Skate America 2011 - A Mini TR
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Dlandmom2 · 10-24-2011, 12:29 PM

For all you figure skating fans out there, I thought I'd share a mini TR covering the Men's long program and Ice Dancing free skate. Skate America was held in Ontario, CA, this past weekend, and it's just a half hour drive for me.

My daughter is a figure skater, and she trains at the same rink as Richard Dornbush. Her coach was able to get group tickets for her skating team, so we attended the Men's long (to cheer on Richard!) and Ice Dancing free skate.

Evan Lysacek was supposed to be competing, but he pulled out about a week ago (a totally separate discussion if we have to!). We were pretty much there to cheer on Richard (we all know him as Ricky, but he wants to be known as Richard now!).

This was the first senior level competition my daughter and I had ever seen in person. It was really so much fun to be there watching the warm-up sessions!

I took some pictures with my phone, which I will share below, and a bunch with my camera (which will take longer to upload and fix, so I'll share those later).

This is just the beginning of the competition season, so we were excited to see everyone's new programs.

Here are a few of the pics I took with my phone during the warm-up. We unfortunately missed the men's warm-up

as the mom who had our tickets didn't get to the arena until after it was done. We did see the ice dance warm-up tho, and that was great!

Here's Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the foreground. The pair to the right is from Canada, and the pair on the left is from Germany, I think.

Here's Hubbell and Donohue, also from USA, during the competition

Here's the French pair during the competition. They were really good.

Here are Meryl and Charlie during the competition. They were just so polished, it was beautiful to watch!

Dlandmom2 · 10-24-2011, 12:34 PM

We didn't have tickets to the evening session (Ladies short and Pairs short), but we were allowed to stay and watch their warm-ups.

Here's the reigning Gold medalists from Germany (I think they won World's too, but I can't remember)...don't ask me to spell their names, I'm too lazy to look it up! :P

I can't remember where this pair was from, sorry

Here's the German pair again

And here's Alyssa Czisny (I probably messed up the spelling of her name, too!)

I'll try to be back soon with better pictures from my camera.

Carousel96 · 10-24-2011, 01:32 PM

Skating competitions in person are so much more fun than on TV.
Love your pictures!
We became fans of Meryl Davis and Charlie White when they competed in St. Paul a few years ago -- so glad they won again.

Disney4us2 · 10-24-2011, 01:47 PM

I didn't realize it was so close. I just happened to catch the ice dancing on tv. My DD is also a figure skater. She skates in the Santa Clarita area. Wish we could have seen it in person.

Dlandmom2 · 10-24-2011, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carousel96

Skating competitions in person are so much more fun than on TV.
Love your pictures!
We became fans of Meryl Davis and Charlie White when they competed in St. Paul a few years ago -- so glad they won again.

My daughter has never been into ice dancing, but I really like it. After watching this, she likes it a lot more! Plus, after the ladies and pairs practice session ended, we got up to leave, but the arena announcer said a few of the earlier skaters would be out to sign autographs, including Ricky! Of course my daughter wanted to go say hi and get his autograph (we see him at the rink, but there's never been a chance to actually ask for his autograph). Luckily we got there quickly, and we get Ricky's autograph as well as one of the younger USA ice dance pairs. The PR person there said that Meryl and Charlie weren't scheduled to be there, so we sadly started walking toward the exit.

Well, as "luck" would have it, we decided on a bathroom break before leaving, so we turned away from the exit and walked toward the bathrooms. Guess who was walking toward us?! Meryl Davis and Charlie White! We scurried over there, and someone else was asking for an autograph, but Meryl said they were late to an autograph session and asked if they would please walk over with them. Then Charlie said he wasn't even sure where it was, so of course my daughter and I piped in and said, "We were just there! They told us you weren't going to be there!". Well Charlie said great, he would follow us over. They were both surprised to hear that we were told they weren't going to be there. Charlie said it was probably because he didn't rsvp, but Meryl said that she did. Oh well, we followed them back over to the tables and got right back in line.

When we finally made it up to the tables again, Hubbell and Donohue (another USA ice dance pair) had joined the group as well. We inched our way as they signed our program. When Charlie saw us, he said "I know you! You showed us how to get here!" Meryl apologized for us having to wait in the long line again, but we told her we didn't mind at all since we were so glad we ran into them as we were getting ready to leave!

Anyhow, that's just a long way of explaining how Meryl Davis and Charlie White have moved to the top of our favorite figure skaters of all time! So sweet and down to earth!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disney4us2

I didn't realize it was so close. I just happened to catch the ice dancing on tv. My DD is also a figure skater. She skates in the Santa Clarita area. Wish we could have seen it in person.

Nationals is in San Jose in late January. My daughter is already begging me to take her to see Ricky, Meryl and Charlie. I'm contemplating it, but we'd have to pay full price since I don't think there's going to be more than a few of us who are going. It's going to be a pretty expensive few days even if we just watch 2 or 3 sessions (hotel, gas, food, etc.). We'll see. Are you and your DD planning on attending? It would be cool to introduce our daughters since they are both skaters, and I would love to meet you as well!