My experience at the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota

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NOTE: This page is not yet completed. I'm still going to put up pictures and autographs, so don't worry.

Tuesday, March 31st, was not the most perfect day. After an awful afternoon of walking home in the pouring rain, my only comfort was that I was going to go see the Pairs short program with Olga, my beautiful sister, and Leslie, my beautiful best friend.

As we drove to downtown Minneapolis, the rain began to turn into sleet (and while we were at the competition it actually turned to snow.) After parking, the three of us quickly found our way to our seats...all the way in row "X." We sat so far up that standing up almost made us dizzy.

The mayor, Sharon Sayles Belton came out, and also governor Arne Carlson. Next, the president of the International Skating Union said a few words. In the middle of the arena there was a group of people on a small stage. They sang the National Anthem and then left. Now we would have to wait another half hour until the actual skating started. Olga crept down to the lower level to see if we could all go sit there. She got in just fine, without anyone stopping her, and then came back. We decided we needed to "go to the bathroom," which was across from the entrance to the lower-seat area. She went in first. About three minutes later Leslie and I started for the entrance. The usher saw us and said, "Where are you going?" We both answered, "We're looking for our mom."

He nodded and let us go through...hee hee. I spotted my sis and we went to sit down next to her. After a minute we realized she didn't exactly look like "our mom." So she turns to the people next to her, a couple about 50-60 years old, and says, "They're looking for their mom, but I don't look like it, so if anyone asks can-" Before she could finish one of them said, "You don't have these seats either, do you?"

After that I could finally relaxed. I began to look around and take in all of the excitement. Our new seat was in row "N," not far at all. The rink wasn't huge, but it wasn't small. The lights overhead were really bright, brighter than they are on TV even! To my lower left I noticed a few TV cameras and correspondents & commentators, among them figure skater Barb Underhill (who used to skate with Paul Martini.) Farther down was the kiss-and-cry area, which I thought would be a big space, all shnazzy and stuff. All it was, was a bench and the '98 WFSC backdrop. Oh, and two camera men.

We bounced around in our seats a bit more and then, finally, it was 6:42 p.m. Three groups of pairs came out onto the ice to warm up. Our eyes went from one to another and then back again. The announcer told us not to take flash pictures and not to throw wrapped flowers on the ice during the performance or warm-up. Two of the groups cleared the ice and then it began. The first to skate was a pair from Azerbaijan and although they looked and skated like rookies, they weren't half bad. Leslie liked the girl's hairstyle, which was a small bun and blond tendrils of ringlets along the bottom. After they skated we stood up with our sign and cheered. Next were two Latvians. They were also pretty amateur and a rocky performance placed them in last place. I actually enjoyed their program an their intricate costumes were neat, too. We waved our sign around for them, too. Through our binoculars I could see them in the kiss-and-cry area or up on a screen above the middle of the rink. The German team of Peggy Schwartz and Mirko Muller was the last in the first group of skaters. The two carried out a solid performance. The only thing that could make it better is adding more excitement to it, but they were good still.

The second warm-up group came out onto the rink. I recognized Americans Jenni Meno and Todd Sand instantly, and also the couple from China (Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao.) Jenni has a beautiful costume: a black lacy dress. She skated on the other side of the rink from Todd, who looked very tense. Both of the Chinese skaters were dressed in red and the ends of the woman's dress looked like it was dipped into black dye. Everyone cleared the ice, except for them. The two had a good performance, their twists were very nice. Another pair skated then and finally it was the Americans' turn. Jenni and Todd skated out onto the rink and the whole audience was clapping for them.

They smiled and got into position. Their short program was really good, especially when Todd swooped Jenni down in this funky dismount, where she almost hit her head on the ice. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed and cheered. I myself was really impressed. They finished with good marks, which put them in first place.

There was a short break then. About 10 people in matching blue fleece outfits and black tennis shoes came out, each with a bucket at hand. I grew a bit confused. The group of people took pieces of soft ice out of the buckets and replaced the gaps in the ice. Then they stomped on them to pack 'em in and left the ice. Following them, was a guy in a tuxedo riding a icemower, who resurfaced it. It only took him five minutes and soon he was off the ice, too. Leslie and I were getting hungry.

