Share your Skating Competition Stories

For all of us who have been lucky enough to attend skating competitions live, most of us (maybe not the unlucky few whose flights got cancelled two hours before the event you had tickets to or who got the flu and couldn't leave the hotel for long enough to watch) know that they can create some of our most treasured memories-I know they have for me, and I've only been to one. Naturally, here on GS, the topic of "oh yeah, I met so-and-so at such-and-such in 2011," or "I saw that skate live" comes up a lot, and some of you might want to expand on that but don't feel it's appropriate to do so in that thread because, well... it's just too off-topic. So, if you've ever been compelled to tell everybody about what happened to you at Cup of China in 2008, here's where you can do that! You can be as long-winded as you like (I have issues with that myself...), but here's the most basic information you should share:

1) The event, location and year
2) what events you watched
3) This is where you can get really detailed if you want: what happened there? What stood out to you? This can be as basic as who won and "I liked it" or as detailed as what row you sat in and whose music drove you insane and what you ate and whose costume was amazing and whose was distracting and how long your flight was delayed for and the crying baby sitting behind you and the performance that made you cry and the dude who hit you in the head with the encyclopedia he was throwing as a toss gift and...

You get the point. It's your story, and nobody experienced it just like you did, so go to town!

I've only ever had the opportunity to see one event live. I saw the ladies LP at US Nationals in 2009. I was in high school at the time, relied on my mom to drive me, so going to multiple events was unrealistic, so instead I spent $300+ for my mom and I to have the best seats I could afford for this one event. (They were great seats). I was rooting hard for Alissa Czisny, she was in first after the LP, IIRC, she fell, but everyone gave her a standing ovation anyway. She didn't win the FS but still won overall, which I was thrilled about. Looking back, I was a diehard Alissa fan. I was pretty into skating at the time but not nearly as much as I am now so I didn't appreciate the qualities of many of the earlier girls. Such a shame for me . Ashley's performance was the most impressive and she won the LP, but I was too busy rooting for Alissa to care much. Looking back though, ASHLEY .

It wasn't a particularly memorable night, kind of a splatfest IIRC. But memorable to me since it's my only live event .

Great idea for a thread! Looking forward to hearing everyone's stories.

LRK said:

Great idea for a thread! Looking forward to hearing everyone's stories.

Click to expand...

Want mine? It'd probably be more like a really short novel (#longwinded) but I would be happy to share

Layback11 said:

Want mine? It'd probably be more like a really short novel (#longwinded) but I would be happy to share

Click to expand...

Why, of course I do.

And if it is really long, you could divide it into chapters - make it into a serial, and break off at really thrilling places like:

"I heard a noise behind me, and turned around to discover.....

To Be Continued"

Hi everyone !

I had the chance to attend 3 events

1) First was the 2012 Worlds in Nice.
2) I watched the Mens and Ladies FP.
3) I have various memories, but some moments were incredible. As the event was hosted in France, the crowd went totally crazy when Brian was on the ice (and so did I). He was coming back after difficult moments and he did a great job for his public. I remember also the cheers when Yuzu fell in the middle of a transition, totally unexpected. Everybody was into his strong program, and when he fell everybody, no matter their nationalities, was screaming and clapping to help him continue. Wonderful moment as well. Daisuke's magnificent FP was a quite hard moment because I knew they will never put him ahead Chan , even if he deserved it.
A funny story was the end of the men event, we were waiting outside the arena for the Ladies, and Chan walked just next to me, my mom said "Why didn't you take a picture!! -Why ? -Girl !! The World champion just walked next to you!! -Oh really ? I didn't noticed ... i'm waiting Dai <3"

1) Next event I saw was the TEB 2012 in Paris.
2) We watched all the FP.
3) Remembered as the first (and unique) event I saw Elizaveta skating live. And Ashley won for my pleasure

1) The last is the TEB 2014 (as you may have noticed I'm french haha)
2) I attended all the FPs too.
3) It was a crazy day. Some huge skaters were there, and I waited for hours around the arena (with a really low temperature!!) to meet my favs. The event was totally crazy. Brown, Hanyu (I screamed when he fell), Chan, the fight between Ashley and the Russian girls. Ilinikh/Katsalapov disapp, Péchalat/Bourzat and Virtue/Moir..... And we were on the road to Sochi. I can't even describe the atmosphere.
And this was the day I met Yuzuru Hanyu. I didn't caught him before the Mens, as I did with some others, but he was here and I could not stand the idea of letting him fly away without meeting him. I was with to friends and I was going crazy. Bercy is a huge place, so we decided to look for every dor he could go out by. We finally found some japanese TVs waiting behing the arena, so we waited with them (My friends: The FD is beginning!! -I don't care! Yuzu won't be in France so soon! The first couples can wait..) and two others Japanese fan trying to communicate with our love for Yuzu . He finally went out, so we waited the end of the interview and we talked a bit with him. He's such an adorable person and this memory is stuck in my mind
"Skaters are adorable" stories : One friend I was with gave a little present to Jason Brown and he's reaction was so cute, he hugged her spontaneously, and after the mens FP, he randomly sit next to her, and they chatted as long time friends for a little while.


