ISU Competition Recap – Pairs
I am back from my trip to Nashville and am excited to be home. My teammates and I had a blast on the trip, and we laughed just about every second we were there. (If you know, you know)
We arrived on Tuesday, and my first even wasn’t until Friday. That meant that I got to play skate coach on Wednesday and Thursday for my friends and teammates. I put them on the ice and helped them mentally prepare for their respective events. It was exhausting but worth every minute.
By the time Friday came around, I was tired. We had a great pairs practice and shared the ice with a team from Canada. We spent the last 10 or so minutes just goofing off. One of the event organizers happened to be in the stands helping the Canadian team and she saw our shenanigans. We asked if my pairs partner could drag me off the ice after our program, and she said yes (more to come on this). Here is one of our silly photos taken at the end of practice:
Friday was our pairs event. We had a bit of drama before we stepped onto our official warmup. The Zamboni resurfaced the ice, and it apparently left a deep groove on the ice. The rink operators spent a good 10 or so minutes patching the ice so it wasn’t dangerous. We had to stand there and wait for them to finish repairing the ice before we took our warmup. During this time, my back got tight so I was in a bit of pain.
Finally, the ice was ready and we warmed up. My partner and I were 4th to skate, so we watched some of the teams ahead of us. Then it was our turn.
The music started, and off we went. The first element, a throw loop jump, went off without a hitch. At this point in our program, we do a fun carry element that we loving call “the leap of death.” I got into my position and waited for my partner to pick me up. However, he did not pick me up. I turned around and asked, “What are we doing? Make something up!” Apparently, he thought we were elsewhere in the program and were going for a waltz lift. So, we made some random stuff up and continued on.
We managed to finish the program and end on time. After a few minutes, we heard our scores and we somehow ended up in 2nd place! We were ecstatic!
At the awards ceremony, the same event organizer came to shake our hands and hand us our certificates. She told us how to get off the podium so I could get dragged off the ice safely. And so we did:
I heard so much laughter coming from the stands and on the ice. Unfortunately, me being dragged across the ice resulted in a large abrasion on my back!
The organizer lady told me that they are trying to get this photo on the ISU website somewhere, so we’ll see what happens! Ha ha!
Until then, we can now call ourselves international silver medalists… and the best in our country (for now). The first place team was from Canada, so we are the best in the USA in our event. Right? 😉