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Day 9: One last day in Serbia With all of our competition over, the USA TKD team got to relax and have some fun today. It was great to have some time to hang out with everyone without the pressure of competition. We decided that, since we finally had some free time to watch some other sports, we wanted to attend the Men’s basketball game which was USA vs. Serbia. As I mentioned before, Serbia definitely does not have love for the US and we wanted to give as much support to our BBall men as possible. We decided to show our true team USA support by going full out with body paint and everything. Before the game started, we spent an hour getting ready by painting our faces. Some of the girls decided to spell out “GO USA” on their stomachs while most of the guys had some crazy face-art going on. Jayson went the “Braveheart” route by painting half his face red and the other half blue. Johnny went with KISS and rocked a red star over one eye and USA down the other side of his face. Jason Hwang found a creative way to fit “USA” down his face by making an S that snaked around his mouth. But, I have to say, the most impressive facepainting that I saw was with James who decided to rock an American flag on his entire face. It took a while to paint, but it looked freaking INCREDIBLE when it was done! It was like we were getting ready to go the battle. The US delegation arranged a shuttle for all the athletes who wanted to watch the game. And when we arrived at the venue, it was kind of a surreal experience. We entered the stadium through the athlete’s entrance, through the bleachers. As we walked through the door, all you could see were the blinding stadium lights from overhead and you could hear the roar of the crowd from the other side. Team USA walked in as one cohesive group, lead by the women’s BBall team. Entering that stadium and seeing the packed crowd as we were lead to our floor seats right behind the basket was such seriously just an UNREAL experience. I can’t even begin to describe how crazy it was. The rest of the stadium was entirely Serbian and they boo’ed us when we walked in. Which, of course, made us cheer as loud as we could “USA” at the top of our lungs. The game was INTENSE. And that’s a total understatement. The score was SO close the entire time. Sometimes, Serbia would be up for 2 points, and then 2 minutes later, US would come back and tie it up or take the lead. I don’t think the score difference was ever more than 5 points with both teams trading the lead every few minutes or so. It was an AWESOME game. In the last 2 minutes, the US took a one point lead and they managed to hang onto it to win the game. When the timer finally ticked down the last few seconds of the game, the entire team erupted in some crazy cheers. The stands were just packed full of people – I can’t even being to estimate how many spectators there were, but it was literally a sea of people. We screamed our voices hoarse during that game – sometimes, that’s just the BEST feeling in the world!
Tomorrow, everyone is leaving to go back to the US. I have to say, this has been one crazy trip. I have made a ton of new friends and gotten to know a few old ones better. I can’t believe that we’ve been her for almost two weeks and I’m sad to see it all end. Everyone on this trip was AWESOME and I will definitely miss them. I hope everyone has a safe trip back to the US!
Day 8: Last Day of Competition Coming into our final day of competition, team USA was pumped up! To get our spirits high and to show Serbia some true American swagger, some of the guys on the team decided to spell out “GO USA!” on their chests. Of course, normally, this would be done with paint. However, since we didn’t have body paint, it was decided that the best implement for this task was athletic tape, which we then colored with Sharpies to make the letters red and blue. In the cheering section, when one our players was up, the guys would stand in order on top of their seats and we’d lead super loud USA cheers. We definitely drew a lot of attention. As far as I know, it’s probably the first time anyone has painted (or in this case, taped) their chest for a TKD tournament… ;) Jayson Grant started off the day by fighting a really close match against an eventual finalist medalist from Russia. He stayed very focused throughout his match and kept changing up his game to keep his opponent guessing. Jason Hwang fought a crazy match against Brazil that went into a heartstopping sudden death. Unfortunatley, it didn’t go our way but Jason did great! I would say he threw everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink at his opponent. The overtime point that scored was very debateable – but, as I’ve been saying in the blog, sometimes the judges just don’t see it. Regardless, Jason fought a really great match. Aziza Chambers fought really well today. My favorite part about watching Aziza fight is that she has a great personality in the ring. When she scores a point, not only does she sell it hard, but sometimes, she gives a big smile and you can tell that she is just having a ton of fun. She fought and won a very competitive first match against Italy, which brought her into the quarterfinals. In quarters, she fought Chinese Taipei – a girl who had medaled last year at the Collegiate Worlds. Aziza fought a really great match against her opponent and we had our second sudden death overtime of the day. Unfortunately, the point went to Italy in sudden death, but Aziza did an AMAZING job. Brandi Powers also made it into the quarterfinals in women’s middleweight. Brandi definitely had the “heart attack” moment of the day. In her first fight, she was down 4-2 until the last 2 seconds of the match. And then, all of a sudden, she threw this crazy bent leg axe kick and hit her opponent square on the head. After the shot, there was an excrutiating second that passed before the points went up. I think I stopped breathing. And that brought us into our third sudden death moment of the day. This time though, things went our way and Brandi was able to advance into the quarters. Unfortunately, she met with Serbia who was clearly the hometown favorite. And, to put it gently, Serbia isn’t a huge fan of the US… Brandi did a great job of staying in it, despite having almost the entire standium cheering against her. Great job, Brandi! Also, because it was the last day of competition for TKD, everyone was going around trading gear with each other. Most teams were given a lot of different shirts that say their country’s name on it to wear everyday to competition so that everyone on the team can look uniform. On the last day of competition, a lot of countries’ players will trade shirts/jackets etc with each other just to have some great souvenirs from the trip. Everyone on team USA went around trading shirts with various players from the other team. I was able to trade shirts with Korea, the Vietnam poomsae team, and Brazil. It was really fun and a great way to end our last day of competition.
