6/11/09

Facebook page for Paula Smart - second Adult Skating Commitee Chair: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=792438629&ref=profile#/pages/Paula-Smart/88261514375

** Next week watch for news from the annual Mountain Cup Adult Competition in Villard-de-Lans, France **

2009 ISU Adult International

Event Photos

(photos courtesy of Annabel Smyth)

(5/31/09)

In their own words . . .

Natalie Shaby

What a blast! From the moment I walked in the door for the opening draw party, it was like coming home! Old friends mingling with the new faces that I knew would become my friends in jut a few days time where assembled in an atmosphere of anticipation and excitement!

There was the story of Elie, a first time competitor from Los Angeles who had arrived early in the week to compete for the first time ever in her life. She came without a coach, without family or friends but was instantly cocooned by her teammates from Team USA! Her amazing performance in Bronze/Silver ladies artistic won her a bronze medal and caused her to proclaim that this experience has “changed my life”!

Then there was my 80 year Dad who traveled from Western Canada to watch me, his 45 year old daughter skate like a kid again. As always, he was a strong and constant figure by my side who beamed his pride and love for me- even when I landed on my butt in practices! Watching him party at the closing party will be a memory of him that I will cherish my whole life as he danced up a storm with all of the competitors that had now become his friends!

I am grateful for the time that I was able to spend with Leslie Amacker who is probably one of the funniest and sweetest people that I have ever come across in all of my years of skating. I leave the ISU 2009 Adult International competition with a certain sadness that it is over yet overwhelmed with thankfulness for the opportunity to spend a week with people from around the world who all share our love of skating!

___________________________

Chris Williams

Observations:  I’m sitting at a table, at the dinner after the competition. There are 2 beautiful women across from me from the Netherlands, a cute American women on my right.  And you ask why I like figure skating! Aside from the beautiful women, there are so many different languages being spoken, and we all get together because we love to skate.  I went to eat at the small restaurant in the arena and a table of German skaters invited me to join them.  We had the best time. We bridged culture, language, drank German beer. This was worth the trip.
 
The Coed locker rooms were nice also.  There were more women in the men’s locker room than men!  The women said the women’s locker room was too crowded.  Good thing I packed clean underwear!
 
Before I skated I had one day to explore Obertsdorf, a small German resort town similar to Lake Placid, located in the Bavarian Alps with beautiful mountain views.  I walked along a trail up into the mountains and followed a small stream about 1 ½ miles.  I would have gone further but I had to get back to the rink to practice. 
 
As for the competition, the skating was comparable to the U.S. The skill levels were similar to what we would see at AN, and there were some unique skaters, one of which I competed against twice, Axelle from France.  He had a unique style and beat me twice , but  it was really fun skating with him.  It wasn’t so much, “Let’s go compete, but more, let’s go put on a great show”.
 
Did I mention that the beer was really good?
 
I came across the cows yesterday.  The walk through town twice a day, going to and from the cow pastures.  There is a little guy on a bicycle that leads them.  Just watch where you step when you walk down the main street.
 
I was staying in a bed and breakfast on the top of the hill, a five minute walk to the rink.  The snow covered mountain tops were an incredible sight.  It was a little more work going back, especially Friday night after some drinks at the Irish Pub, across the street from the church.
 
If you want a fun skating experience, a nice vacation in a small German resort town, in the beautiful German Alps, and to watch some beautiful women skate (and some really talented men), then this is the trip for you.  This year, the airfare was so good I spent less than I usually spend to go from Minneapolis to Detroit to see my son.   Make your plans now, request your vacation, save your money, and come skate in Obertsdorf!

________________________

Terryl Lee Allen

Year four Oberstdorf…sorry I missed the first one.  Every year gets better and better!  The number of people who were “competitors” are now fast and dear friends!  The LOC continues to improve the event as if that were a possibility considering everyone is treated with respect and dignity.  Conga line in progress as I type….  LOTS of jovial folks here at the Banquet!  All of a sudden everyone speaks the same language fluently.
 
The weather has been fantastic.  Bavaria is beautiful beyond words.  On a walk up the Trettenbach (one of many local rivers), I was stunned to hear a cacophony of cowbells as the local herd of Brown Swiss cattle munched their way into cow bliss.  The sound was amazing!
 
Conga line has become the ‘Oompa’ version of country line dance.  Yes, this year the USA and Canada are NOT in the majority.  There are far more countries represented this year so the international flavor is wonderful.  I must admit the USA Adult Competition Team jackets made possible by Michelle Lotz make up for fewer USA skaters.  Thank you, Michelle for an amazing job outfitting the USA adults in fine fashion.
 
Seeing dear friends again was such a treat.  I can’t imagine Oberstdorf without my fellow skaters in Bronze III, Rita (Switzerland), Ana (Germany), Lawrence (France), Gabby (Silver now), Jean (Scotland, also Silver), Manuela (Germany and this year married to her Pairs partner, Frank, Congratulations), and Magdalena (CZE) who came to support her friends despite being injured and unable to skate.
 
It is also wonderful to keep the USA spirits flying high by supporting all the USA skaters.  It was great to see Leslie Amacker come back to form with her glorious Artistic program and then hang tough for a place on the podium again with her freeskate.  Welcome back Leslie!  Natalie Shaby was brilliant despite a few minor issues.  She is a beautiful skater and is appreciated by everyone who watches her perform.  Chris Williams found his way to Oberstdorf for the first time this year.  He had two great skates and may have found he can’t give this competition up.  It really is hard to say “No”  for this  event next year.
 
For all of you who skate in ANY form or fashion you owe it to yourselves to save those pennies and make it here just ONCE!! Start collecting from the bottom of the washer, under the seat cushions (yours and your friends) and any other place you can imagine to find your way here!

(5/30/09)

Day 2 part 2 . . .

The results are in and the U.S. has all but swept the Masters Ladies 2 Freeskate event! Unfortunately, this group’s regular competitor Elizabeth McGlauflin had to withdraw. Everyone misses her and is thinking about her.

•    Natalie Shaby, USA - Gold
•    Lynette Hughes, CAN - Silver
•    Leslie Amacker, USA - Bronze
•    Sherri Hicks, USA - Pewter


The U.S. took home 17 medals:
•    Gold - 5
•    Silver – 6
•    Bronze – 6


Annabel Smyth of Great Britain was kind enough to supply photos of this competition. More to come later, but in the meantime, she is busily knitting more skate cloths to throw for friends as "tossies".

Still more to come!

(5/30/09)

Day 2 . . .

Amy Meyer Hodman happily finished second in , and was not sure how she fell on her footwork. She received a very surprising 20+ presentation score that almost made her fall off the “kiss and cry” couch in happiness! She is looking forward to the victory ceremony later on . . .  Hodman went alone, no coach or family, but was thrilled with the great support from friends. “I would love to especially thank Heidi Fearnside and Nicole Bateson for putting me on the ice yesterday for my freeskate”, said Hodman. “I could not have done it without them, as well as my friend Brooke Crawford who convinced me to come to the competition.”

In an interesting turn of events, one competitor chose to overlook the well balanced program rules and was unfortunately given a 14 point deduction for skating 63 seconds over the time limit, as well as jump and spin errors.

Amacker reports that the ice dancing at this competition is pretty serious, Fiona Brown & Michael Jones of Great Britain took silver in Bronze Dance behind Manuela Hinteregger & Stanislaw Bodzak of Austria who were said to be very good. “Good dancing from the silver dancers as well”, said Amacker. “But the gold dancers all did a great job. Those were some pretty hard core dances.”

Claudia Brambatti, a young skater from Italy, won the gold ladies one free skate with lovely flow in and out of her jumps, solid technique through her double loop, an easy axel and excellent speed. Chow Lee of Singapore, brought her darling 15 month old little girl along this year, and performed a nice axel and showing consistency in her ease across the ice.

Though the rink seems a little colder than normal, the crowd is a little more diverse . . . Terryl Lee Allen checked in but wasn’t able to send more detailed reports as she attempted to work the German keyboard and find a more solid internet connection. More from Terryl later on . . .

(5/29/09)

As the 2009 ISU International Adult Competition gets underway in Oberstdorf, Germany, the ever dedicated Leslie Amacker, returning competitor in her fifth year, provided some insight into the event.

Though it takes multiple forms of transportation to get there, skaters have anticipated this competition annually, and call their individual journeys there worthwhile.  It should be noted that even though the economy is lagging, three new skaters came from Japan for the first time: Yoshie Yoshio, Akiyo Kougo and Teruyo Tanabe. Singapore is also represented for the first time by Chow Lee, along with Brownell O’Connor, a new Bronze Men II skater from Ireland.  The Australians, with returning skaters Sharon and Tibi Straub, who generally have a 30+ hour flight to Germany, are a group of nine with many here for the first time.  

Leslie reports that, “The event has a more international feel to it as there seem to be even more countries represented than usual.”

U.S. Skaters also returning for their fifth year in row include Terryl Lee Allen, Bronze 3, Dorothy Ray Silver Ladies 4, and Judy Sargent gold ladies and masters pairs. Diane Stewart was listed as coming but missed her first event as did Liz (Elizabeth) McGlauflin.

Other U.S. skaters include:
    * Ethan Roshan is skating artistic at the Silver/Bronze level
    * Duane Johnson is skating in gold men 4 free skate
    * First year skater, Christopher Williams skating in gold men 2 freeskate

There are two adult pair skating teams: Duane & Georgia Johnson, and Kristi & Glen Norman.  Judy Sargent and Craig Joeright are the lone pair in Masters pairs.

In ice dance the U.S. is represented by one pair skating silver CD and gold FD, Dai-Rei Sun and Rinat Farkhoutdinov.

The other ice dance team is Barbara Walker and Tim Bookwalter, skating gold CD and gold FD.  The largest group of ice dancers are in the gold CD group, followed by silver, then bronze.

This competition offers three levels of ice dance: bronze, silver and gold, and the dances picked for these levels were pretty difficult:

     * Bronze CD - 14 step and European Waltz
     * Silver CD - Paso Doble and the Blues
     * Gold CD - Quickstep and Argentine Tango

Leslie reports that the weather has been cooperating nicely with some cloudiness and not too much rain. More importantly, the ice is soft with nice spring to it! As always the competition is very well run. Mr. Betz has taken over for Claudia Huth, and all is going very well.

While many of the usual suspects are missing it is still a wonderful all-adult event!

As she sent this report in the early a.m., she closed with, “I am off to get my chocolate croissant with chocolate creme filling and a soda. A breakfast of champions...possibly not. But it certainly kick starts the "old" bod early in the morning.”

Adult skaters, can you relate to this?? More to follow . . .