2014 JGP Tallinn Blog: The Last Day!

This was our last day of competition.  It went too fast and if I had the chance, I would do it all over again and again.

We didn’t get to see much of our USA team mates since we were competing early today, so I thought I would give you a small resume of yesterday’s final events which were the pairs and the men. Olivia Allan, my roommate, and her partner Austin Hale and Jessica Lee and Robert Hennings came respectively 8 and 11 in the pairs event. Andrew Torgashev came in 5th place in the men event.

This morning after a quick breakfast for me and a really really quick one for Anthony, who was still in bed at 7, we went to take the 7:30 bus that would bring us to our final practice.  The practice rink is very cold, there is no word to describe the coldness.  You can feel the cold hair inside of your head, slowly freezing your brain. I won’t miss that feeling. We were in the last group for practice on the same ice as Yanovskaya/Mozgov, the world silver medalist – I was just WOWWWW! That was awesome. Little us on the same ice competing against those amazing ice dancers. Practice went very well.  We did our job, just another day at the rink, and we took the next bus to our hotel, which we only stayed 45 minutes while getting a touch up on hair and make up. Then, another bus ride to the rink for the free dance.

There were a lot of people in the stands; Estonians who came to watch us. Little kids were watching us warm up in the warm up area including a cute little blond girl with her grandmother watching me.

I love competing, being out there on the ice with lots of people watching. The crowd was great and cheering for every team!  The first of Team USA to skate were our training mates Holly Moore and Daniel Klaber. They skated their free dance to the music of The Addams Family and, let me tell you, they really get into their characters and are quite entertaining, then it was our turn. I love doing this program.  It’s different and fun! We did well, we skated with our hearts and gave everything we had.  We finished 4th overall and are really happy of what we accomplished in such a short amount of time!

Afterward, all of Team USA got together and went to watch the ladies event where Amber Glenn skated her free program. That last group of the ladies event was full of amazing skaters. Amber has a beautiful free program, amazing jumps and even if she made little mistake she came in 6th place. That was a really strong field!

And that was it, the competition was over.  We all went back to the hotel to pack our stuff and got ready for our team dinner.  Everyone was there and it was a lot of fun.

All of team USA will leave at 4am for the airport heading to their different homes. I wish all of them the best for the rest of the season. Next time I will see them will be at Sectionals or Nationals.
As for me, I’m spending next day here in Tallinn, visiting and enjoying the city.

JGP Tallinn was a great experience in a lot of ways. I just can’t believe that the JGP season is finished for Anthony and I. We just need to go back home and work hard for the rest of the season and for next year.

Thank you Ice-Dance.com for this opportunity to share my experiences with you!

Christina