We Qualified for the Olympic Games...

... And that's all that matters! Ha ha, after Stacey's illness this was the only goal left on our once long list and we achieved it. We just had to skate 2 clean programmes at the final competition of the year, no pressure then. Winning Golden Spin and getting 4th at the NHK trophy this year were both just icing on the cake for this season, i would of traded both of those results to be going to the pinnacle competition of sporting excellence. First of all I'd like to thank all the British fans who made the long trip to come support us and the British team, and also to all our fans who watched on the TV or Internet. We have heard so many wide tales about how followers got to watch us in the end, we just feel honoured by the support! Thank you all.

It isn't just David and Stacey who has got us here, we have such a strong team working in the background to help us achieve what we can and this success is felt by each individual member of Kemp and King. First most the NISA World Class Performance Team who have supported us admirally from the start of our careers, our financial support from parents, Jewellery by Michael King, skate force trust, NLTG, R N Electronics, and Sue Naylor. But our most great full thanks go to the tireless workers of the British Olympic Association for the Olympic Solidarity Trust, TASS (Talented Athlete Support Scheme 2012) and Sports AID without who we could never of had the financial support to achieve the commitments that we have made! We are so very thank full you put your faith in us, thank you.

I never thought back in Dumfries that this moment would come true, tottering around the ice never being the best skater at the club and not a huge amount of talent. This just made me more determined, I'd always make achievable goals every year, and slowly making small steps to our eventual goal. Stacey actually started her skating because of Oksana Baiul back in the 1994 Olympics and this was the last time a British pair team competed at the games. It is very strange how things work out and nobody can predict what will happen, yet some things are just meant to be. After our final position in the long, i knew we'd done enough. I looked up to see the bright lights of the Staples Centre beam down and thought, David Kemp (1960-2004) and George King (1919-2008) were there smiling down as they'd know it too. There isn't much to success if it can't be celebrated with lots of supporters, friends, family even with all the commitments and sacrifices made our home still accepts us with open and praising arms along with our new overseas community.

So i hope i didn't ramble on too long, now were sitting back at home in Poland planning our next season and reflecting on the last. LA was amazing, how a World Championships should be held, and with the great weather it all just felt surreal for an ice skating event. This week the Great Britain ice hockey team are playing in Torun at the Division 2 World Champs, so we have tickets to go support them and we also start the process of booking up our season and finalising our plan.

Pre Worlds Camp, Chicago

In true Stacey and David style, we couldn't just leave for a big competition without any drama. Well, we had a car crash............ Anyway the morning before we set off to Warsaw we were stopped at a red light for the tram stop after getting supplies for our long journey. As we were talking about our upcoming travel plans 'SMASH'! All we hear is a screech a skid and felt a huge bang. With our handbrake on we were still rammed 5-7 meters. In front of us people were exiting the tram, and now feel lucky we didn't hit anyone. I looked back to see a ruined blue fiat Bravo with a bonnet missing, presuming he'd left it in our little old Clio.

Our very good friend and president of our skating club Axel (also the president of our car insurance company!) came down to help and sorted everything so we could just drive off. We were staying that night at his beautiful Warsaw penthouse apartment as we had an early flight the next day, so we must give a huge thank you to Marek for helping us so much. From then on things went very smooth, we weren't upgraded on the flight but we got good economy seats and when its a 12 hour flight it really helps. I just watched the film Australia, which was really good and slept a little.

So, we arrived in Chicago and the weather was fantastic. We shopped a little just so we could stretch our legs and left for Davenport. We stayed with one of the Polish Pair teams, Liz and Patrick who train in the Quad Cities rink which i thought was a great name for an icerink. They were Bronze medalists at Polish nationals and stayed in Torun the week before, training with us and said they would return the favour. We had such an easy week because they looked after so well, loads of great food and perfect ice time. Liz's parents Gus and Irene made their home ours and i can't say there are many times that has happened to me, just made us so welcome and comfortable. One day a travelling AHL team (the division down from NHL) watched our practice before they went on and said as we watched you, you can come watch us, so we got free tickets to their game!

The week just flew past, and now were in LA at the World Championships, competing for Great Britain. It makes you feel very proud, and look back at our career in almost disbelief, that were now on our fourth senior World Championship. Lets hope for many more...

Well i hope you all enjoy watching on Tuesday and Wednesday and I will try to keep you all posted, thanks for reading.

Torun life!

With only 2 weeks until our short programme in Los Angeles training just boils down to fine tuning and perfecting our routines. This point in the season feels great, you've done all the hard work through the year, its just like your really getting the best out of your programmes and then in 2 weeks its time to start a new season. This year has been such a roller coaster ride, not only with the ups and downs but also with the speed its passed, with its excitement until the end and how its coming to a very abrupt halt. With losing a family member in December then gaining a family member in January, in this last year we've really found strengths from all different places but we always had a surprisingly great deal of support from Torun. This town is a very fantastic place with a wealth of activities, we really feel like we landed on our feet here.





Life in Torun is almost all skating (that's why were here!) but you need balance in your lifestyle, skating is what i do it doesn't define who i am. So we've found out that Torun isn't just where we train, its also where we live. We now have some great friends out here lots of which are from Britain which we never would of imagined when we first came out, these pictures are all from our friend Glens birthday party held at the new Indian restaurant in town. Torun is quite a unique town, a wide range of activities and places to explore, with quirky traditions that keep us amused and frequently bemused. We don't drink alcohol when were in season so have yet to taste the night life but hear that it is very lively as it has a high student population. This also means now that i've started teaching English here there is a lot of people needing to speak with native speakers to improve their English skills.


