November 19th, 2002

Hey, I just wanted to say hi and tell you a little about my meet in the Netherlands. IT WAS AWESOME! It was the best experience of my life! We flew from Kansas City, to Atlanta, to Amsterdam. As soon as we got off the plane we headed for the gym. Nicole and I arrived (pictured left) first, so we had our own quick, private workout in the training gym. (Susan and Marcia didn't arrive 'till late that night). On Friday morning we worked on getting use to the equipment. The floor was hard and slick and you had to have perfect technique and timing to make your passes. The vault was super bouncy! It was great! The bars were alittle bouncy, but we adjusted easily. The beam was great...it was bouncy and squishy. The only really hard thing was the springboards...they were all foam.

Well, Saturday was first day of competition and it was great. I hit 4 for 4 and made finals on 3 events-vault, beam, and floor.....those darn bars! hehe I was totally amazed that I had made finals-I didn't even know that that was a big thing! On Sunday, I was feeling alittle more tired. We got to the gym early and worked on my weaker points to make sure I was ready. During the competition we each went individually with no music or other noise. It was pretty intense. I felt great on vault. Then on beam, I just tried to stay calm and confident but I got ahead of myself and fell on my side-somi....but oh well. Then on floor, I felt good and decided I was gonna let it all go-I had nothing to lose! I got the bronze medal on floor! I couldn't have done it without my coaches and teammates. They kept me alive! At the end, I was surprised to see how much the crowd noticed me. It felt great.

While I was there, I got to meet alot of nice people. The "twins" were so much fun...they spent alot of time with us. Also, it was cool getting my picture taken with Verona van de Leur. It was really fun spending time with Nicole, Susan, and Marcia. Nicole was a great roommate! Good luck to everyone!

Also, just wanted to say good luck to Terin at Worlds! You are awesome! And a special thank you to my webmasters and Emily for the new layout, I love it!

Love Sarah