My Five Favorite Skating Competition Memories!

Current Mood: creative

Since many of the internet figure skating boards have been doing their off-season "best of", "worst of", and everything in-between lists, I thought it might be fun to do my own Top 5 list of favorite figure skating competitions and memories:

(1) 2002 Peach Classic, Atlanta

The 2002 Peach Classic was definitely my favorite skating competition to date.  All my friends were there, and they all skated great -- Teresa did a great job in her first time out at Silver I, Valerie won two medals at her first-ever skating competition, and I won the silver medal in the group of 11 Bronze I skaters.  I had just moved up from Pre-Bronze the second year, in which I had finished second, so I had no expectations going into the event.  It was a great group with a lot of wonderful skaters and I really felt honored to medal at all.

(2) 2003 US Figure Skating Championships, Dallas

Okay, so I definitely didn't compete in this one (so the understatement of the year!), but it is still one of my favorite skating competitions.  I had entered a sweepstakes through our club for 2 free tickets to Nationals and airfare, and was stunned when I won!  Valerie and I had an absolute blast at this competition, especially getting to watch Michelle Kwan skate two nearly perfect programs and win the 2003 national title on her way to winning the 2003 Worlds.  Three of my favorite skaters -- Michelle, Sasha Cohen and Ann Patrice McDonough -- were all on the medal stand, and I was there in person to see them (and to take this picture!!).  It was definitely something I'll never forget!

(3) 2005 Masters Cup, Melbourne Australia

This was my first time competing in over a year and although I was really nervous beforehand, it was exciting getting to participate in an all-adult figure skating competition in another country.  I didn't have many expectations, as I'd never been to an Aussie adult comp, but I wanted to try to skate cleanly and have fun.  I ended up doing both (well, almost with the cleanly part!) and won my first-ever gold freeskating medal at a national-level figure skating competition.

(4) 2003 Peach Classic

After Bill's layoff, I knew this would probably be my last Peach Classic, so I wanted to be sure I took the time to enjoy myself and seeing all my skating friends.  I had a great time, and out of 9 Pre-Bronze to Silver level skaters, I won my first gold medal in an Interpretive event!  I was also proud to have been able to fight back from two disappointing freeskate competitions in a row to complete a close-to-clean Bronze I freeskate and win the bronze medal.

(5) 2003 Heart of Florida Open

This is another favorite competition of mine because almost all of my skating friends were there to compete or watch, and we had a terrific time! I also surprised even myself by winning my first-ever gold medal at the Bronze Freeskating level against some tough competition, and competed at the Silver level for the first time in the compulsory event.