Youth Olympics Blog #1 by Chloe Lewis
Hello again ice dance community! I apologize in advance for my excessive detail in this blog, but I am so happy to be blogging again for ice-dance.com!
Every moment of the experience has been amazing so far. When we arrived at the airport in Detroit on Tuesday, we met 6 members of the U.S. hockey team checking in for the trip. After a quick flight to Newark, we were greeted by a staff member of the USOC who was really kind and just gave us general information for the rest of our trip. Even though we had a 5 hour layover in a small, cave-like terminal, it ended up being really enjoyable because we met a bunch of other athletes. The rest of the figure skating team joined us, and we all got to spend the remaining time with our new speed-skater and biathlete friends. I thought bringing skates through security was sketchy, but it’s nothing compared to bringing a rifle overseas which Eli (the biathlete) has to do!
Finally, our huge group of Team USA athletes boarded the flight to Oslo! It was so cool to see the plane full of young athletes from the USA of so many disciplines. There were seriously SO many of us, my row alone had Logan, myself, Austin (the speed-skater), his coach, and a hockey player. The row in front of me had at least three more. We flew through the night and all arrived in Norway early this morning. We then took our buses separate ways, speed-skaters and figure skaters are staying in Hamar while the rest are staying in Lillehammer.
After all crashing for a few hours upon our arrival, we ate in the cafeteria which is AMAZZZINNNNG! I’ll try to take pictures of the incredible food selection tomorrow, although I am not sure if that excites anyone as much as me. Later on, Logan, Greg, and I explored the city of Hamar and found it to be so lovely, charming, and beautiful, sitting right on the edge of Norway’s biggest lake, Mjøsa. After that we tried activities in the Learn and Share area which was so much fun and I actually learned a lot.. and won prizes!
Everyone at the Youth Olympics has a little “Yogger” on their credential which is a little usb that can take someone else’s information when you hold it up to theirs, so it’s kind of an easy way to exchange information with anyone from anywhere!
There’s so much more to tell already, but it’s only the first night. I’ll try to condense everything better from now on, and share as much as I possibly can.
Goodnight from Hamar!
~ Chloe
P.S. My roomie is a short track speed skater named April, and she’s amazing.
