U.S. Figure Skating Team, World University Games

This is Stephanie Roth, the female figure skater for Team USA. At 24, this is my first international competition and I’ve been skating for 20 years. This is definitely something I have been looking forward to since I qualified for the games by winning the US Collegiate Championships in August.

I came here not knowing what to expect. I found the being part of Team USA means you are part of this huge family that is constantly supporting you throughout the way. The camaraderie is something I’m not used to being in an individual sport, but I definitely appreciate it because it’s great to know so many people hear have your back and want to succeed in obtaining your goals.

Like many of my teammates, I feel like this is my Olympics. I don’t think I’ll be skating when 2010 rolls around so I’m soaking up as much of this experience as I can. Every practice I’ve had I’ve had such a blast and hearing my name followed by representing the United States of America is something I’ve hope to hear for many years.

As far as the competition goes, at 31 competitors, this is the largest group I’ve ever competed in. I know that even though there are some extremely talented ladies in my group I have to prepare myself just like I would for any other competition. Before my event and all my practices, I warm up and listen to my iPod which always blasts My Chemical Romance. They get me pumped and ready to go. Since at competition I get less time on the ice than I would on a normal basis, I do a lot of visualization so I can see myself going through the motions necessary to make things work.

I’m pretty happy with where I am placed after short. 10th out of all these girls is pretty amazing, especially since I had to recover from a bad fall early on. I’m so proud of myself for keeping the rest together and my focus is what helped me finish strong. For the long, I’ll be skating in the next to last warm-up which is awesome, because skating later means that you placed higher in short and it also means less waiting until the final results come up, because for me that’s the hardest part, I have no patience once I’m finished because I can’t control how anyone else skates and it drives me nuts.

For the long, I feel great. I skate to “Pirates of the Caribbean” and I love both the movies and my programs. I can’t describe how much I enjoy performing for an audience; it’s my outlet because in normal life I’m pretty shy. This audience was so easy to interact with because they were so welcoming and supportive so I’m looking forward to that again, because even though I’m a long way from my home in New Jersey, this crowd made me feel like I was as welcome as I would be in my own town.

Jamie Hartman Web Diary

U.S. Synchronized Figure Skating Team, World University Games

After arriving in Torino yesterday we have adjusted to the 6 hour time change. Torino is a little bit warmer then we expected it to be and we spent the morning enjoying the weather. We were able to sleep in this morning before an office with our choreographer at the hotel. The view of the mountains is incredible from the bridge that links the village and the Meridian Hotel. A few of us ate breakfast with the Team USA hostess giving her the opportunity to get to know our team a little better. After our office we headed to lunch with some of the other athletes before we went back to our rooms to get ready for our practice. We headed to the rink for another off-ice before our 15 minute practice. This morning two of our nine seniors headed to the official draw with our coaches. The draw determined our skating order for our practice as well as our short program competition tomorrow night! Practice went well; we skated our short and our long programs focusing on the edges and the overall look of the programs. We stayed after our practice to watch some of our competition (Canada and Finland). It is always fun to see what the other teams have brought to the competition! Since practice finished around 5pm we get the rest of the night to meet up with some of the parents and enjoy the city of Torino! Tonight we are planning on going and cheering on the hockey team, supporting team USA! So far the World University Games have been an incredible experience. Having the opportunity to live along side the other athletes in the village has given us a chance to make new friends and learn about cultures that are different from our own! We have been told that everyone is really looking forward to the synchronized skating event because it is a sport that not many people are familiar with! Hopefully there will be a good crowd at tomorrow’s event. Getting the opportunity to represent both our school and our country is such an honor and we are excited to show the world what synchronized skating has to offer!


Jaime Hartman
Synchronized Skating