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March 6, 2004 13:49 EST
Hi everyone,
Thanks for visiting my website. As you are reading this I
am probably away at the Worlds in Russia and Sweden.
Hopefully I can give some good news when I come back. I am
very confident that everything will go smoothly. My training on-ice has been very good for the last couple of weeks.
Our team is very strong too this year. We have a good mix of experience and young, fast skaters with us. We hope
to keep our World Title in the Team Championship. I will try to write on this webpage once a week to give some news
about what is happening in my skating season and in my life in general. Hope everyone enjoys it. And a big thanks
to Lori for putting this page up.
See you,
Jonathan
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March 12, 2004 0:28 EST
Hi everyone,
It's Friday morning here in St. Petersburg, Russia. I just woke up. I'm starting to get used
to the 8-hour time difference. I don't feel jet lag anymore. Training has been great so far, the ice is very good. The
ice rink is fairly new, it's really nice, with big locker rooms and the temperature is very warm so we are comfortable
skating. Outside the weather is very good, too. So far we've been lucky, it was sunny every day of the week except
this morning, and the temperature was around 5-10 degree celcius (40°-50° Fahrenheit). But we've not been running in
the city because there is so much pollution because of the cars they are using. (Cars are very old here.) The
food is not great here in the hotel. Every meal of each day it's always the same thing in the buffet; there are
a lot of choices but nothing is very interesting. Raw vegetables are very hard to find here at this time of year.
The only ones that they have are over-cooked cabbage and potatoes. But because I was here last year I came prepared.
I brought a lot of food with me. I have a lot of beans like chick peas (garbanzos), green peas and lentils.
I also have lots of grains like kamut, spelt, rye and barley. So I sprout all of them in my hotel room and I have a
very good meals compared with what they have at the hotel buffet.
Competition is starting tomorrow, we are in the second bracket with Italy, Great Britain and Russia.
If we win this bracket we are going directly in the final Sunday. If not we have to skate in a repechage the same night.
Hope we win this tomorrow afternoon.
See you,
Jonathan
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March 19, 2004 16:57 EST
Hi everyone,
Wow, what
can I say !!! I just came back from the ice rink here in Goteborg,
Sweden. It was a very good
but very hard night. With 3 Koreans in the final, Steve and I were outnumbered. We went in front early in the race but it was not long before the 3 Koreans passed
by us and moved up in front to control the race. I was sitting in 4th
a long time in the race. I needed to be patient and to wait for a little gap
between the Koreans. With 3 laps to go I moved into 3rd place in a
tight pass. And then, on the last lap, I moved into 2nd and I tried
to beat Ahn-Hyun Soo at the finish line, but it was too late. Still I am very
happy with a silver to start the World Championships. The only one that beat
me was the World Champion and the Champion of this year’s World Cup, so I have nothing to be ashamed of. I hope to be able to skate as good for the rest of the weekend. But
I don’t see why I would not !! ;-)
I will try
to write tomorrow after the 500m,
Jonathan
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March 20, 2004 15:17 EST
Hi,
It's Saturday night here in
Sweden. It's too bad I could not earn any points today. I was eliminated in the semi-final of the 500m. I was skating
very well in my first rounds. I was very confident too for my semi because I
was starting in 2nd. But there was a false start in my race and then
on the second start, the Korean moved again and started before the gun, so I stayed a little on the line because I thought
they would call the race back.
I was 4th all the way through
the race and could not make a move because the 3 others were really close to each other and there was no space for me to squeeze
in. Anyway, I am still in 3rd place overall right now with 1 more
day to go in this season. I feel confident for tomorrow because the 1000m and
the 3000m were really good for me this year.
See you,
Jonathan
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March 31, 2004 10:43 EST
Hi everyone,
I am in Paris right now in the Air France First Class Lounge drinking
champagne. I have to travel in first class because of my back. Life is not that bad after all.
I'm looking forward to getting home. My surgery went
pretty good. It was painful for a couple of days, but now I'm making big progress. I am able to walk by my own
(but not very fast).
For the ones who saw that accident at the Worlds there is no need to explain. But
here is my comment for those who did not see it.
I was in 3rd place in the 1000m final and I made a move with 1 lap to go. My legs
were feeling so good because I did not pull a lap in this race. The Koreans were getting tired and slowing down, so
I accelerated a lot on the outside because I knew that Seung Jae Lee was there to protect Ahn. I did not expect him
to block me at any price, but that's what he did. He took 2 steps to the outside onto me and stretched his right
leg to make me fall on purpose (that's why he was disqualified for the rest of the competition and I hope for next
season as well). He fell with me and onto me. I went headfirst into the boards as you can see in the
picture. It could have been so much worse. I was lucky.
In my semi, Apolo should not have been DQ'd on Seung Jae Lee, it should have been the opposite.
I am sick and tired of the Koreans' dirty skating. Every time there is somebody that can beat them, they start to team
skate and block that skater or try to make him get DQ'd by acting. There are so many times that they should have won
an Oscar. I cannot believe that they are proud to win a World Championship like this. No honor at all. I
have no more respect for Korean skaters, now. And I am not afraid to say it out loud. I will always respect skaters
who skate fairly, but that's not their case. Sorry guys if you read this, but I'm sure you are not surprised about it.
;o)
Thanks to everyone who wrote to me or wrote something
in the Group Card. It kept me positive during difficult moments.
Bye for now,
Jonathan
Note from the Webmistress: To see the entire photo album
of the 2004 World Championship, click on the photo below.
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