2000

First I would like to thank Brian, Leah, and Lisa for making my Official Web Site such a huge success!! They have all put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to make this site look and function the way it does and they are truly the best.

Recently I competed in my internationals for the 1999-2000 skating season. I was selected for the Junior Grand Prix events in both the Netherlands, and in Norway.

I was selected for these international events by finishing second in the 1999 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships which were held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Junior Grand Prix in the Netherlands was my first international competition out of the United States. I had a wonderful time. I skated a fair short program in which I landed a double axel, triple flip double toe combination, and fell on my triple lutz.

In the long program I did a triple lutz double toe combination, triple flip, double axel, triple toe loop, and fell on my second triple lutz and my triple loop.

I ended up 12th overall in this competition! It was really exciting for me to place 12th out of 21 of the best men in the world and it was only my first Junior Grand Prix event.

About two weeks after I attended the Junior Grand Prix in the Netherlands, I attended the second Junior Grand Prix of my assignments. This one was in Hamar, Norway.

In this competition, I skated the best I have ever skated as a junior man. Not only was this my third competition since Nationals but also my third competition at the junior level.

In my short program I turned out of my double axel, and also turned out of my triple lutz. But I landed a solid triple flip double toe combination. After this wonderful performance I was 5th. This was a great way to enter the free skate.

I drew #21 to skate out of the 21 men-- this meant I had a tremendous wait between the warm up and my free skate. After waiting 40 minutes after the warm up, I skated my long program.

In the program I landed a double axel, triple lutz double toe combination, fell on my triple flip, landed the second triple lutz, landed triple loop, landed triple toe double toe combination, and a hydroplain triple toe to finish off the best free skate program I have had yet to deliver in my skating career.

I ended up 5th overall. This was very exciting for me to do so well and skate in the 1994 Olympic Arena.

Now that these two Junior Grand Prix events are over for me, I will be training for the Eastern Sectionals which will be held the first week of December in Orange, New Jersey.

I am also going to be seeing a doctor at Children's Hospital in Boston to see when I am able to get out of my back brace. I should be getting out of the back brace very soon and hopefully attending the 2000 Nationals in Ohio.

Thanks for visiting my site, and I will update you with a new entry after Easterns!

Take care,

Nick