2014 Finlandia Trophy Blog: Sad to leave Finland

So, now that the competition is over, I can finally sit back and reflect on the past two days. I apologize for the delay!

As far as the SD is concerned, we were happy to come out strong and skate a better program then we did at Salt Lake. We were of course disappointed in our TES. The worlds qualifying score has evaded us yet again, but we were really happy with our PCS. This is the first time at an international that our second mark has held us up, and that has been such a huge battle for us as a team for the past 6 years of our international career. We finally feel like we are making strides towards becoming a force to be reckoned with. At the end of the day, we sat less than a point away from 3rd, and I was truly okay with that. Stasia and I are fighters, and I knew that we would come to the FD ready to lay it all out on the ice.
The FD came and went so quickly! The whole day seemed like such a blur. We were super focused leading up to the FD, and we knew that we had to lay down a great program to secure a spot on the podium for the second time this season. We skated exactly how I knew we would, we fought. I could not be happier with the program we skated! We increased our score by 2 points in 2 weeks, and we finished second in the FD segment.

Walking away from this competition, we have so much to be proud of. It was a quick and unexpected turn around from Salt Lake, but we pulled it all together to earn our second international medal of the season! Now, we are turing our heads to the start of the Grand Prix with two more solid skates under our belt.

Finland has been so wonderful and I am sad to be leaving. The competition, the city, and the people have been so amazing. We have had gifts delivered to our rooms all week from all of the fans who have come to watch us skate. The out pouring of support from everyone in the audience was unlike anything I have ever experienced. We could not turn one corner without a group of kids asking for our autographs. This has been a wonderful experience, and something that I will never forget.

So, I will be signing off from here in Finland! Thanks to everyone who supported Stasia and I this week, and to everyone who has been following my sporadic blogging, from the scandalous Finnish alter egos to the search for our missing horses.

On to Skate America!
Until next time,

-Colin