We've Finally Skated

We skated on the track today…at last. We kept hearing that the track is bumpy, but looking at it, you wouldn’t think so. Once we got onto the track though, we realized that it is monster to tame, and a fast one at that.

We almost left AJ behind at the hotel because he was ultra late for the bus. But he was lucky to make it to the track. This was after a nice dinner at the Outback restaurant in town which served amazing food and drinks including Fruit-Ade.


The team before lunch at the Outback.

During today’s practice, we were definitely not at our best. Bill Begg was coaching the German team while we were skating. We also skated with the Spanish and the Argentina teams and they are definitely skating fast. While we skated, the entire USA team was out on the road in force looking very good.Good ‘old Jesse tripped himself up in his skates in the corner and went down. Jade tried to jump over him. As Jade was going down, I tried to jump over him and went down. That was a nice little incident. Before this one, I was skating around and all of a sudden, the track workers decided to connect come electrical lines across the track during our practice. They warned us when we were maybe 10-meters away. I was the only one who could not make it off the track, so I tried to hop over the wire. As I was hopping, they lifted the wire and I got all tangled up.


Bill Begg talking to us as soon as we arrived.


Argentina's legend Andrea Gonzales.


That's me during my flying lap. It wasn't too 'flying'; it was a sad 18.3. Mind you I was skating about 85-90%. Bill Begg was saying that if we want to be in contention for medals, we've got to have our laps into the low 16's.


Chinese-Taipei skated after us. They came out in full force with very nice suits.

The best part of the championship so far is how well organized the championship is. After our practice, we were taken to a restaurant and greeted by local people. They paid for our meal, gave us gifts, and will come out to cheer for us when we race. It’s amazing so far.


There was a sign welcoming us. They ate with us, dined us, were very nuice, and they're coming to watch us race!

The plan for tomorrow is pretty basic: sleep, chill, and practice in the early afternoon, and then more sleep and chill. We get to skate with the Colombian team tomorrow.