Katrina & Kimmie
I wish I had blogged last week about my prediction that Katrina Hacker would be a surprise contender in the ladies event. Becoming :thisclose: to making the world team? Good for her on a great debut as a senior at Nationals. I had the privilege of photographing Katrina a few years ago for a catalog for Tania Bass. Katrina rocks. She's smart and funny and a joy to work with. She also has the most perfectly centered spins of anyone I've ever seen.
The split ladies competition was interesting. Usually I miss the first two groups because I'm wrapping up whatever I've been working on for the event before them. This year I tried to watch it online while getting ready, but was only able to get audio. I heard a decent-sized crowd attended. That's great, because I was worried that those two groups would have to skate in an empty arena.
Going from dance right into ladies without any break was kind of jarring. Daphne went down to the press conference for the dance, but found out there wasn't going to be one. I don't think it hit us that ladies was starting immediately. As in "Meryl & Charlie get off the ice so group 3 can have their six-minute warm-up."
Probably what I'll remember most about this year's ladies competition is Kimmie's skate. Actually, that's not completely accurate. I'll remember how the crowd reacted. No one's program has brought me to tears this year. Until last night. After opening with three hard falls, the crowd became one giant swell of support. The cheers got louder and louder, and you could feel everyone reaching out and trying to help. No longer was Kimmie just some skater having a bad day. She was this wonderful athlete who has used her name for tons of charity work, never gotten arrested for a DUI or caught in some drunken stupor by paparazzi's video. She was in trouble and we could only offer our voices and our applause to try to lift her up and know we wanted to make it better. Whether or not you are a fan of Kimmie's skating, seeing anyone in trouble like that tears at your heart. Sometimes world champion jocks remind us that they are just teenagers living their worst nightmare in front of millions of viewers on live television. When Kimmie sat in the kiss and cry, tears in her eyes, and mouthed "thank you (for the support)" to the crowd, it was completely heartbreaking.
I need to get ready to go to the Xcel for one final day. Not sure when I'll post again, but I promise to do a wrap-up blog at some point.
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