and we finished 5th... so we took it on the chin as ever, and it was a learning curve!Time to get back to work, building on improvements already made so the next competitions can be positive experiences. The Skate America Grand Prix was here faster than we knew it! We had 6 working days to maintain our fitness and touch up our programmes. No time for new elements, we know you want us doing harder stuff but we are working on them out the programme, they are coming and we will show them when they are ready. Skate America Grand Prix was all about showing our new form and proving we British do have class.
It took us 31 hours of travelling to get to the Infamous Lake Placid home of the 1930+81 Winter Olympics. On arrival after our bus driver got lost and needed directions to our accommodation via a US team member phoning a friend, we checked in around midnight. But its not that easy is it, you all must know better by now. 3 times every hour from this moment until 3am the man on the front desk moved us from our rooms. Trust me my smile for just a little moment started to fade, only very slightly and the brighter side was setting very fast! But next morning we had a great practice and all was forgotten. Ice was great, the only problem was that huge Cancer.net signs were plastered everywhere because they sponsored the event and as you may know Stacey's Father Dave Kemp died just over 6 years ago of Bowl Cancer and this kind of threw our cool slightly. Hopefully the crowds watching didn't notice but we were always skating with a slight lump in our throats.We stayed at the USA Olympic Centre halls of residence for athletes and it was just how an event should be run. The food was great and being in such an inspiring place brought the best from all the athletes. Competition time was tense as usual and we were skating 4th in the short which is now worked out by World Ranking points instead of the traditional draw. We skated a great short with a good twist fantastic throw triple loop and nice spins with a fast impressive press to star combination in the lift, then going in to the death spiral with the whole programme done clean and well, disaster!
Not to sure what happened all i know for sure is it didn't happen, so we lost 3.5 marks plus the deductions from the judges for an ugly end to the programme, Ooops! In the free programme we had no pressure, we weren't going to catch any of the US teams 6points down on home soil, so we skated for us and the hard work we've put into training this season. We did our best to a massive North American crowd, with only slight mistakes on the throws and last lift but an admiral performance overall. We left feeling a little more upbeat and know with nationals just next week we can show a home crowd just how far we've come.Catch you next time
