05.10.2005

Today Pieter Eggenhuizen, (choreographer) Aida Hordijk (judge) and me flew to Zagreb with Croatian Airlines. It was a nice trip of almost 2 hours. We landed in Zagreb around 2 o'clock and then the organisation brought us to our hotel by bus. Tonight and Tomorrow I will go to practice, tomorrownight is the draw and friday is the short program!
I will try to write a daily report about the JGP and send it to Absolute Skating, so everyone who likes it can follow my experiences in Zagreb!

Love, Kyra

18.09.2005

Part 1
I am actually embarrassed a bit that I didn’t keep up my diary for such a long time. Of course I can come up with many excuses like “no time” or “too busy” but the truth is, I just didn’t get around to it.
What happened since my entry of March 16, when I had been in Champigny a few weeks? I will try to tell you all about it.

As I told you then, I live in La Varenne, a suburb of Paris, close to Champigny. I live with the Meijer family, I have my own room there. Monday through Friday I train in Champignys local ice rink, in the morning from 11.15 until 1 o’clock (except on Wednesday) and in the afternoon from 5.15 until 7. The practices are given by different coaches. Thats convenient, because when one of the skaters has to be accompanied by a coach to a different location, another coach can take over without problems. Annick Dumont and Pierre Trente are my main coaches.

On Saturday and Sunday I am off. I haven’t been to school since the end of March, because it was too difficult to make the transfer from a German to a French school in the middle of the year. Of course I did do schoolwork and I have been studying French in Champigny, so at least I can make myself understood.

When I am free and not studying, I go to the market a few times per week, or to the center of Paris, on the weekends. I love to Walk on the Champs-Elysees , to window shop or to go to Montmartre. Really, I am never bored!

I trained in Champigny until May 15th, but then there wasn’t any ice any more. So I went home, to Zoetermeer to live and train there daily, waiting for my leave on June 25th for Courchevel, the summer camp. During my stay in Zoetermeer I have done several things. I had a medical check up by the federation doctor in Amsterdam, had a talk with the Dutch federation (KNSB) about the new season, took French lessons, picked out the new music for my short program, did an interview with the “Wereldomroep” (World Broadcasting Channel) about Dutch athletes living abroad, took pictures with the federation photographer Teunis Versluis for their website, and of course I spent a lot of time shopping with my sisters!

And finally, on June 25 I left for Courchevel, together with my mother and brother. He went on a vacation in Lyon with some friends, so we dropped him off.

Kyra & Pieter

Until August 5, I was in Courchevel, which was really amazing! The perfect summer camp, organized by Annick & Pierre, Alain en Mari Elodi. It was a very complete program, Monday through Friday, on and off the ice! It consisted of power training, steps, jumps etc. And the last 3 weeks my own choreographer, Pieter Eggenhuizen was in Courchevell! For 3 weeks I have been able to do extra ballet, stretch exercises and my program choreography there. And the fun part is that Frederic Dambier and Annick also noticed Pieter. That resulted in a talk with the French federation, so Pieter has gotten the opportunity to work with Frederic too, for three weeks! It all ended with the show in Courchevel. I again got a solo spot this year. A summer night in a sold out ice rink in a town known for its winter sports on an altitude of 1850 meters in the French Alps, unbelievably amazing!

~ to be continued...

27.03.2005

On March 17, Kyra wrote the following:

Hi all,
I know it has taken a while since my last entry, but here I am again. You must have been thinking: "Is she still alive?" Yes I am, but the last 1,5 months haven't been the most easiest.

From the point when I was completely healthy again, the beginning of December, I hardly had the chance to train decently. The first weeks I was only allowed to skate around and practice steps, for just 55 minutes a day. That was a shock! I like those steps but after two weeks, I totally had it with them and wanted to practice my jumps again. But that didn't happen, ok I got permission to practice jumps a bit, but only singles!
A few weeks later I felt I had enough of that too, but my trainer Michael Huth didn't agree with me on this, so I complied. But the uneasy feeling stayed and got bigger everyday. So when he was away for a weekend, to a competition I decided to try a few doubles anyway. I had the feeling I wasn't making any progress and that was not the aim of my moving to Oberstdorf.

I hear you think now: "Why didn't she talk to Michael Huth about this?" Well I tried but I didn't get much of a response, only three words and that was about it. It drove me totally crazy and I nearly choked in it! Everybody who knows me knows I chat a lot and to keep mum all day is really not my thing. If the training sessions would have gone well, it would have been ok with me, but that was not exactly happening. My parents where there around Christmas and noticed the same things, but didn't say anything because they thought I felt well there and had a good time.