Anyway, must go training now but i will keep you updated with how things are going! All our very best

Back off holiday

Well were home in Poland now, we skated in Britain last week to keep on top of things but today is the first day of training if you get what i mean. Europeans felt a long one this year and the first one with no official closing banquet, which is like there was no end to the competition, a little strange. Helsinki was pretty, not a lot to do though, and food is just a luxury for the rich! I'm sure Worlds in L.A will be a little change from the minus degree's and feet of snow. Britain seemed to have got its own fair share though, in between our busy schedule of seeing my new week old nephew and sorting out our mounds of paper work and visits to Manchester to see one of our choreographers we did actually find time to go sledging! It seems impossible what you can fit into a week, but its also amazing what you can achieve.

We have a few programme changes to make but nothing spectacular, we'll save that for Olympics! Ha ha, the programmes mainly need to be faster, tighter, and clean. Our qualification criteria for the British Olympic Association is very demanding so we must demand a lot from our selves and we truly believe we can do it. The Olympic qualification for ISU just seems confusing more than anything, but everything aside we just need two more good skates this season! I find you just need a little luck on your side and a lot of hard work to benefit from most things in life.

Anyway its good to be back in full training, and will hope to speak to you soon. All our best wishes,

Helsinki!

So, we made our flight from Warsaw! Better start than our last international already. It was an easy 3hr drive down with a short 1hr 30min flight, and quickly escorted to our pleasant Scandic hotel. Everything went very smooth and practice this morning was no different, with a nice clean short. The practice rink was a bit of a shock to most the pairs, I can only describe it as an ice rink in a cave, which incidentally doesn’t really have the head room for pairs. The first lift I only took to my shoulder as I feared for Stacey’s safety. But once we adjusted slightly we got on fine and are really looking forward to tonight’s 22:50 practice. A little late but its not for us to choose.

I love the big events where you can chat to skaters from all over the world mostly in similar situations to you, and watching the big names in skating live. It’s a great learning experience every time and you can’t learn it at your home rink no matter where you might be, you have to actually taste it. I’m sure if you can ask spectators at the rink if they can feel an energy they would agree there is something special at the big events. For now you’ll have to take my word for it but in the future you should try and make the journey.

The last two days we spent in Poland, training on our home ice and taking care of our kitty that we now won’t see for 9 days. While we were there the Guardian gave me a phone to do an article called ‘Whats Rocking Sport’ and its an insight in to athletes musical tastes, so that will be in on Monday if anyone is interested. Finland is similar weather to Poland too so we feel very well adjusted, which is great because there’s nothing worse than arriving to an event and not being comfortable. These small things can affect you but the main thing is to stay focused and just get two good skates out for all your years hard work to pay off. You can blame many things and make excuses but in the end its down to you and if you’ve trained properly you should have no worries.

Anyway, that is all for now. Were going for our dinner to keep up our strength. All our best

British National Championships

Sorry i couldn't update sooner! I wasn't paying £20 for the two day wi-fi cost when I'd only be on for 20mins in that whole time. Anyway, if you didn't know already we retained our fourth senior title in Nottingham this week. We skated a pretty clean short, a few of our levels were 3 instead of 4 but corrected them for the free. It wasn't a personal best for this season but a pretty good attempt, just 2 points off and in general it was stronger than all of our other competitions this season.

Well, another national championships over with and another desired result. It was a well run event, apart from being so close to the European Championships and skating at the start of the week instead of the end everything was fine. Not a huge crowd for the short as it was a Monday but surprisingly not too bad for the long. Lots of controversy as ever at the British mainly with the ice dance, excitement you can't get from any other sport in the world it really does surprise me that skating doesn't bring in the crowds it should.

Stacey had her dress changed slightly in the free and made a big difference aesthetically, its the little things that take all season to finely tune and yet at the final competition where your just getting the hang of things its a totally clean slate and you have to start again. But like we have time to worry about things like that next week its Helsinki for the European Championships and as its our Olympic Qualifying season a personal best is pretty essential. We feel that everything is in place for us now though, we just have to enjoy ourselves. I hate getting too serious for these events as it can stop a true performance, but as long as i can say i tried my best i will be very happy!

With our flight to Helsinki for the European Championships tomorrow we will say a huge thank you to everyone who came to support us at the British Championships and hope you can watch us next week at the European Championships. We'll be in touch,

Stacey and David

Festive Period

So our next set of competitions have jumped up on us faster than Christmas did. It seemed like we just arrived home from Polish Nationals and then I was there sitting in Bydgoszcz airport catching our flight to Liverpool for the holiday period. We had a short time at home, unfortunately a very sad time this Christmas but life throws us these times to help us reflect. We managed to dodge most the flu’s and chest infections that were going round, to be quite honest I think the Polish winter kills all the nasty bugs but your always left with a lingering cold. In Torun the temperature dropped to -22 which was quite a shock to us and meant most of our Christmas money was invested in warmer clothes. Training also got pretty chilly, most our sessions ended with numb hands and feet.

Skating as ever this year went well over the holiday period, playing around with new elements and skating good programmes preparing for Europeans. After last year at European Championships we have a big challenge to improve our placement but we’ve tried our very best to be in a position to try. In the rink where Mariusz and Dorota got their Bronze medal at worlds we will be fighting for top 5. Before Europeans we have the British Championships in Nottingham as a warm up. Any one whose going down on Monday or Tuesday I hope you have a great day and manage to see us skate. Its always a pleasure skating at home in Britain and it seems these days that its such a rare occasion that we can. If you can’t make it down you’ll be able to see our progress on the blog!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone and hope to see you over the next week! All our very best,

Stacey and David