That's it !! ^^ hope I have not been too chatty! (hum...)

2009 Finlandia Trophy ladies FS competition in Vantaa
Alena Leonova won the competition. I had so hoped Laura or Kiira would have won but Alena was best in that competition.
Kiira Korpi dropped her hairband while skating and I was afraid if she would hit it when skating near it. She said afterwards that it really troubled her to try to avoid that hairband. It happened at 1:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvx1p3XJplI

Finlandia Trophy 2012 Ladies SP in Espoo
There were a lot of spectators there, near full. I remember Mirai Nagasu said afterwards that she was so surprised to see so much spectators there. Kiira won the SP, Julia Lipnitskaia the competition.

Finlandia Trophy 2013 Ladies FS in Espoo
This time there were not so many spectators (Kiira Korpi was not skating). I went to see Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, my favorite and was happy to see her. Julia Lipnitskaia won and this time I began to appreciate her skating. I am not her fan nor do I like her skating style but seeing her live was special and that was the Schindler's list program.

I went to these events with two of my four children. Now I am planning to go to worlds at Helsinki 2017 with at least one of my children.

Another story from Finland in memory of my mother who passed away earlier this year.

Before 1999 Worlds my mother said she'd like to come to Helsinki to see one event and we picked Ladies SP. By coincidence, a friend of my sister invited us to be in the studio audience for Uutisvuoto, my mother's favourite TV show, which was recorded earlier on the same day. This friend arranged for us a trip in the studio and after that we walked a few hundred meters from YLE to Hartwall Arena. There was just enough time to have a relaxed lunch before the event. What a perfect schedule.

We sat in front of a large group of Canadians and there were some Russians in front of us, so it felt like a big international happening from the start. It was a sunny joyful day and Lucinda Ruh was everyone's favourite. The only Finn Alisa Drei did OK, I believe she was 13th. Right after the competition my mother took a train to go and babysit her youngest grandchild.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! Keep them coming.

Mine was 2015 nats in Greensboro, and I went to every event except the men's and the pairs short (wanted to see it but we were on the plane while it was happening), so it'll be long. I'm going to break it into segments, this one being for thursday.

We got on the plane at about 10:30 for our 11:00 flight, only to have it delayed until 1 because of some mechanical problem. It was okay, though, because my dad surprised me with an upgrade to first class, and it was as amazing as you would expect (this was my first and only first class flight). They served a full meal, so we didn't starve in-flight (it was a long one), which was steak in a weird sauce, a salad, a roll, and this insanely delicious housemade macaroni with broccoli :dance:. We landed at about 9:30, and we then had to drive to Greensboro from the Charlotte airport, which took about an hour and a half. All this and we FINALLY made it to the ladies short! We walked in as Karen Chen was doing her final spin (layback-I remember that moment like it was yesterday) and sat down as she got her scores. The only full program we saw was Mirai Nagasu, and she did awesome, which is always a plus. (She was 4th after the short-more to come on her in the ladies FS chapter!) After that, we went to the hotel to drop off our luggage and, not ten seconds after I was out of the car, we saw Meryl Davis in the lobby! (I was too nervous to go up to her even though I'd met her before. I wish I had.) That was the first of three Meryl-sightings of the weekend. We went to dinner after that and, by then, it was about 1:00 in the morning, although we were still on our time so it felt earlier. We finally got to bed at something like 1 AM, not knowing that tomorrow would bring one of the best days of my life...

TO BE CONTINUED (Friday-short dance)

The only competition I have been to was US Nationals in Boston (2014).

