Jan. 9
Medal Ceremonies
They removed the trophy table from the Hall of Fame ceremony and immediately began setting up the four-tiered podium for the medal ceremonies. They brought out a table that had the flowers and medals on it. The flower girls and boys filed in carrying pillows to help distribute the table items.
They announced that the junior medal ceremonies would commence first. They began with the Junior Men champions. Then, the Junior Dance champions followed. Last but not least, the evenings' champions of Senior Pairs and then Senior Ice Dancers rounded out the mass ceremonies.
For each ceremony, they were called out in order of placement, one through four, with the winner coming out first. Each skater/team left the backstage entrance/exit area and went out to center ice, bowed to the judges' side and then to the opposite side. Then, after retracing steps back toward the direction of the entrance, took the appropriate step on the podium. The flower children took the medals off the table and placed them on the pillows. The presenter took the medals off of the pillows and put them around the necks of first place, then second place and so on. Trophies were also brought out for the gold medallists. Another presenter gave them pins. Then flowers were handed out. The flowers were a very pretty assortment of roses that they announced were special made for Nationals. Each presenter gave handshakes to each competitor. After all the items were distributed, the photographers, who had been taking pictures during the distribution, had their moment to assemble all the competitors on the top rung of the podium. They took time to choreograph all skaters/couples on there at the same time while the skaters laughed and talked. After those photographers were satisfied, the skaters took a victory lap. The gold medallists led, then silver, then bronze, and so on. The skater train had to be in order of placement. The names and placements were re-announced during the victory lap where the skaters waved. They stopped in front of the area that used to be the judges' seating. More photographers had positioned there. So, they posed, holding out their medals and giving genuine smiles. Each celebration ended with the skaters going over to sign autographs and more picture posing for adoring fans calling out to them.
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