January 3, 2009

Happy New Year! 2008 was an exciting year, and I am looking forward to the highlights and challenges that this New Year will bring. I have been busy with school this past year, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to do any journal entries. I am definitely looking forward to graduating this upcoming May, and I will be taking full-time course work at BGSU again this semester, so I thought I would at least try to summarize some of the things I did in 2008, before classes begin again.

I started off 2008 with a cast on my hand because of a broken thumb, but within a few weeks after U.S. Nationals it did come off; the other change that I made after Nationals was with my skates. I had been in the Jackson hinged boots for a number of years, which helped prevent me from getting the enlarged bursas on my ankles, something that I struggled with for so many years in the past. Jackson worked with me to develop a regular boot, with a few changes to it making the transfer back to the traditional boot a little easier. Since I wasn’t going to Worlds or Four Continents to compete, I had a couple of weeks to readjust to skating in them. After the initial switch, I noticed that the hinged boots had made my ankles very strong and that I no longer needed to lace my boots up as tightly as I used to. I feel very comfortable in the traditional boot now, and I strongly believe that having been in the hinged boot extended my capability to continue skating and competing without injury.

Between the months of February and May, I had the opportunity to skate in a few shows in the Midwest. The shows in which I performed were in Traverse City, Michigan; Springfield, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio at the Cleveland Skating Club; and the Superstars on Ice show in Skokie, Illinois.

I also planned to begin competing early in the season, starting with my short program at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, competition in May; however, my family’s vacation began the day that I was supposed to compete. I chose to take the much-needed vacation and went with my parents and sister to Sanibel Island, Florida. (The last time we vacationed was four years previous to that when my sister and I graduated from high school.) She had just graduated from college in May, and my mom and dad wanted to go somewhere to celebrate a postponed 30th wedding anniversary, too. We enjoyed Sanibel four years ago, when we visited there, so we went back again. We had a long snowy winter in Michigan and the Midwest last year too, so the warm weather and sunshine were much appreciated. I had not taken any time off the previous season because of the Champions on Ice tour, and I was strongly feeling the effects of that decision even before the 2008 Nationals.

After I returned from vacation, I performed in the Detroit Skating Club show, and in the following weeks, I began training my new long program to music from the film Dr. Zhivago, choreographed by David Wilson. Dr. Zhivago is a special piece for me since my great-great grandmother was born in Russia, and (her daughter) my great-Grandma Starr’s favorite music was Lara’s Theme. My coaches and I chose to keep my short program for another season. My first competition of the season was in Grand Rapids, Michigan; I then competed at the Liberty competition for the first time. I usually do the Detroit Skating Club competition since it is where I train, but I had previously made plans to train that week in Fargo, North Dakota, and spend the week with a skating family and friends in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. From there, I flew home and the following day left for Sun Valley, Idaho. There, I trained for the week with Brian Boitano and Linda Leaver, I performed in the show, and then I trained with them some more before going to the Collegiate National Championships in Denver, Colorado. I did a lot of biking again in Sun Valley also; they have fantastic trails, if you don’t mind the altitude. I was able to ride the lift to the top of Bald Mountain while I was there and gaze at the beautiful view of the valley below. While I was in Sun Valley, I was also able to see the opening performance of their symphony in the new amphitheater. We watched the construction workers all week as they almost miraculously labored to finish the building and grounds before the deadline. All of the skaters (and friends) had a picnic on the grounds that evening while listening to the orchestra and viewing the mountains in the background. I know there were no seats left inside the amphitheater, and I don’t think there was much empty space left on the surrounding grounds, either!

When I arrived in Denver, I had already adjusted to the altitude thanks to my training in Sun Valley, so my program run-throughs went rather well for early in the season. I wasn’t ready to compete a program a day for three straight days, though. (There was a qualifying round for the championship ladies competition, followed by a short program and a final long program.) It was nice to compete and skate with other skaters who are also going to college full-time while trying to juggle their skating training. (I was also taking a summer school class, and I had to take the final exam the day of competition. What I hadn’t thought about before that was the time difference from the time zone in Ohio, so my final was about 6 a.m.) The last time that I was able to compete at collegiate championships was 2004 when it was only a couple of hours from my hometown of Bowling Green, Ohio. Since that time, the competition dates or places didn’t fit into my training schedule, so I was excited when I found out that I could compete at the championships again. This year, as the collegiate champion, I will be able to attend the World University Games in Harbin, China! I had the opportunity to attend the university games previously, but at that time the competition schedule conflicted with U.S. Nationals. This year, they are at different times. I have competed in Harbin before, when I was there in 2007 for their Grand Prix event. I believe we will be competing at the same arena, but will be staying in an athlete village with athletes competing in other winter sports at the games. It was cold in Harbin last November; I can just imagine what it will be like in February, and being so close to Siberia!

My sister and I were asked by adult skaters if we would hold a spin seminar; we conducted the seminar at the Detroit Skating Club this past August. We had a great turn out, and we both enjoyed working with adult skaters. (My mom was an adult skater at one time, and that is how both Amber and I started skating in Bowling Green, Ohio, when we were very young.) Amber and I both teach figure skating, but most of our students are young, so teaching adults was a nice change.

At the end of summer, my family and I drove to Wisconsin to visit family and to take a break from skating and school, before getting ready for the fall season and BGSU classes. After that short break, I got back into training again. My first competition was in Wyandotte, Michigan, in September, where I skated very well. Soon afterwards, I went to Oberstdorf, Germany, for the Nebelhorn Trophy competition, where I won the gold medal and had the opportunity to get my programs in front of international judges.

When I returned from Germany, I flew to L.A. for the McDonald’s Family Tribute on Ice show. Performing at the show were Mario, Nick Lachey, and Almost Amy (which included Mark Ballas and Derek Hough from Dancing With the Stars). I don’t think that any of us skaters doing the show had ever skated on an ice surface that small. (In other words, it was postage-stamp size!) It was challenging to work all of the choreography into that tiny area, especially when we were performing group numbers. From there, I flew directly to Montreal, Canada for a photo shoot with Mondor. (I had done a photo shoot for a jewelry advertisement also this past year and a few modeling jobs with MAC, and some modeling jobs during the Red Bull Air Races and the NASCAR races at the Michigan International Speedway, but not much more than that because of time and scheduling conflicts. A new Michigan law has brought much business from the movie industry here; and I did some auditions for films, but I could not commit to any time schedule because it would take away from my training time before the Grand Prix competitions.)

Brian Boitano and Linda Leaver came to work with me in Detroit the week before Skate Canada. Brian had shows in Ohio and Illinois with a week between the two, so they stayed in Detroit, which was nice for me—one less trip that I would have to make before going to Canada. And it was great to have Brian skate at Detroit Skating Club that week too! Initially, I had only been invited to Skate Canada, in Ottawa this year for the Grand Prix series. I always enjoy competing in Canada, and they have many figure skating fans. I was happy to earn another medal for the U.S., but I also hoped to get another opportunity to compete on the Grand Prix series. My next competition was to be Midwest Sectionals in Dallas. We had made last minute flight arrangements for going to Texas, but then the next day had to cancel everything, because I was assigned Cup of Russia after one of the Finnish skaters withdrew due to injury. I had been to Moscow for a previous Grand Prix event, but this time we competed at another arena and stayed at a different hotel in another part of the city. Both the arena and hotel were much nicer than last time, but the bus ride to the arena could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half because of traffic, so planning the time schedule for the day was slightly challenging! I had some trouble adjusting to the ice there, which in turn seemed to affect some of my jumps. I would have liked to have arrived at least a day earlier to help me adjust to the time change and the ice, but this season the athletes are being sent to the competition later in the week than we used to. I did get used to the snow there, though, before coming back to an early winter in Michigan. I think it snowed almost every night we were there.

My family again traveled to Wisconsin; this time for the Thanksgiving holiday to spend time with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their pet cats and dogs. We thought it might be safer to visit before the snow season got started, but we still ended up leaving earlier than planned because of a big storm. And we ended up driving in the snow and bringing it back to Michigan with us.

I was an alternate for the Grand Prix Final, but I was already scheduled to perform in some December ice shows to keep myself busy, besides having finals at school. The first show was in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was their Symphony on Ice show, and I skated to live orchestral music for both of my numbers. I had only done that once previously in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, quite a few years ago. My luggage didn’t arrive until the afternoon of the show, but at least I had been able to carry my skates on the plane out of Detroit’s airport. The same thing happened on the return trip, but again, I managed to carry on my skates. From there, I went to Dallas, Texas, to do the Christmas tree lighting show at the Galleria Mall. It is a short Christmas show put on at the skating rink during the Christmas holiday season, complete with a Santa (Dan Hollander) on skates that shoot flames (the skates that is, not Dan). It’s quite impressive seeing him do his back flip in a Santa costume with fireworks coming of the back of his skates, on a small rink surface with an 85-foot-tall decorated Christmas tree in the center of the ice. (By the way, this ice surface is still larger than the one used for the McDonald’s Family Tribute ice show.) I was also scheduled to participate in Brian Boitano’s show in December, but the show ended up being cancelled. That gave me extra time to get ready for school finals!

The following week I spent in Toronto working with my choreographer, David Wilson on my programs, and he also choreographed a new show number for me too. I made it back to Detroit just in time before the big snowstorm of the season hit. (We all hope that was the big one anyway!) What would Christmas in the Midwest be without snow!? My family and I stayed in the area for Christmas and New Year’s; travel during snow season has been tricky both last winter and this winter so far.

Well, that brings me up to the New Year. Our weather has been quite “wintry” so far. Over 200,000 residents in the Detroit area lost power for over a week between Christmas and New Year’s because of a high wind storm. Our family had power and heat, but our skating club lost its power and, of course, the ice, so we all had to scramble to find alternate training facilities for a week. That also happened during the first week of our summer skating schedule this year too, because of strong thunderstorm winds. ( Chicago, you can keep your windy city to yourself, please; we have enough problems here in Detroit that seem to be making national headlines lately…that’s another journal entry in itself!)

I am looking forward to competing in Cleveland later this month; I hope to see many of you there. My schedule, that I know of so far this year, will also include competing at the World University Games in February, performing in the Bowling Green, Ohio ice show in April, and graduating in May! I want to thank all of you for your emails and letters, and a special thank you to those of you who have generously supported me financially, as I continue my training and competing. I am very grateful for my on ice coaches (Julie Berlin, Linda Leaver, Brian Boitano, Yuka Sato, Natalia Deller, and Amber Czisny); my trainer, Debbie Pitsos, my ballet instructor and coach, Stephanie Pizzo, and my choreographers (David Wilson, Kurt Browning, and Lori Nichol), the Jackson skate company, especially Raj Misir, and, of course, the wonderful people at Figure Skaters Online!

Happy 2009,

Alissa