After all the matches were over, we had a final team dinner in downtown Belgrade at a restaurant called “Three Hats”. It was fun to get a chance to actually sit down with everyone on the team and share a meal. In case you’re wondering what Serbian food is like… Serbians apparently really LOVE their meat. The main course that they gave us is, I think, most aptly described by Jayson Grant as “caveman food.” It was two large pieces of chicken, two large pieces of beef, and a mystery meat sausage with a side of potatoes. Everything tasted pretty good, but I’m pretty sure we were each given enough food to feed a small country!
Day 7: Sparring Continues Today was a tough day for team USA with a lot of people making it to the quarters, but unfortunately not advancing. Everyone definitely gave it there all. Stefan Webb fought a really close match against Italy. He did a great job of keeping his cool all throughout the match and came back in the 3rd round from a 2 point deficit to tie it up and bring it into overtime. Unfortunately, during a same time kick exchange, Italy won the points. Great job to Stefan though, it was a very well fought match! Whitney Daniel also had a close day, losing in the quarterfinals to Australia. She stayed in the match the whole time and worked hard for her points against a head-hunting opponent. TJ Leising met Germany in the quarterfinals as well. The match was very close and both sides traded a lot of kicks. He did a great job of staying very aggressive and keeping up with his opponent. Maia Eubanks fought a fierce opponent from Brazil in the quarterfinals who had taken down Korea in a 5-1 landslide victory in the previous round. That didn’t faze Maia at all though. She fought really smart and used her speed and hard motions to keep her opponent guessing. The final score was very close and Maia kept her head in it the whole time. It was really great to see so many US players in the quarterfinals today. We definitely had some tough matches today, but great job to everyone! You guys did awesome!
Good luck tomorrow to our final sparring competitors on our last day of competition. Team bantam (Aziza Chambers and Jason Hwang) and middle (Brandi Powers and Jayson Grant) weights will be sparring for a chance to add to the US medal count. Good luck!
