{"id":4829,"date":"2011-01-18T12:46:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T17:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2017-09-04T16:20:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T20:20:10","slug":"parker-pennington-an-ode-to-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2011\/01\/18\/parker-pennington-an-ode-to-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker Pennington: An Ode to Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Parker Pennington is the only man to have won national titles on the junior, novice, intermediate and junior levels. At the U.S. Championships, Jan. 22-30, in Greensboro, N.C., he is going for his first senior level victory.<\/p>\n

“Getting very excited for nationals, especially because I choreographed my own programs this year and everything down to the acting is my own spin on a new look for my skating this season,” Pennington wrote in a journal entry posted on his official website. “To compliment my choreography, I have been working hard to gain consistency and am looking forward to showcasing my improvements.”<\/p>\n

“It will be a great nationals also because I will have so many friends and family in attendance this year,” he also said. “For some reason, everyone is choosing this nationals to attend. No complaints here.”<\/p>\n

Pennington has competed at the senior level since 2002, finishing as high as sixth in 2003 and seventh in 2007. Before leaving for the 2011 U.S. Championship, he shared his nationals inspired poem with Figure Skaters Online.<\/p>\n

An Ode to Nationals
\n<\/strong>By Parker Pennington<\/em><\/p>\n

Tis\u2019 the Season to be Skating,
\nWhen Ponds are Aplenty,
\nLike Flowers hitting their stride,
\nJust at the Right Time,<\/p>\n

The Moment to Arise,
\nStep up to the Plate,
\nFace the Unique Occasion,
\nWhere butterflies roam Free,<\/p>\n

Angels Fall from the Sky,
\nA Rainbow takes Center Stage,
\nThe air is full of Life,
\nThe Ice is twice as Nice,<\/p>\n

The season sweeps you away,
\nLeft nothing short of breathless,
\nWhen the Ice,
\nBroken or not,
\nSurrenders to something bigger
\nthan any man,
\nWhere medal or not,
\nThe Journey is what matters<\/p>\n

It is the time to embrace,
\nShare the moment with all that
\nmatter to you,
\nFor love of the sport and so much
\nmore,<\/p>\n

It is what rinks were built upon,
\nLike the Roman Cathedral,
\nMore than just a far\u2010fetched
\nvision,
\nIt is the Dreams get Realized,<\/p>\n

What awaits at the end,
\nBut a Pot of Gold, Lucky Charms
\nand Superstitions,
\nWaiting for the Moment,
\nThe time of living.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Leah Adams<\/h5>\n

Figure Skaters Online strives to be an accurate source of information related to the sport of figure skating. To report an error, please e-mail the <\/em>news editor<\/em>. Include the article date and title in your e-mail.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parker Pennington, the only man to have won national titles on the junior, novice, intermediate and junior levels, shares his poem about the U.S. Championship. At the U.S. Championships, Jan. 22-30, in Greensboro, N.C., he is going for his first senior level victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-4829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nationals","tag-parker-pennington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9832,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions\/9832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}