Sochi by Two Blog #1: En Route to Moscow

By Adelaide Ponte Usdin and Wendy Ponte

February 5, 2014

To say we are excited does not truly express the myriad of feelings we are experiencing as we begin our adventure to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. First there is deep curiosity. We traveled together to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, but since we are North Americans, it wasn’t a big cultural difference and the language was the same. We don’t know what to expect in Russia, how things will taste and smell, and what the air in Sochi will feel like.

There is also some nervousness. It’s hard to avoid feeling that after everything that’s been on the news for the past few months. And we do have feelings about some of the policy decisions that have been made.

Before going any further, though, we want to introduce ourselves.

Adelaide: I am 18 years old and a very passionate Ice Dancer. Right now I am looking for a partner who shares the same wishes and desires. Going to the previous Olympics were so inspiring. Although I was already skating at that time, it was watching those games that inspired me to want to become an Ice Dancer. When I first thought about doing a blog in Sochi, I remembered Ice-Dance.com. They have been so helpful from photographs to information to news.

Wendy: I am Adelaide’s mother and a writer and journalist by trade. I also do online marketing and social media for musicians and I am the co-founder of a new company, Tabula Rasa Tours that takes small groups of people on unique trips that combine learning and self exploration with travel. You can read my blog, onemillionpassions.com to learn more about me. I’m also a skating geek and always have been, as long as I can remember! It was my incessant television viewing of skating competitions (which, sadly used to be way more extensive than it is now) that first inspired Adelaide to ask for skating lessons.

So, between the two of us, we hope to give you, our readers, a good inside view of a trip to Sochi, through the eyes of a passionate ice dancer and a writer.

The first event– Team Ice Skating!

Officially, we know that Jeremy Abbott and the pairs team of Castelli and Shnapir are representing the U.S. for the short Men’s and Pairs events on Thursday. Unofficially, we’ve heard that  Davis and White will skate both the short and long Team Dance programs, Ashley Wagner will skate the short Women’s event, and Gracie Gold the long. Jason Brown will skate the long Men’s and Castelli/Shnapir the long Pairs. But that’s just unofficial! Don’t quote us!

We finished our salmon, our plane is just passing over the tip of Newfoundland and arcing across the Atlantic. It’s time to sleep because when we arrive in Moscow, it will be 8:00 A.M. and we will need to change planes for our two-hour flight to Sochi and then be alert and awake for our first day at the Olympics!