I watched the ladies lp only, because tickets got expensive

The skaters that stood out especially to me (and my Dad) were:
- Samantha Cesario: she skated first in the third group, and most of the performances before that were underwhelming. She went out and sold her carmen program, landed every single jump, and the choreo sequence at the end had everyone in the building holding there breath. Most of the people at the TD garden stood up after she skated (I think she got more applause than ashley tbh). It was amazing, and the crowd was itching for something to stand up for.
- Polina Edmunds: I wasn't expecting very much from her...but she nailed almost every single one of her jumps (fell on the second flip I believe). She skated the program well, but the art of samantha's program was not there. Polina still had many people stand for her really solid performance though.
- Ashley Wagner: Everyone gasped when she fell, and groaned when she fell again...it felt like the air was sucked out of the building (especially after Christina Gao's heartbreaking lp). Everyone was shocked; we felt so bad for her. The life was gone from her skating in those four minutes...it was really hard to watch
- Gracie Gold: It was really cool to see her go out there and do the jumps and sell the program and to see frank smile! You definitely got the "I'm here to win vibe," and you could tell that Gracie was focused on the jumps. She did so well, and it was really a climax to the evening (she skated last in the final group)
- Mirai Nagasu: I've always been a supporter of Mirai, and to see her go out and do what she's capable of and smile, and enjoy her program was so amazing! People stood before she finished because we all knew what she had gone through. It was a beautiful moment in the kiss and cry when her scores came up and she realized that she was going to be on the podium.

Not sure if this belongs here but...
I also saw the exhibition for Nationals (same competition), and it was all really cool, as I got to see a lot of cool younger skaters; Paolo Borromeo especially stood out to me. They announced the Olympic team before the show started and it was bitter sweet. I was so happy for Ashley and Gracie, but I felt horrible for Mirai (I thought they should of sent Mirai instead of Polina, but that's for another thread ). When Mirai came out she was in tears and they had to wait to play her music because she couldn't skate, and then I think one of the most powerful moments of those nationals happened...as Mirai stood crying, trying to get the courage to get out her exhibition, people in the crowd began to stand up one by one, and eventually, she had the entire building giving her a standing ovation BEFORE she skated, recognizing what she was going through. She skated a perfect, emotional and beautiful exhibition, and afterwards a lot of people, including myself, were crying, and she received another standing ovation. When Ashley came out, you could tell it was tense. She skated well, and did her program beautifully, but when she finished, she was also crying, and people in the stands didn't know what to do...she received a half-hearted partial standing ovation, and everyone was relieved I think when she left the ice, because it was such an awkward moment. I will never forget Mirai's exhibition from that day though; the announcer saying "that was beautiful" after she skated, to the crowds reaction after she landed a huge triple toe, and her little smile when she finished.

In searching I found a video of Mirai's exhibition on youtube: It doesn't get close to showing all the emotion, and the stupid commentators are yapping away, but her skate is beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqG3UPgU7as

I just love reading about these experiences - thanks to all for sharing your memories with us!

@Layback - Looking forward to Part the Second! :thumbsup:

Behind the Scenes at the 1990 Goodwill Games
(I have attended over 90 skating competitions. The following is from my memoir of my very first job working for TV.)
Lights! Camera! Action! Sound exciting? The world of television and movies is often perceived as wonderfully glamorous – and it is for those on the receiving end of the camera. Behind the camera, television production is simply a matter of hard work. The opportunity to be on the research staff of the 1990 Goodwill Games was offered to me just after the U.S.Nationals in Salt Lake City. My job was to write down the technical elements in the short and long programs, which requires one to watch all the practices as some competitors rarely run through their full programs at any given time. Nevertheless you can’t always get the order of elements. Talking directly to the competitors and coaches, it was surprising to learn that even they often couldn’t recite the correct order of the elements in their own programs. One coach insisted that there were only 7 required elements in the Short Program, when at that time there were 8 required technical elements. Some skaters routinely interchanged one set of moves for another. The Soviets were notorious for doing several different variations of their programs. Aggravating!
Besides collecting technical elements of programs, I also provided biographical as well as incidental information on the skaters. My unofficial interpreter for the Soviets was Olga Moskvina, a delightful 20 year-old student from Leningrad who was visiting Seattle at the time. Olga was a product of glasnost. She expounded very western ideas and was an avid viewer of MTV. Olga’s fashionably cut red hair, shorts and tank top screamed L.A. and despite being the daughter of famed Soviet pairs coach Tamara Moskvina, she knew absolutely nothing about figure skating. Olga was anxious to please but after two days, Olga decided I was one of those “crazy Americans” who do nothing but work and I never saw her again.
Production people are only concerned with the ongoing aspects of putting on a show. They time the numbers and decide which skaters will be featured. Being prepared for anything is essential in television. At a production meeting we were handed a list of the skaters to be televised. A virtually unknown (to me) Soviet skater Tatiana Rachkova, was not on the list, but the crew taped to air her performance. I had to hunt down her coach, driving 80 miles one way in search of information.
I was never on camera because the network would have had to pay me additional money, so I was rushed out of the broadcast booth to hide behind a screen. The commentators spoke into headsets with microphones but I hadn’t the slightest idea what was actually said. I hoped it was interesting.