Soon after that the third warm-up group came out. One of the pairs were dressed very interestingly. He wore a blue coat-of-arms and she had on a short, nightgown-type dress in the same shade. After the warm-up another pair performed. Following them were the two skaters that I just described. They were Canadians and as soon as they entered the rink, half the arena stood up and started cheering and waving flags. After they finished, the same thing happened. Right about then I started going crazy with hunger, so Olga gave us permission to go get something during warm-up time. The last pair in the third group skated and we went. You'd be surprised how lenient this whole place was. On TV looks like every single person in the arena was watching the skater out on the ice, but really I could've stood up and started doing the Macarena if I had wanted to! So leaving to go to the bathroom or whatever was absolutely not a problem. There were ushers at every entrance, but as far as I was concerned, they were doing close to nothing-remember how we got in so easily!?

So while the next group of skaters warmed up on the ice, Leslie and I went out into the hall (or whatever) and looked for something to eat. First we stopped at a food counter that sold hot dogs and french fries and stuff. Then we went around the corner to see what else was offered. Pretty much the same thing. So we came back and I bought onion rings, while Leslie bought fries. By this time the second pair came out onto the ice and began their performance. We got some ketchup and returned to our seats. Immediately Olga grabbed an onion ring from me, but not before stating, "I'm on a diet."

After having some onion rings, my sister pointed out a woman sitting in another section, "Isn't that one of the skaters?" At first Leslie and I didn't think so, but the lady did have a sporty windbreaker on-the kind that skaters put on after getting off the ice. A woman sitting right next to us joined in as we tried to figure out who it was. Finally we came to the conclusion that it was Jelena Sirokhvatova. She and her partner were the second pair to skate. "Why don't you go ask her for an autograph?" said Olga. I was totally against it, because I am one of the shyest people in the world, but as the minutes passed the idea no longer seemed so outrageous. We watched Estonia's Jekaterina Nekrassova & Valdis Mintals and Kazakhstan's Marina Khalturina and Andrei Kroukov. Both pairs were very good. I see a lot of promise in them. I mean, you heard it here first, those kids are going to be famous in a couple of years. Anyway, back to the story at hand. It was time for the final resurfacing of the ice and that's when we decided to do it. Jelena had gotten up from her seat and walked down to the private-skater area, but we knew she'd be back. I grabbed my Mickey Mouse autograph book and Olga took the camera. We waited in the "public" area and a Target Center attendant told us, "You can't bother the skaters. You can't ask them for autographs." All three of us were pissed of at that, but we kept standing. Then I saw Jelena coming back and just as she was walking up to where we were, my sister began to talking to her in Russian. She asked her if we could get an autograph and maybe a picture. She was very nice and said yes. We were very lucky that she was not aware of the fact that we couldn't talk to her-since I'm sure she barely understands English. Both Leslie and I got in the picture with her and I guess I can say only one thing: she is very short. I am around 5'5" and she was up to, like, my ear. After that we went back to our seats.

For a while after that I was very giddy. I actually got an autograph! Now I would be able to go home and tell people that I had met a figure skater! It was an awesome feeling. The figure skating announcer asked for everyone's attention before announcing that the 1998 Olympic Gold Medalists-Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev-would not be attending the evening's competiton. We all groaned. How could that be! It was so unfair! We later learned the Artur got food-poisoning at a sushi-restaurant here in town. But there was nothing left to do but except it. And we did.

The 2nd-to-last skating group came out and was warming up. After they were done, the three pairs skated. The Poles were very good, I thought. Still, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. I had fallen in love with them during the Olympic games and never realized that the rest of the world had also done so.