In februari I again went home for a few days. In the meantime nothing had changed at training. I was allowed to try doubles, but no triples. When asking about it, I got again no response. So when I was at home, after some incentives of my mum, I really had an outburst about everything that was going wrong. At that moment my parents understood everything. Together we decided to quit in Oberstdorf. Saying goodbye to all the friends I made at school was the only painful thing. Some girls even cried about me leaving there. Alas, but after all I went to Oberstdorf to practice, not to party, so to me it was all very clear.

I really wanted to return to my first choice: France, with Annick Dumont, Pierre Trente and Alain Fusco. However, since we told them Chris Howarth wouldn't let me go to Paris, because he thought it only was paradise for boys, I didn't know whether I would be welcome there. My mother immediatly took the phone and Annick was very happy about my wish to return. Within two days even a host family was found.

In the beginning of march I moved there and I like it ten times more than Germany. Of course Germany was beautiful and the internate good, but a real family is an entirely different story. Now I'm living with Anne Laure Meyer. Anne is a French skater and she skates really well. I have my own, very nice, room. It's not far away from the icerink and I love living in a normal family. As far as practices are concerned all is going fantistic now. I'm here now for two weeks and I do get the chance to unfurl. I have even jumped already up to the triple flip!
Naturally it doesn't work out equally well all days, but the beginning is there. In the weeks to come I'll be training my butt of, to catch up from my arrears and I will proof Paris was the only right choice for me! Now that I'm feeling better, not so fragile anymore I will try to keep you posted regularly. See you soon.

A hug from Kyra!

17.01.2005

Having my new site online right before the European Championships 2005 is very cool! I am very delighted and really see my character reflected here. Compliments for Mireille and Daphne and everyone else at ABSOLUTE SKATING working on this!

I am a bit proud to be the first "solo lady" with her own website at ABSOLUTE SKATING and even more being in the company of male skaters I regularly happen to be on the ice with in Oberstdorf (Tomas Verner - Stefan Lindemann and Stephane Lambiel).

I promise to send information for my journal on a regular basis from Oberstdorf. At the moment I am still in the Netherlands for some activities (of course I train here every day too) but during this week I will return to Oberstdorf to get back to my usual training rythym.

I am very curious to who will win the new pair of EDEA Skates at the European Championships contest. I will personally make sure the autographs from Oberstdorf-skaters will end up on them!

Love Kyra!

07.01.2005

Hi all,

First of course for everybody all the best for 2005!
Especially in good health, that really matters, I experienced that myself the last months. With everything going on lately with my health I was hardly able to train for about eight weeks. From the beginning of December I could pick up the pieces, but still I was seriously behind on my programs. That’s why I, together with Michael Huth, decided not to participate at Dutch Nationals in The Hague. You’re all allowed to know that sucks! However, you can’t dwell on it for too long, now I’m fully focusing on the coming season and I’m back into a good training-rhythm!
Therefore I won’t attend Dutch Nationals, I’m still training in Oberstdorf. Sunday, the 9th of January, I will be coming home to attend some check-ups at the Lucas Hospital in Amsterdam. Soon after that I’ll return to Oberstdorf so I won’t disturb my training-rhythm too much and besides, school starts again as well.
Naturally I wish everybody I know lots of success at Nationals in The Hague.

I had a splendid time during the holidays in Oberstdorf. My family arrived before Christmas and of course I stayed at their apartment. We had a Christmas tree (I took from my room at boarding school) and presents beneath it. Of course my training sessions took place as planned, with an exception for Christmas and Boxing Day. Lots of snow had fallen, so we could ski the Nebelhorn. And I found a new hobby in sleigh-riding as you can see in the pic.

It’s a very busy period of time now in Oberstdorf! Vierschanzen Toernee (a ski-jumping tournament; really a party with lots of interested spectaters) started it all, directly afterwards we had the Silvester (new years eve) iceshow, which was broadcasted live at Eurosport. German (senior) Nationals are next weekend in Oberstdorf, so it’s very crowded at the ice-rink now. Furhtermore Sandra Shär and Gheorghe Chiper trained at our place, because of the fact that there was no ice in Zürich for a couple of days. Really fun though, all of this!

Now, time for me to return to the ice and after that a great hour of ballet.
Perhaps I’ll see or speak to some of you next week in the Netherlands, if not hope to see you all soon.

Love, Kyra!