Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The World Comes to Los Angeles

And I will be there to cheer them on!

Staples Center will be hosting the World Figure Skating Championships this week. As I usually do when I attend major competition, I will be meeting up with a group of skating fans that I met online many years ago. In fact, the first competition we all attended together was the 2002 U.S. National Championship, which was also at Staples Center.

I bought my tickets and booked my hotel last year. Planning ahead has its privileges; we have fantastic seats. *squeal*
The biggest perk of buying an all-event package is getting a practice pass. Many times the practices foreshadow what will happen during the actual competition. Practices also give you insight into how people train, how they deal with mistakes or criticism and whether they are catty towards other competitors. The end of practice sessions are also a good time to say hello or get an autograph from skaters. And since most practice sessions are usually only attended by coaches, commentators, skating icons and die-hard uber fans, the sessions are THE best place to get all the latest gossip. And the skating world always has a lot of gossip. Things can be quite interesting behind all the sequins and sparkly makeup.
With practices starting as early as 7am and competitive events ending as late as 11pm, attending a major competition isn't a very relaxing experience. But who cares as long as you're having fun, which is what we always seem to have. :-)

4 comments:

weezermonkey said...

Hey! Does this explain all my fsuniverse hits? ;)

amber said...

so fun! i was toying with buying tix to the ladies free skate (they just released more tickets this morning), but opted to have a quiet evening at home in light of a crazy month ahead of me. i'm interested to hear how it was though!

Grace said...

I'm looking forward to more blog posts about this event. The practice sessions sound interesting. Have a great time!

Feminist Gold Digger said...

I am so sweetly amused by your love of figure skating. I think it is the most wretched Olympic sport. [giggling]