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We started skating together
in September of 1999. It happened by chance. We were both
skating at Ice Castles in Lake Arrowhead at the time with
different partners. Both of our partners had quit skating at the
same time and we were left without partners two weeks before
regional applications were due. We knew each other and decided
to try skating together. Both of our coaches were out of town
so we learned Joe's program together and we decided to sign up
for regionals. We competed in regionals six weeks later and
won. This was the start of our partnership. We combined our
coaches - Alexander Zaitsev and Irina Rodnina. We continued
skating with Alexander Zaitsev until 2003, when he returned to
Russia. We were the baby team at Ice Castles. We skated with
Tiffany and Johnny Steigler, Sima and Amir Ganaba, and John
Zimmerman and Stephanie Steigler, just to name a few. We also
got to skate in many of the Ice Castle summer shows with a lot
of famous skaters. That was really thrilling for us. We usually
got to do solo numbers, so we were backstage with everyone from
Todd Eldredge to Michelle Kwan. We have been with Todd Sand and
Jenni Meno for about two years. Having Todd and Jenni as coaches
has been incredible. We have the best of both worlds because
they are able to give us both a male and female perspective on
our skating. This last year was a year of highlights - we
traveled all over. When we went to the Junior Grand Prix we
stayed a couple of extra days to sightsee. We got to see Spain,
Italy, Austria, Japan, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Some
highlights were Tokyo, Prague, and Venice. We were also very
excited about making the Junior Grand Prix Final our first year
in Junior. This year has been an awesome experience and we only
hope for more in the future. |
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