A long, long experience. Read at your own risk!

NHK Trophy, Osaka, 2014.

I caught all of the events except for the long programs. Tickets were sold out in minutes, darn it.

I had already made plans to go to Japan around that time and when they announced that Osaka was the host city, I decided to try my luck with the tickets. Unfortunately JSF does not offer all-event packages like they do here for Skate America, so you have to buy the tickets separately. And you will have to fight to the death to get them. Either refresh the page a million times per minute or have your friend run to the nearest convenience stores and push the life out of those ticket machine buttons. :disapp:

Anyway, after who knows how long, I finally got the two sets of tickets for the first and last days.

For the first day, my friend and I got in line to go inside but we were escorted out when we showed our tickets. We had bought ours on the English page of the NHK Trophy (e-plus) site and thus there was a small side window at the venue just for these “foreign” tickets. We weren’t told beforehand so getting escorted out of the main lines was pretty embarrassing. We just pretended not to understand any Japanese. (As we left the venue I saw that there was a small sign saying that e-plus tickets need to be checked in at the window...and my blood boiled.)

The second issue was the venue ushers. They were not trained to read these foreign tickets so they couldn’t really figure out how to bring us to our seats when we got lost. Eventually someone figured out how it worked and that was that.

Despite those hiccups, the rest of the first day was pretty smooth. We sat a few rows above the NHK cameras where we saw Akiko and Nobunari as they were reporting/commentating. I always knew they were small but didn’t think how small they actually were. Nobu looked like an elementary school student in his jacket and tie. Akiko was very beautiful and elegant.

Most of the fans around us were Hanyu fans and whenever he appeared at the rink side, a lot of tem headed up to the front row to yell his name. I couldn’t see anything from where I was sitting and I couldn’t be bothered to push myself through the crowd.

The events started with the pairs first then the ladies. I can’t really remember the pairs but I do remember watching the ladies and being very into Alena’s Charlie Chaplin SP. It was so lively and wonderful. Then there was lovely Kanako who was hit with so many URs (which I found out later) but she was breathtaking live. I loved how she ran over to Nobu and Akiko after her performance. The two older skaters were in tears of joy for Kana. When they turned around, I could see them wiping their eyes.

As for the men’s SP, I remember hearing Daisuke Murakami’s music and thinking very much about the other Daisuke. I kept telling my friend that. Even the two girls next to me thought the same. (They were speaking in Cantonese, which I am also fluent in and the whole time they talked about the skaters, I couldn’t help but listen. It’s hard to shut off my ears, you know. )

Then there was Jeremy Abbott whose SP I had seen at EwC earlier in September that year. But watching him in Osaka was so different. I got the goosebumps the entire time and even now I will go on Youtube and watch this performance of his.

Hanyu wasn’t in his greatest form as you already know. I think a lot of us at the competition were just hoping that he would make it out OK. It wasn’t even just about being on the podium.

~

The last day of the events consisted of the free dance and exhibition. We missed a part of the free dance because of luggage issues that kept me at the post office for an hour. (Too lazy to explain how sending your luggage to the airport works in Japan but it wasn’t supposed to be this complicated. Sigh.) Anyway, we got on a taxi from the post office to the venue which took about 25 minutes but cost us like $80 USD (!!!) On the way there, the driver almost missed the exit so he had to back up on the highway (oh yes he did) and we got a “nice” greeting from the truck driver behind us for almost backing up into him. Yikes.

After that, we had to help the taxi driver find the venue, which was, you know, BIG and he still couldn’t really see it when we already so close. Oh well.

Onto the actual events! I wasn’t much of an ice dance fan before this but after seeing the free dances here, I had to admit I enjoyed them. Most memorable was Weaver/Poje Weaver/Poje’s The Four Seasons was so lovely. The fact that their costumes didn’t really match was interesting. Hehe.

Then there was the exhibition gala and one of the skaters that caught my interest was Sena Miyake. I had known about him previously but didn’t expect to see him skate. His Totentanz was pretty good and his musicality for a novice was impressive.

There was Akiko and Nobu who skated together. That was such a bonus!

~

Other random tidbits:

- I loved how the Japanese fans would bring in several flags and wave them for each country that they supported. Every country was represented, I believe.

- If there is another reason for me to dislike the song “Let it go”, it’s because I was forced to listen to it during this competition whenever they had an intermission.

LRK said:

I just love reading about these experiences - thanks to all for sharing your memories with us!

