|
www.dholli.com 里也有KIMMIE的，可惜只有一页
UD skater heads to Nationals
Up-and-coming Meissner, 15, to skate in sendoff show Saturday
By MARTIN FRANK / The News Journal
12/10/2004
NEWARK -- Kimmie Meissner can only imagine what it will be like the night of Jan. 15, with a national TV audience and a packed arena in Portland, Ore., watching her skate after the legendary Michelle Kwan receives the latest in a litany of standing ovations.
For most, the pressure would be enough to leave them quaking in their skates. Yet Meissner, 15, who trains at the University of Delaware, wants that to happen more than anything. It is something she and her coach, Pamela Gregory, talk about often.
If it happens, it will mean that Meissner will have made it to the final group of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, where the top skaters perform and the attention is potentially overwhelming.
"She needs to be mentally ready for that, to skate after Michelle gets a standing ovation and make the crowd give her one, too," Gregory said. "We both try to think big, and she loves that. She expects a lot of herself, and we look at it like nothing's impossible."
Area skating fans will get a glimpse of Meissner's potential Saturday when she is among the performers at the U.S. National Figure Skating Sendoff Exhibition at UD's Fred Rust Ice Arena.
Ron Ludington, who runs the UD skating program, said they will see what the international skating community has seen over this past year.
"Kimmie can be the best," he said. "She's got the ability. Right now, she's skyrocketing, and she's still very young."
Ludington wouldn't compare Meissner to Tara Lipinski, another figure skating prodigy he coached about 10 years ago. Lipinski won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics.
"It's not fair to compare them because they're skating in different eras," Ludington said. "The skaters are better now and they're doing more difficult jumps than they did when Tara skated. Jumping-wise, Kimmie is better. But she has to be better to keep up with the other top girls."
Meissner doesn't dissuade talk about making the U.S. Olympic team in 2006, or finishing among the top three at Nationals. At the same time, she doesn't let those thoughts consume her, either.
"Of course, it would be nice, really nice," she said. "But I just want to take it year by year and see where it takes me."
So far, it has taken Meissner to the point of being one of the most promising young skaters in the world.
She was the Novice champion at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in 2003, and the Junior champion last year. Meissner was second at the Junior World Championships in March and third at the Junior Grand Prix final last week in the Netherlands.
In October, Meissner competed in her first senior event, the Campbell Classic, going against Kwan, Sasha Cohen and rising Japanese stars Shlzuka Arakama and Miki Ando.
Meissner finished fifth, ahead of Americans Jennifer Kirk and Amber Corwin, who have been competing at the senior level for at least four years.
Meissner knows a good performance at Nationals can help her even more. So she has worked hard to land the triple axel, a jump few women skaters can land in competition. That includes Kwan and Cohen.
"This might be the most exciting event that I'll be in," Meissner said. "There are going to be a lot more people watching, and everyone's going to be screaming, especially if I'm in that last group with Michelle."
If this all happened suddenly, imagine how Meissner's mother, Judy, feels. Kimmie started taking figure skating lessons when she was 6, skating on the adjoining rink while her three older brothers were playing or practicing hockey.
When Kimmie was 8, the skating instructor told Judy Meissner that Kimmie should take private lessons. A few years later, that instructor recommended she take lessons at UD.
Before long, Judy Meissner was driving her daughter | 
楼主
显身卡
