The seats are packed, the change rooms full with ice skating teams going through last minute checkups ÃÂ Hair, make up, tights, costumes, and skates! And as the top NSW junior team the ÃÂIce crystalsÃÂ stand in a huddle five minutes before we skate, I remember back to when we first skated as a synchronized ice skating team.
I remember learning the routines, those early morning practices with the on ÃÂ ice fights over the smallest things. Where the coaches are yelling at us to skate faster, bend your knees, use those edges, heads up, ultimately to bring us to our goal, to skate as one.
But it is not about just winning gold and going overseas, it is more than that. ItÃÂs that feeling that you get just before an exam or a really important job interview, you feel like you are going to be sick and then just before you have time to react.
Montréal 1879. Secteur Hôtel Windsor et Victoria...
Skate Pack
I want to skate tooBefore all that food you didnÃÂt eat that morning can come out, you step on that ice, or start that exam or begin that interview, and all the anxiety begins to disappear. ItÃÂs like something inside of you has flicked the on switch and your body is doing what it is meant to do, as if you had practiced it a hundred times. Then, just as quickly as it all began, its over. Nothing you can do can possibly change the result now. It is all out of your hands.
All of a sudden a cold breeze wisps through the door, and glides across my face. A shiver is sent down my spine and my knees begin to shake.
Sarah whispers in my ear, ÃÂI think its timeÃÂ. I look in her eyes and I see fear beginning to wash all over...