@Layback - Looking forward to Part the Second! :thumbsup:

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Here you go!

PARTE THE SECONDE

THE SHORT DANCETH

Our Nationals adventure continued on Friday with the short dance, but that wasn't until 5 PM, and what were we going to do, sit on our phones for eight hours in a city state I'd never been to (dad had been but I hadn't)? Of course not! My dad's plan of going to Revolutionary and Civil War battle sites was ousted (partly because I didn't want to and partly because it was 35 degrees and raining), so the only thing left was this science museum/zoo/aquarium, which was pretty cool. (Most of the animals in the outdoor zoo part were smarter than we were and went somewhere warm! The only animals out were the Siberian Tigers and wallabies, but the tigers were the best part anyway.) The thing I remember most about that morning-besides it being so cold-was that I got to eat pasta AND french fries in the same meal , which was about the best thing ever, even though I did feel *slightly* guilty that I ate that with minimal exercise (at least I got some, though-one day I ate two cheeseburgers, because that was all the arena had and they were sold out of salad, and didn't exercise at all). One of my dad's coworkers had recommended a fast-food place that reportedly had over 30 flavors of milkshake (rumor confirmed-they did), and it was equally amazing-#NationalsSplurgeFest! I don't exactly remember what we did while we waited for the short dance to start. But when it was time for the short dance, well, obviously, we went. The paso is not my favorite pattern, and most of the lower-ranked teams used the same few pieces of music, but even so, the first few groups were still fun (distracting costumes galore!). And our seats were great, too-about twenty feet off the ice, in a section they apparently weren't supposed to sell (it was supposed to be a press section) but sold anyway. We were sitting next to all the press people, who were all really nice, asking me questions about who I was looking forward to seeing and things like that, and they made good seat-mates because they didn't talk while people were skating, get up a lot, or do anything distracting, unlike some of the other people I sat next to at other events. The skating was great, too. A lot of the medal favorites skated in the middle, so it was nice not to have to wait so long to see my favorites and/or the famous people. Madi and Evan, the eventual champions, were one of those teams, and I quite enjoyed their skate, even though it never stood out to me watching on IceNetwork. The main event, however, was the Shibs. The second they struck their closing pose, it was like the place was on fire. Always great to see your favorite team get a standing ovation at a live event! :dance: They totally brought down the house! That is a performance I will never, ever forget (I honestly thought they should've won the SD, but they came in second by .11. Several people booed when they didn't win, and I probably would've too if my dad wasn't sitting right there. ) It was honestly one of the most memorable hours of my life, and the best event I could've hoped for to be my first live competition! But little did I know, it was about to get even better...

TO BE CONTINUED (Saturday, part 1: SD/Pairs short; saturday, part 2: ladies free; and saturday, part 3: Lobby Stalking)

Love reading these :dance:

I LOVE going to the competitions! At Worlds in LA (2009), I was walking out of Staples Center and automatically held the door open for the person behind me. It was Stephane Lambiel! He was very polite and smiled and said thank you and shot off like a sprite. And then at Nationals in St. Paul (2008), I was in the TSA line behind Meryl and Charlie and their moms, and everything got hung up because of Charlie's silver medal.

chasingpolaris said:

- I loved how the Japanese fans would bring in several flags and wave them for each country that they supported. Every country was represented, I believe.

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I have never been to a skating competition, but I have noticed that watching on TV and in vids. I find it very endearing. I may be wrong, but it seems pretty unique to Japan.

^ I always bring the different flags I have for international competitions & shows in which there are international skaters. @ 2005 Skate America in Atlantic City, NJ, I waved to Kurt with my Canadian flag during a Zamboni break. Kurt was doing commentary for ABC that season. Later in the evening, as we were getting ready to leave the venue, we saw a bunch of flower sweepers patiently waiting in line. It turned out that they were all there to meet Kurt. I asked my husband to stick around a bit, so we got to meet Kurt. He remembered me as the fan with the Canadian flag, and thought I was Canadian. I don't remember if I told him that I wasn't, but we the Canadian skaters, too.

@ 2014 Boston Nationals, we always stay for the medal ceremonies. Following the ice dance ceremony, the photographers were doing their additional shots of the medalists. We were standing by the boards. Meryl came over to me, and handed me her bouquet. I thought it was just temporary, and that she would come back for it, but she didn't get to do that, so I ended up with her bouquet. 3 months later, we got to talk to Meryl & Charlie after our SOI show. I thanked her for the bouquet, and gave her a picture of me with it.

Ah, that is lovely. See: it pays (even beyond its own reward) to be a kind person.