Day 6: Happy 4th of July On our second day of sparring, we had fly and welterweights competing. On the women’s side was Cheryl Krause and Bonny Su and on the men’s side, we had James Howe and Krystopher Uy. Cheryl started the day off, sparring as match #2 of the day. I don’t know how all of this “random seeding” occurred, but Cheryl also drew Korea in her first match. That didn’t faze her at all though. She went out into the ring with a ton of intensity and determination. The match was very close, and Cheryl put up a great fight all the way to the end, but unfortunately, she didn’t advance to the next round. Kris Uy also drew a tough first match against Turkey. He sparred really really well and gave the Turkish player a run for their money. The final score was close and Kris stayed in it all the way. Honestly, even in welterweight, Kris was towering over all of his other opponents! He did a great job of keeping his distance and timing. Plus, Kris’ parents came out to watch him from the US. It was great to see his family in the stands, cheering and chilling with Team USA. Bonny Su gave a fierce performance today as well. She opened up her first match by scoring a counter axe kick in the first round against Finland. From there on out, she continued to dominate the match and finished very strong. I have to say, Bonny has a SICK high section game! Bonny made it all the way to the quarterfinals and lost a close match. But, what a way to make perform at her first Universiade! James Howe sparred AWESOME today. Awesome. His kicks were all dead-on and were popping the hogu like crazy. Even in the huge auditorium, you could hear his kicks from up in the stands. James also made it to the quarterfinals and lost a really heartbreaking match to Korea. Honestly, I really think that James should’ve won that match. The Korean player was grabbing and holding like crazy, but James still pulled it out and made some SWEET points with his inside games. But, the refs weren’t going for USA today (or any day thus far, to be honest). But he did EVERYTHING right – sometimes, the judges just don’t want to score. During our downtime during the day, the team also went around and watched some other sports in the neighboring venues. I got to see ping-pong and fencing today. Walking into the ping-pong venue was crazy. Those players have such incredible hand-eye coordination and unbelievable speed. The part that gets to me the most is watching them serve. They throw the ball up and then their arm is like a snake, whipping around left and right before hitting the ball across the net. To me, it kind of reminds me of checking in TKD. Before they actually hit the ball, the ping-pong players snake their arm around every which way so it kind of fakes out their opponent. The other crazy thing I noticed was that every time anyone hit the ball, they always put this ridiculous spin on it. I don’t know how they do it, but it was pretty impressive to watch. Fencing was also a great sport to see. The fencing venue looks very new and start-of-the-art. Kind of interesting to see such high-tech equipment for such an old-time sport (I mean, come on, they were throwing down gloves for duels back in the Medieval days!) The bouts for fencing are pretty intense to watch. You can’t seen anyone’s faces under their helmets, but just from the body language, you can tell that it’s a real BATTLE that is happening out there. When they score a point, they also self-cheer, just like in TKD. And the try to sell their points by pumping their arms and yelling. In a lot of ways, it kind of reminds me of TKD… except in a line. And with swords.
Anyways, that’s all I have for today. Happy 4th of July to everyone back in the States! Also, good luck to our light (Whitney Daniel, Stefan Webb) and heavy (Maia Eubanks, TJ Leising) weight competitors who are sparring tomorrow!
Day 5: Sparring begins Today marked the beginning of sparring competition for TKD and we definitely started with a bang. We had four fighters today: Johnny, Anees, TJ and Kasey. Anees started off the day, being called up as match #1 of the entire competition. As luck would have it, she drew Korea (the eventual gold medalist) as her first match. However, she fought really strong and well against Korea and stayed engaged and very intense throughout the match. She definitely gave a great performance on the world stage. I talked with Anees last night and found out that this was her first Korea fight! So, congrats Anees! That’s definitely something to be proud of. Johnny was next to spar – he is also the only member of the US TKD team to be competing in 3 events during the Universiade (individual poomsae, team poomsae, and finweight sparring); that’s impressive in and of itself. In his third day in a row of competition, Johnny sparred some really strong matches and made it all the way to the quarterfinals, where he lost very narrowly to the Turkish competitor and eventual finalist. He sparred three very good matches against some strong competitors. It was great to see team USA being represented out there. Kasey Mallard sparred for women’s featherweight. I would have to say, I have NEVER seen someone have SO much heart and SO much determination for TKD. Kasey made it pretty far in the bracket as well and lost in the quarterfinals. But, what was even more unbelievable, is that she did it all on a broken foot. Kasey went into sparring today with an already injured foot. But, instead of bowing out and stepping down, she was resilient and determined to spar despite her injuries. During her last match, she sparred on a pretty badly injured foot, and still sparred with such ferocity and spirit, that you couldn’t help but notice her incredible ring presence. During the course of the match, she injured herself even further, to a point where she had broken her foot. But that didn’t stop Kasey from sparring all the way through to the end of her last match. I have to say, watching Kasey fight and watching her stick it out, through the pain, through the pressure and through the difficulty; THAT is what TKD is all about. Way to go, Kasey! You are an absolutely amazing individual! Our final sparring competitor for the day was team captain Terrence Jennings. TJ sparred like a beast today. No joke. He had a great sense of timing and a dominating ring presence that not only was apparent on the ring, but also carried through into the stands and the spectators. He sparred really well and earned himself a BRONZE MEDAL! Congrats TJ! Not only was this the first medal for the TKD team, is was the first USA medal of the entire Universiade! TJ lost in a nailbiting overtime tie-breaker that ended up going to the referee’s decision. Honestly, though people say it could have gone either way, I definitely think TJ showed much more aggressive motion and attacks than the other competitor. But, sometimes that’s just how the chips fall, and TJ unfortunately lost to the eventual gold medalist, a member of team Brazil. But, that being said, even making it to the semis is no small accomplishment and TJ definitely brought his A-game today and gave an awesome performance. Congrats TJ on a well-deserved medal and an excellent day!
