First off, way to go to the U23 crew in GER. Reppin!
Last night we had dinner in our hotel, which lasted for hours. We had a nice stalemate with the waitstaff. I thought we were waiting for a 3rd course for a while, then Ashely notified me that it was up to us to ask for the check. Everybody was pretty happy talking, so we spent the better part of our evening telling stories in the restaurant.
After supper, we had a team meeting and the coaches had a chance to tell our stories — our entrance to the sport, background in racing, and in coaching. It turns out I’m the only person here that has never made the J1 Trip (I pre-date it by a few years). Both Matt and Ashely are 2-year qualifiers for the J1 trip, back in their day.
We then gave a homework assignment to the athletes. Finland is certainly a great place to visit, but part of what makes these trips cool is getting to know friends from around the country. These athletes may be great friends, still, in another 30 years (probably coaching by then!). So, everybody had to donate 1 ski-tie, then everybody pulled 1 ski-tie at random from the bag. Based on whose ski tie they got, they have to interview that person and get to know them a little better. This afternoon everybody are working on that, in between lunch and a short strength session this evening.
We got some nice team/individual photos of athletes in their uniforms. They’ll be up later today, hopefully.
From FIN, //Tim
[ C L I C K . I M A G E S . T O . E N L A R G E ]
Will demonstrating excellent Lightning technique:
Frosty tree @ night:
Kate, Kinsey, David, Logan, Jessica @ Supper:
The group takes over the hallway (we have our own wing, so we’re not too bothersome):
JJortberg, Izzy, Vigers learning the “Tally Ho” dance from Slumdog Millionaire:
