2009 JGP USA – An Athlete’s Perspective by Nikki Georgiadis

I was quite excited to go to Lake Placid JGP as it was my sixth time in Lake Placid. I knew I would enjoy the whole atmosphere of the competition as I’m extremely familiar with the town, plus there were two teams competing that I train with. Seeing that I live in Toronto, I ended up driving down to Lake Placid with Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill. The six hour drive flew by extremely fast, and we arrived at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center (OTC) where all the athletes would be staying. Seeing that dance did not have an early morning practice the next morning, many of us decided to play ping pong and check out the OTC.

The following day we had two practices: a 30-minute practice which was for either OD or FD and then a 40 minute practice for OD or FD as well as the compulsory. This was a very relaxing day because other than the two practices and the draw, there was nothing else to do.

 
The meals at the OTC were fairly good. There was an assortment of different foods which made it easy to like something! There was an assortment of pops, juices, and milk, as well as ice cream, salad bar, and all the hot foods.

Finally the competition started, and dance was the first event every single day.

Thursday was the Argentine Tango and there was an unexpected problem which made our event run longer than it was supposed to. The sound in the rink stopped working right after the last couple in the first group skated, so all the couples in the second flight had about 30 minutes before skating — this also included myself and Graham! Luckily for the rest of the competition, there weren’t any sound problems, so our OD event on Friday went smoothly as well as our FD event on Saturday.

On Saturday after the competition was finished, my family took Kharis and me up the Lake Placid Ski Jump. To get up the actual ski jump, you have to take the chair lift to the jump, and then at the base of the jump there is an elevator which takes you right to the top. It was unbelievable and scary looking out at where the jumper would land, especially seeing that there was a lack of snow in the area!

Once we arrived back from the ski jump, we watched some skating and then took the bus back to the OTC to grab a bite to eat. After watching the last flight of the ladies event there was the medal presentations.

Right after the medal presentation finished, there was a huge rush to get ready for the skaters’ party that night.

The theme of the party was western/cowboy and basically every single athlete had dressed up, making the party extremely fun! The party was being held in the 1932 Olympic rink, and I have to say, it was the best party ever! Not only did our party look very western, but we even had extremely western things to do.

For example, in the middle of the rink, there was the mechanical bull that you could go on! We also had an inflatable castle where you would go on a blow up horse and have a race, a fake fire where you could roast marshmallows and make s’mores, and an old western film playing. I think the bull was the highlight of the party as it was something completely different! I don’t know who ended up getting the best time, but I had seen a judge who was absolutely incredible and stayed on for over 25 seconds!

The party went by extremely quickly and the next thing we knew was that the party basically ended a bit before 1:00 a.m. as the DJ stopped playing music at 12:45 a.m. The party was amazing and it was the perfect conclusion to the JGP!

-Nikki Georgiadis