Well, that’s all I have for today. Congrats again to all of our fin and featherweight competitors. You guys totally ROCKED. Tomorrow, our fly (Cheryl Krause, James Howe II) and welter (Bonny Su and Krystopher Uy) competitors will fight. Wishing them the best of luck!
Day 4: Poomsae Competition July 2nd was poomsae day for TKD with all of the poomsae events competing in the same day. The morning started off with the preliminary rounds of the men’s and women’s team poomsae, as well as the mixed pair poomsae. For those of you who aren’t familiar with competition poomsae – for each round, all of the competitors are asked to perform the two pre-determined poomsae (with a one minute break in between). This ensures that the judging is fair and accurate across the board. You are given both an accuracy (technical) score and a performance (artistic) score, it’s kind of like figure skating scoring. The men’s team went first (Johnny Nguyen, Anthony Nguyen, Jason Hwang) and started the day off strong with a solid performance in their preliminary round. The women’s team (me, Becca Hung and Karolina Corin) followed shortly thereafter and then the mixed pair team (me and Bobby Ren) went last. I have to admit, it was a little nerve-wracking to think about stepping onto that mat in an international arena. I’ve never competed internationally in poomsae before. Honestly, I’d never competed in poomsae before until about a year ago. So, the whole thing was a bit daunting to me… but also incredibly exciting. I was surprisingly not nervous at all during competition – I think part of it was that I had practiced those forms so many hundreds of times and on so many different sets of mats, I wasn’t really fazed. It’s like I always say – the mat is home. And there’s no place like home, right? After a strong performance in the preliminary rounds, all three US teams advanced to the semi-final round. From there, the men’s team gave an awesome performance that advanced them into the finals round (top 8), which eventually got them to a 6th place overall finish – awesome job, guys! The women’s team and mixed pair teams didn’t advance to the finals, but came in 9th and 11th respectively – still a solid performance for team USA. The best part of the day was watching the rest of team USA come up with crazy/funny/awesome cheers. At some point, during the men’s team finals, we started to do “We Will Rock You” but our version went something like this: “stomp, stomp, CLAP. stomp, stomp, CLAP. We will, we will, POOM-SAE!” Team captain TJ also came up with a fun cheer that involved chanting “U-S-AAAAAAAAAAAAA” while doing a modified version of the wave. The team USA enthusiasm carried over onto our busride back from the venue. On the whole busride back, we were singing various songs at the top of our lungs (singing, screaming... it's all the same right?). We even got the Turkish TKD team to join in and also to do a few songs of their own. We now have in our repetoir: I Believe I Can Fly, Hakuna Matata, In the Jungle, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and (our signature and best performance) Ain't No Mountain High Enough. ;) All in all, it was a satisfying day. It was great to see what the other countries had to offer in poomsae and it was a special treat to watch team Korea compete in poomsae – those athletes are crazy good. Honestly, watching them perform is almost like watching a “how-to” video on poomsae. You could tell that they worked really really hard, and it definitely showed in the results. They won gold in every category except for mixed pair.
That’s all I have for today. Good luck to our finweights (Anees Hasnain, Johnny Nguyen) and featherweights (Kasey Mallard, Terrence Jennings) in sparring tomorrow! The divisions are huge… everyone has at least 5 fights to win gold. Having seen everyone kick out in practice, I know that team USA is definitely pumped and ready to get some good fights!
