Day 8 - The Journey Home

Well the awesome week has come to a close. I finished the last post kinda quickly, so let me recap the events of the closing ceremonies.

Each team got dressed and headed over to the big glass building at the end of the lake. On the beach in front of this building they were constructing a stage that looked like it was ready for a KISS concert. No it wasn't KISS, it was just the closing ceremonies of the World University Championships.

Team USA was truly dressed to kill. Barb Surdej helped out a ton arranging show-stopping American Flag dresses for our girls, and matching American Flag Ties for all of the guys with their Black Suits. We looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Well here, I'll let you decide.

First the teams were honored for their placements. Team USA did take the gold medal, for the 3rd time in 3 World University Championships. Team total was 8,572.13 points. Czech Republic took silver with a very talented team and a score of 7,871.26 and France snagged the Bronze with 6,506.66 points.

Then the individual overall winners were honored. Team USA took 3 of those 6 medals. Storm and Alex were both the silver medalists in overall. Regina took the overall gold, by achieving the highest scores in all three events, setting the WUC world record in trick, and tying the WUC World record in overall.

After that they honored all of the volunteers that help run the event. Look at all of these people dedicated to making the tournament a success. This wasn't all of them either.

Then the closing ceremony pomp and cirumstance began. Throughout the evening there was: feather hat dancers, Tianjin Polytechnic University Marching Band, Tianjin Polytechnic Pom Squad, a Chinese woman singing Italian opera (and really well), Women dancing with stacks of glassware on their heads, another dance squad, and some of the teams did performances as well.

They orchestrated truly a magnificent closing event to match the top-notch event from all week. After the end of the closing ceremonies, we went back to the dance hall to end the night.

Next morning, woke up, had a coach bus waiting for us, checked in to our plane and got on with no trouble - again not paying for our ski bags. I can't recommend Continental airlines enough - they were a joy to work with. In Newark, Regina and Tomlin got on direct flights back home. The rest of us went to Chicago. Half stayed in a hotel there and half started the drive home. The trip was officially over, and with that, there were 15 big smiles on the faces of each traveller.

All in all - Team USA walked away with the team gold, and 10 individual medals (5 gold, and 5 silver). I couldn't be much prouder of this team. And it was truly a team effort, from the skiers, to the alternate, to the parents on the trip, to the family and friends back home. A special thanks needs to go out to official team photographer Russ Selsor. All of this wonderful shots come from his camera. He took his job seriously and made the team look good. Everyone had a hand in helping this team go out and prove they were the best in the world.

Thanks again to all who checked this site now and again. It meant a lot to the team, knowing that they had fans back home interested and invested in their success half a world away. I will speak for Jeff when I say it was really a pleasure managing and coaching this team. And we both look forward to a chance to help the USA repeat in 2010.

And it can't be said enough....What place did Team USA get?

Ahhh.....gotcha. :-) Team USA - World Champions. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?