Finally we saw them come out and wait for the others to finish. Someone suggested we move up, so we did. When the final warm-up group (which included Anton and Elena) came out onto the ice, we crept down and sat down on the third step from the front. The whole atmosphere was different. It was lighter and more open and it felt so much cooler! We waved and yelled when they skated by us and Olga even thought that Anton gave her a dirty look. Elena actually did a spin feet away from my face! Someone shushed us and told us to get out, 'cuz 1) we weren't supposed to be there and 2) we couldn't sit on the steps. We saw that the front two rows were occupied by kids and there were open seats. Leslie and I grabbed the ones in the front row and Olga sat down in the 2nd. The feeling was so great. I could smell the ice and so could Les. It was then that I knew that I'd never forget this night. The sheet we had said there was a Ukrainian pair in the bunch, so we tried to figure out who they were.

Elena and Anton were the first skaters in the group. They wore matching camel-colored costumes, very simple but elegant. They went out into the middle of the arena and got in place. We all froze with anticipation.

The music started and they began to skate. I recognized the tune: Swan Lake, my favorite ballet. How beautiful. About a minute into the program they had to do side-by-side jumps. Both of them fall straight to their bums. We groaned, but they went on. The rest of the program was beautiful and when they finished, we waved our sign for them, too. Next was a pair from Austria, then two French skaters, Sarah Abitol and Stephane Bernadis. When Sarah went to collect flowers and give out hugs, she literally hugged the girl right next to Leslie. No lyin', one girl off. Olga and I screamed "Take a picture, take a picture" but Leslie was just frozen. I grabbed it out of her hand and just started snapping…what turned out were two blurry photos pointed straight at the ceiling. J

There was only one pair of skaters left now: Ukrainians Evgenia Filonenko and Igor Marchenko. They came out dressed in dark green velvet (one of my favorite colors!). Their program was perfromed well, although it was not breathtaking. But nevertheless we cheered like crazy, screaming "U-kra-ee-na," which means "Ukraine" in Russian. Some of the girls next to us began screaming it, too, thinking that it was the female skater's first name. We got their attention and they smiled and waved. As they left the ice, Igor blew us a kiss.

The scores came up and Meno & Sand were in first, with Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze in second. Everybody got up from their seats and left. The three of us, on the other hand, had something else in mind. "Let's go try to get some autographs," said my sister. Leslie & I were thinking the same thing. We walked over to the railing that divided the public seats from the VIP section. There was a staircase right next to the railing and some famous faces were coming down.

I saw Midori Ito wearing some of the biggest heels I've ever seen. She was still really short. :D Then I saw Viktor Petrenko and his Russian coach (she's really famous…her name might be Galina…anyone know who I'm talking about?) I decided to go for it, so I screamed out "Viktor! Viktor!" which got no attention at all whatsoever. He was almost going down the stairs now behind the drawn curtains when I yelled, "Vi-tya!" (his Russian nickname in my perfectly fluent Russian accent) and before I knew it, he was standing by the railing looking at me. My sister ran up (I dunno why she wasn't with us here) and we asked him to sign my autograph book. He did so gladly as we showered him with "Spacebo"s (meaning "Thank you" in Russian.) Leslie just stood there half-frozen.

The rest of the people passed by and we sort of just stood there, giggling from our encounter. We thought of leaving, but Olga suggested we try to get the autograph of Brian Boitano. We had spotted him before doing commentaries for ESPN or ABC or whoever was airing this. We waited as he chatted with some people by his desk and then he began walking towards us. He stopped once more to talk to someone else and finally came over. We asked him for his autograph and asked if he would mind a picture also. He agreed and I got out my camera. Dick Button came over, then, and joked around with Brian. I focused it on Dick, Brian, Leslie, and Olga and pressed the button - but it just wouldn't click! I did this for about 15 seconds until my sister began to give me evil looks. Dick Button had to go, but Brian Boitano stayed. And it was unfortunate, too, for Dick Button was actually giving Leslie bunny ears!!! We finally got it to work and had a good laugh. After a million thanks, he left and we leaped back to my mom's car. The whole ride back to our house we bounced around, going on and on about what a great night this had to turned out to be. Afterwards, we told everyone we knew about it. It was definitely one of, if not, the best nights of 1998!

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