Day 3: Opening Ceremonies I was told that the Opening Ceremonies was something not to be missed – and I have to say, the whole thing was massive in both scale and impact. Team USA met up in front of our delegation office, all wearing matching red and blue outfits. From there, we marched across the athlete’s village to the international building, where all the countries were lined up in alphabetical order (although, which alphabet they were using is still unclear to me… I think it might have been Cyrillic?) From there, we proceed on a ~1 mile walk from the Athlete’s Village over to the Belgrade Stadium, where the Opening Ceremonies were being held. Our flag bearer was a female member of the basketball team and everyone else rallied around and behind her. They had closed down the entire road for the procession, so we were able to take up the whole street. Lined up on the sidewalks and on the grass along the fences were locals from Belgrade. They cheered and clapped endlessly, and they seemed enthusiastic to be seeing all the athlete’s walking in the procession. A lot of them were kids (with parental chaperones hanging behind) and they cheered with such carefree joy – it was completely contagious. It was surreal experience. To be walking down a closed down street, wearing team USA gear, in a parade of over 100 countries. Some of the kids on the sidelines that were spectating came dressed for the sport that they practiced. We passed a set of girls all wearing gymnastic leotards. A few hundred feet down from them was a group of kids that were all wearing TKD doboks and had belt ranks of every color. When we walked by them, we started shouting “Taekwondo!” and they cheered for us. The men’s 3 person poomsae team also performed a synchronized side kick for them and were rewarded with plenty of laughter and applause. I, unfortunately, didn’t get a picture of that moment, but Jason tried to recreate it for me (I have a picture of him falling out of a sidekick… sorry, that’s the best I’ve got…) ;) Once we got inside the stadium, we were ushered into the stands as a delegation. In order to assure that the ceremonies would begin on time, they had us take our seats a full hour early. So, all the athletes, of course, got restless and decided to wander around the stadium. Once we got out of the bleachers, you could see athletes from every country running around in pairs or triples, grabbing pictures with other countries. There was one member of the Chinese delegation who was almost 8 ft tall (no joke). I kind of felt bad for him because there was an endless line of people who wanted to take a picture with him. All the athletes were also on a mission to trade pins. Most countries were given a bunch of pins (that either is their country’s flag, or said their country’s name on them) and they were going around trading them with other countries and then showing off their collection on their credentials lanyards. Unfortunately, although our team was supposed to receive pins, they didn’t arrive at Coach Linda Buell’s house in time for her to bring them to Serbia, so we only had two pins that the USA delegation could spare for us. In addition, Bobby and I had gone to Target back in the US and bought a whole bunch of cheap 4th of July pins (5 for a dollar. Definitely not the highest quality, but better than nothing I guess) – I had been told by Liza Shakhnovich (2005 SWUG Team Member) that they would come in handy for trading. Bobby and I had cleaned out the whole store, but that only gave us 45 pins total. We distributed them to all of the team, so that we each had 2 official USA pins and 2 Target pins to trade with people. I know, not a ton to work with, right? However, we discovered that if you found someone nice or asked in the right way, you could sometimes get other country’s athletes to give you their pins without having to trade. Some members of the team had more success than others… The Su sisters and Cheryl were able to get quite an impressive collection! My favorite one that they got was a panda pin from China. Anyways, that was actually the most exciting part of the opening ceremonies for me. The actual formal festivities and shows were cool, but I think what I enjoyed most was actually interacting with the athletes from the other countries. Everyone was super nice and excited to be there. It was amazing to see the scale of just how many competitors, coaches and administrators there. As they’ve said to us over and over again, the Summer World Universiade is the biggest sporting event in the world this year. Now that I’ve been to Opening Ceremonies, that fact is finally beginning to set in…
All right, that’s all for now. Off to bed to be ready to compete tomorrow. Good luck to all the poomsae competitors tomorrow! And good luck also to our Fin/Featherweight fighers – tomorrow they’ll be weighing in. And, as most of you know, making weight is half the battle. ;)
