Wednesday, Oct. 27

Hallo aus Österreich! Well, almost. I am currently sitting in Munich Airport waiting for the connecting flight to Graz. Thus far, the travel has been seamless and simple. In fact, when my mother and I arrived in Chicago yesterday evening, we went to our gate and were called up to the counter. Turns out, they overbooked economy and upgraded us to business class! Therefore, I have no reason to complain about the abnormally long flight to Munich when we arrived this morning.

I am very anxious and excited to finally get to Graz. As far as I know, the compulsory dance is tonight and a majority of the U.S. Team has already been here for a day. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone, seeing the rink, getting the lay of the land and, mostly, SKATE! I think that's all for now. I will write later once I am in Graz, hopefully with luggage!

Talk to you soon!

Douglas

Thursday, Oct. 29

Hello, everyone! I arrived in Graz yesterday with skates in tow! I was very excited when I saw my suitcase emerge on the conveyor belt. There was a representative from the competition there waiting for me and my mother, who drove us the 15 minutes to the hotel. We checked in, took a shower and headed out into town to explore and get some water for the room. Later in the evening, the dancers had the pleasure of competing their compulsory dance. The teams did very well and are in second and third, respectively, heading into the original dance. However, they didn't get back to the hotel until almost 2 a.m. because the event was running a ridiculous one-and-a-half hours behind! Organization has been very lax thus far, to say the least!

Today was a practice day for the singles and pairs skaters. Because there is no official ice for some of us yet, we headed out to another rink in the Graz area. What is figure skating without a little excitement? Practice was going very well until I came down from a triple Axel and heard a crunch-like sound. Unfortunately, I had the terrible misfortune of breaking my blade on my right (landing) foot. I immediately rushed over to my coach and had to get off the ice. I was a little worried and upset, but as far as I know, a pair of blades is supposed to be coming in from the Netherlands (hopefully) by morning. All I have to say is thank goodness this happened today and not tomorrow or Saturday. I will keep you all updated regarding the status of my broken skate. :(

The dancers will be competing their OD tonight, and the rest of the U.S. Team and I wish them good luck! That's all at the moment...talk soon!

Douglas

Saturday, October 30

Hey, everyone! Happy Halloween! Sorry I haven't written in two days, but yesterday was somewhat of a whirlwind for me, with the blades and everything else. So, I will be writing two days worth of blogs all in one! To recap yesterday, the dancers and pairs skaters all competed. The dancers finished their competition with the free dance, and Lynn and Logan finished second, while Trina and Chris finished fifth. Congrats to all of them, especially Chris, as he was feeling very ill right before the free dance. After they finished, the pairs skated their short programs, and it obviously went very well considering the two teams are in first and second heading into the free skate tonight.

As for the singles skaters yesterday, we just had another day of practice. They were the official practices that were held on the outdoor rink that is adjacent to the main arena. I skated with a Phantom blade on my right foot and my normal Freestyle on my left. It was interesting, but I made it through everything except quad toe.

Unfortunately, the new pair of Freestyle blades that were supposedly being expedited from the Netherlands still had not arrived as of Friday afternoon. They clearly didn't get the message of “extremely urgent.” So, we decided to have a pair shipped from Toronto to Vienna on an Austrian Air flight that would arrive Saturday morning. That meant I would skate my short program with two different blades on my feet, and I did.

On Saturday, we skated our short programs, and I made it through my program relatively successfully. I am going to say that it was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do in my skating career. At the end, I was so overwhelmed with emotion just to have made it through. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. A few skaters after me, Shaun Rogers laid down a great short program with only a slight hand-down on the quad toe. He and I finished the event in fifth and sixth place, respectively, which meant we would both be skating in the final warm-up group for the free skate.

Later in the day, Amanda competed her short program. She had a completely clean short program and finished the evening in second place! Finally, the pairs competed their free skates that evening and captured the gold and silver medals for the United States. Congrats to both teams on a great competition!

As for my blade that arrived in Vienna this morning, my coach rented a car and drove two hours one way to retrieve my new blades, which he then will mount for me to skate on tomorrow. I'll keep you updated. Hope you all have a great Halloween! Talk tomorrow...

Douglas

Sunday, November 1

The day of the free skates. On Sunday morning, the men and ladies had practice at the same times, just on different rinks. The ladies got to skate inside on the main rink, and the guys had to skate on the outdoor rink. Let me say, it was 28 degrees that morning. Ouch. Although it was extremely cold, I did have a new blade and felt relatively normal again! Woo hoo!

After the practice and de-icing ourselves, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. I rested for about two hours before making my way back to the rink for the free skate. I was very excited to be skating in the last group and just wanted to go out and enjoy myself in the long. I had no expectations due to the fact that I wasn't able to have a normal practice session the entire weekend. It seemed like every practice I had was used for feeling out a new blade, and they were. I was last to skate in the entire group and just couldn't get comfortable on the ice. My free skate was just mediocre. It was an off-day for most of the men, as there were hardly any clean programs. Shaun and I finished the event in seventh and eighth place, respectively. I was satisfied with that considering all that I had to deal with in the past few days.

Later on Sunday, Amanda skated an almost clean free skate to take the bronze medal! She was awesome! Immediately after the ladies finished, the Icegala began. The top four finishers and some guests were asked to skate, and I was one of them! I love doing shows! Myself and a bunch of the other Americans participated and then had one last team dinner together before leaving early in the morning.

A few closing words. I need to say thank you a billion to Eva Sonnleitner and the entire LOC of Ice Challenge for helping me through my blade drama during the event. Without them, I am not sure whether I would have been able to compete at all. Also, thanks to our great team leader, Kathleen Harmon, who was also such a HUGE help to me. It was truly a memorable week. Hope you all enjoyed reading my blog. Talk to you soon!

Douglas