ARMIN MAHBANOOZADEH: In his own words
(December 2007)
This is a tricky one. If you had asked me this question for ANY other competition I have EVER done, I would give you a different answer. However, my goals for the Final don’t go much further than to skate as well as possible, achieve a new personal IJS score and to have a good time. When I got my first assignment in Lake Placid earlier in the year, it became my personal goal to make it to the Final. Now that I have made it, I can go to Poland with no expectations other than to skate my best.
It’s never a good time to miss school! Especially since I’m a junior in [public] high school this year. However I’m able to work with my teachers to get material ahead of time or have them post class notes online.
My favorite moment on the ice during the JGP season would have to be my long program at Lake Placid. It was both my top score under the IJS and I felt it was my best performance personally. I had a great time on the ice and my teammates were very supportive. Seeing them stand up at the end of my program was such a amazing feeling. Off the ice, my favorite moments would have to be those after the competition was over. Just getting to know some of the skaters from the other teams and hanging out with my own team all night until our shuttle came at 4 in the morning was a lot of fun!
Well, I’ve only been to two international assignments so far on the JGP circuit and I’ve enjoyed both tremendously. However, Lake Placid and Croatia were both very different. Lake Placid was much closer to home and very beautiful. The weather was stunning and I felt very proud to be on Team USA. Croatia was exciting because it was my first time within Europe. It was a great experience to be able to see the cultures that were different from our own, yet I was surprised at how many people spoke English!
I have a great travel horror story which occurred on the trip to Croatia. The nightmare started with my coach, Traci Coleman, and I departing from Washington Dulles, where I was able to take my skates on the plane in my carry-on without a problem. Our plan was to fly to Paris, which I was very excited about, and quickly take our connection flight to Zagreb, Croatia. Well, once we arrived in Paris, we were unable to make our connection flight because we were stopped by security because figure skates are not allowed to be taken on planes within Europe and there was not enough time to return and check them in. So, we got rebooked to fly to Frankfurt, Germany where, Air France told us, we would be taking the next flight from there to Croatia. Traci and I waited and waited in the rather unimpressive Paris airport (I had really high hopes for this one) until our flight for Frankfurt was ready. Once we arrived at Frankfurt, it took us almost the entire two hours we had to find the terminal. Trouble was that we were not issued boarding passes in Paris as they told us we would be getting them in Germany. When we finally arrived at the terminal, we were told that we were NOT booked for the flight from Frankfurt to Croatia. By the time we had that ordeal sorted out, Traci and I had missed ANOTHER connection flight. Because we were not booked to Croatia, we were told that we needed to BUY our own tickets (which were initially covered by USFSA). From that time on, not only did I have to deal with the anxiety of not making it to my competition, but an extremely unhappy coach as well. However, in the end, 24 hours after we left Washington D.C. (what was supposed to be a 12 hour trip), we arrived in Zagreb, tired, cranky, but there.
My program content has remained the same from Croatia to Gdansk.
I got to work on the triple axel a few weeks after I came back from Croatia. I actually really enjoy working on the jump and many were actually quite close to being landed. I had to stop a few weeks ago to train for the Final, but I hope to have some time to work on it and potentially land it before Nationals.