Day 3: Let the Games Begin! July 1st marks the first official day of competition for the 2009 Summer World Universiade Games and TKD was one of the first sports to compete. We started off the day by having the whole team go and support our individual poomsae competitors. We got our first look at the venue. The mats for poomsae are huge, at least 12x12 if not bigger. There were three set up, and the center one was raised up on a dias. That was the only one that they used today for poomsae competition. Honestly, the competition was FIERCE. Every country went out there, looking to win and you could see the intensity written all over each competitor’s face. Johnny and Carissa both did a fantastic job – they looked confident and collected out there on the mat. It was really great to watch them compete. Unfortunately, neither of them were able to advance to the semi-finals round. Johnny barely missed by 1 placement and Carissa was in the largest poomsae field of the whole competition (24 countries total). But, regardless of the numbers, they definitely made a huge impression and did a great job. Team USA definitely had a presence in the bleachers. We are one of the few countries that brought a full team of sparring and poomsae competitors and we definitely took up a huge chunk of the bleachers. The best part was that, originally, they had all the “athletes” in their own section to the side of the competition area (with a terrible view of the mats) and they wouldn’t let us into the “spectator” area. But, men’s bantamweight Jason Hwang worked his wiley magical ways and got us into the spectator area by telling one of the volunteers “Oh, I’m just going to hop in here really quick to watch the next few rounds. And then I’ll leave again…” The volunteer was nice and let him through the gate… Bobby followed, and then Dennis and Anees, and then I decided that I wanted to go to. The next thing I knew, I turned around and saw that the entire US team had wiggled there way through the gate and into the spectator area. At this point, the other countries had caught onto what was going on and demanded that the poor volunteer let them through as well. The result was that they finally got rid of the separating gate altogether and all the athletes were allowed to freely walk into the spectator stands and get good seats right front and center in front of the main ring. Awesome, Jason. Awesome. ;)
After the poomsae competition was over, we went back to the training area for our official training time. After having watched all the individual poomsae competitors compete today, I definitely feel like we have our work cut out for us. The competition is stiff. I think though, if anything, watching all of those great competitors do their thing just made team USA even more hungry to really perform and do our best out there. After the sparring competitors finished their session, all of the poomsae people stayed an extra hour to work. The men’s 3 person team is looking really good – they’ve definitely put their work in. Bobby and I have been attacking the pairs forms, and I think we’re feeling ready to go. The women’s 3 person team (me, Karolina and Becca) also worked really hard today and I feel like we’re falling into sync with each other and finding our groove. I hope that we can hold onto that feeling for competition tomorrow!
Day 2: Flag Raising and Training Our second day in Serbia started off in the morning with a “flag-raising ceremony.” I guess the idea was that when enough athletes had arrived from one country, we would officially be welcomed into the village by the “mayor” of the athlete’s village and our country’s flag would be raised in the red carpet area. Between TKD, water polo and basketball, I guess we had enough quorum for team USA to be represented at the ceremony. We met in front of the US delegation office to head out to the ceremony, and for the first time, we looked like one cohesive team because we all were wearing the same outfits (red polos, blue shorts and blue baseball caps). The most amusing part was noticing the markable height and size difference between the water polo, basketball and TKD teams. I’m pretty sure that the average height of the TKD team was a full foot shorter than the other two teams. Anees, our female finweight (and fellow blogger) turned to me at one point and said “I think I’m gonna get a neck cramp from looking up at all these basketball guys!” Our tallest athlete, Krys, tops out at 6’2” (maybe 6’3”?) and he looked average if not short compared to everyone else. It definitely offered a new perspective… literally! Once we got organized as a delegation, we marched over to the red carpet area for the flag raising ceremony to the tune of various EuroTechno music. As we entered the formal area, we were greeted by a human-sized mascot for of the Universiade Sparrow – I kind of have to admit, that thing is much cuter on paper than it is in person (no offense to the very nice Sparrow mascot that skipped/flapped by the delegation for us). After the flag ceremony was done, we took a bunch of pictures of team USA. I’ll try and post a picture – see if you can spot the TKDers amongst the giants. ;) After the ceremony, we went straight to our training session. Getting on the mats, with other countries there, and kicking out hard was a great feeling. The energy was intense and it seemed like everyone was excited to be training and kicking. The kiyups were loud, the kicks were even louder and I think we definitely made our presence known in the training area. After a great organized workout led by our coaches and team co-captain Terrence Jennings (TJ), we split off into self workout. The poomsae folks put our work in. We’re the first ones to compete, so we’re trying to psych ourselves up for the upcoming competition. It’s really an amazing feeling to know that – no matter how many borders your cross and how many different languages the people around you are speaking – when you’re out on the mat, the TKD is the same. The mat is home. Whether here in Serbia or back in Boston. And the TKD served as kind of a universal language that tied us all together into the same experience in that training room, whether you were from Egypt, Australia, Vietnam or Korea… we all threw the same kicks, we all kiyuped with the same kind of passion for our sport. That’s a great feeling to have.
