journal

Thursday, March 15, 2001
Hi Everyone!

Thanks for surfing in! Well, as you probably know from the HUGE, bold letters on the cover page of the website, I am the 2001 Junior World Champion. This entry will be pretty much all about that trip.

I got to Sofia, Bulgaria on Thursday, February 22. It was a decent trip. After we landed, we took the bus to the Princess Hotel which was very nice. I was very happy to be there, and I was ready to get to work!

The next day I began my practices. My practices the entire week were good. I only fell 5 times all week. I was even able to practice some of my difficult triple/triple/triple combinations. There were no major occurrences on the practices except for one day when I picked into a rut and twisted my ankle, but that doesn't matter.

On Monday, I had my qualifying freeskate. I was so nervous. I was in the harder of the two groups. My group included Vincent Restencourt, Jeffrey Buttle, Evan Lysacek, and Stephan Lambiel who are all big contenders of mine. I skated sixth out of 22 skaters. After a shaky warm up which included one of my five falls, I started my program. I performed triple lutz/triple toe, triple axel/triple toe, triple flip, triple axel, triple loop, and triple salchow. My spins were all decent, and I was thrilled to have skated so well. My marks were all relatively good, except for one judge who had me far below the others. I was in the lead right away, and there was a long time before my main challengers skated. They all skated well, but the judges kept me on top, and I won my qualification. I was thrilled. I thought for sure they'd let Restencourt win due to him being such a known name in the skating world, but they gave it to me, and I was so happy. Another major opponent of mine won the other group, Ma Xiaodong of China who beat me in China earlier this year. Everyone thought it would turn into an amazing short program.

I competed the short program the following day. Of course I was
extremely nervous, especially with being one of the leaders heading into the competition. I skated twenty ninth out of thirty competitors. I had a very good warm up and was confident heading into my program. I opened up very well with my circular step sequence and my double axel. Then it was time for the BIG stuff. I hit my triple axel/triple toe combination perfectly and I was so excited. But then........I crashed on my triple flip. I was skating down the ice perfectly normal and fine, and then I got tilted in the air and couldn't hold on to the jump. I then slid into the boards like Shamoo and hopped up to stay on time with my music. I ended the program and was very disappointed that I had let myself fall. I thought for sure that I'd drop from first. But once again the judges rewarded me for my spins and presentation, and I was in first by five of the nine judges. I was ecstatic.

I had a day between my short and long programs to regroup and relax. But the day of my long program, having that extra day meant nothing. I got up on Thursday morning and was nervous right away. I had an awesome practice in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day in my room resting up for the long night ahead of me. I got to the rink about an hour before my warm up so I could stretch and adjust to the atmosphere of the rink. That hour went by very quickly. I got my skates on and was on the ice warming up before I knew it. The warm up went well. I got off knowing that I had a clean warm-up and that I'd be fine. I skated twenty third in the freeskate. I took my skates off for a few minutes after my warm up so me feet wouldn't get cramped, and I listened to some music trying to relax. That time went way to fast. My name was being called before I could bat an eyelid. I skated out and presented to the judges first and then the audience, and then I took my big circle while nobody was clapping, like I always do. Then I took my starting pose. My music started, and I wanted to cry I was so nervous. I skated down the ice into my opening combination very cautiously, and I even slipped on a crossover (HEHE). Then I did triple lutz/triple toe, and it was fine. Then I skated into triple axel. I waited a little to long to jump and I ended up two footing the jump and tacking on a double toe. The rest of the program was a blur. I did triple flip, triple axel, triple loop, and triple sal. The program was cautious and certainly not my best, but I thought I did okay handling the pressure and skating the best I could for that moment. I was very disappointed though because I though that I'd lose it because I was so cautious. I started to get choked up because there was so much pressure, and I felt like I'd let myself down. I went to the kiss and cry and just sat there astonished because I thought for sure I'd lost. But then my first marks came up. They were decent, not as high as some of the others, but I didn't do as much either. Then the second set popped up. I saw above the marks "Current Rank: 1." I couldn't control myself. HAHA I was so happy that I'd won. I couldn't believe that I had won, it was an amazing experience for me to stand there and see my name go up as number 1. I had five of the judges first place ordinals and even four 5.7s for presentation. The rest of the night went very quickly with doping and the press conferences and medal ceremony. I was so relieved that my work all year had culminated and actually had meaning now.

The next day I had to do some things for Lifetime Television, and that night was the closing banquet. I was told about three hours before the banquet that I would be doing a short thank you speech on behalf of all the skaters. I was so nervous. Even more nervous than for my performances. My speech lasted about a second, and I was so red by the end of my second in front of the microphone. It was so embarrassing. But the rest of the night was fun, and I was still kind of shocked that I was the best in the world.

The following day was the exhibition. I skated very well in it. I performed to Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" for the last time. I put that show program to rest there. For my encore I skated to my new music "This I Promise You" by *NSYNC. It went well, and I just soaked in the applause when I was done, I was so happy. That night, the skaters went to a disco as the closing party.
It was a lot of fun, and I think everyone had a good time.

The next day, I traveled to Frankfurt, Germany to spend the night. Team USA had their final meal together and had a fun night before we all went our separate ways the following day. My flight home was really nice. I was on a 777 with only 59 other people, so we each got our own row. Another fun fact, I didn't realize it, but my best friend Dirke's aunt was on my flight. I saw her as we were getting off in Philly. I was so excited to be home. I didn't really care for Bulgaria that much. I got some good stuff when we went out shopping, but other than that, it isn't really a place I need to visit again.

I was greeted in Delaware with a lot of congratulations, and a busy schedule. I have a show in Minnesota, and then I have a bunch in Massachusetts. After my shows, I'm taking a vacation for the first time in 4 years. I am going to Aruba with my best friend Kendra Goodwin and her family. It will be so much fun. Of course I'll have some pictures for you all to see! Anyway, I had such a wonderful experience in Bulgaria, hopefully I'll have many more like it. Ciao!

-J