The day ended with a team USA TKD meeting and where we all formally introduced ourselves and also got our official swag for the team (yay new doboks, shirts and warm-ups!) All in all, it was a hectic but very satisfying. Tomorrow, competition begins and we’re hoping start out with a bang in poomsae with Johnny Nguyen and Carissa Fu representing the US in men’s and women’s individual poomsae!
Day 1: Airplanes, Luggage and Elevators... Our flight to Serbia was pretty uneventful – if I’ve learned anything, it’s that AirFrance serves some pretty yummy airplane food. ;) That’s the upside. The downside is that AirFrance is also pretty stellar at losing bags. There were five of us on the same itinerary from Boston to Serbia – a total of 9 checked bags – none of them made it to Belgrade with us. Which means we trained the first day without our own gear or clothes. Luckily, everyone on the team has been really helpful and I managed to borrow enough clothes to train in (thanks Johnny for the pants, Anees for the shirt, and James for the shorts…) Most of the team made it in by the evening of the 29th. We missed our official training time at the venue, but our coaches scrounged up some equipment and room for us in the Nike Store. The best part was that, since we were having a hard time finding space to kick and train, we actually kicked outside on the “red carpet” for a half an hour or so (before they booted us off). While we were kicking outside, lots of athletes and delegates from other teams stopped to take pictures and watch. It was kind of surreal experience, kicking on the red carpet in the athlete’s village while the sun set over Serbia. The most eventful part of the whole day happened after the training session, when the team was supposed to have a meeting on the 2nd floor of the administration building. They asked us to take the elevator, and when the elevator came, we piled as many people in as possible. As soon as the doors closed, instead of taking us to our floor, the elevator stopped and then went CLUNK. We were stuck. 15 people in the elevator, 12 of them from the US TKD team, 2 Serbia volunteers, and 1 poor guy from the Mexican delegation. Since we had just finished training and hadn’t had a chance to shower or change yet, the small elevator car quickly filled out with heat and perspiration. Now… I love my teammates, I really do, but having to breathe recycled post-workout air was not pleasant. We quickly steamed over the stainless steel mirrored walls of the elevator car. And, of course, and we started to write messages on the wall. We ended up being stuck in the elevator for almost half an hour and we finally got out when Krys decided to try and pry open the elevator doors with his fingers. We managed to crack the inner door open, and found that our elevator car was halfway stuck between the ground floor and the second floor. In order to get out, we ended up having to pull open the second set of doors, and then jump down to get to the ground. It was a very “Mission Impossible” moment. Kind of scary at the time, kind of funny afterwards… don’t really feel like taking another elevator ride with 14 other people anytime soon.
Other then those events, the athlete’s village has been really great. They built these apartments brand new for the Universiade, so they are really nice. They come with these crazy complicated keys that have to be turned 5 times in order to lock the doors. Every country has been assigned a block of apartments, and people have hung their country’s flags on their balconies to show their pride. Team USA is sandwiched between Great Britain and Canada – I guess they decided to put all the English speaking countries in one place. So far, from the US delegation, the Men’s Water Polo team is here and so is the Basketball team. I think more athletes are still trickling in – opening ceremonies are starting on the July 1st.
Ready. Set. Go! Hey everyone! My name is Alicia Zhou and I am one of the poomsae team members for the 2009 SWUG team -- I will be one of your athlete bloggers for our trip to the Summer World Universiade Games in Belgrade, Serbia. :) I train with tBos in Boston, MA under Coach Dan Chuang and have been doing TKD for about 6.5 years. I am very fortunate to have 4 other teammates from the tBos crew as part of the SWUG team (poomsae: Bobby Ren, Karolina Corin, Becca Hung; sparring: Jayson Grant). Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing feeling of anticipation and excitement as Serbia draws closer. In the dojang, training has been pretty intense and it feels like everyone is very focused. Logging onto facebook every day, I can see that the other members of the US team are also feeling an equal amount of excitement for the trip. Everyone has Serbia on their mind and in their status updates and it seems like we are all more than ready to go. It's
a good feeling. Being ready. Being fired up. I think we all know
that this is a rare opportunity to have, and everyone is going to
make the most of it. We've trained hard, and now it's time to go
out there and leave it all on the mat. I'm very much looking forward
to Serbia, to reconnecting with some familiar friends and meeting
a lot of new ones, to training and kicking as a cohesive team, and
to competing on the international stage and seeing what all the
other countries have to offer. I know it's going be an eye-opening
experience, and I can't wait for the journey to start!
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