Donations

Some great news on the 501(c)(3) donation front. I finally found a tax deductable organization that will accept donations on my behalf.

This organization is Rochester based and focused. I have been receiving grants from this organization since I began competing internationally in 1996.

If you or someone you know is interested in funding my Olympic dream you can send donations to the following address:

Greater Rochester Amateur Athletic Federation (GRAAF)
c/o Bob Silver
P.O. Box 637
Fairport, NY 14450


If you have questions, please feel free to write me and I will provide you with Bob Silver's number.

Meeting with the Mayor

6:30am meeting at the gym with the mayor of Rochester?

Check.

It turns out Mayor Duffy is a down to Earth kind of guy. No, not the "down to Earth" guy that everyone thinks Dubya Bush is (abstract of a quote from USA Today this morning, "We talked about some stuff. Some things I can tell you and some things are secret." Genius. No really, you can't make this stuff up. It's pure genius.)

Back to Rochester's Mayor. We spoke for about ten minutes before he got on the treadmill for his early morning run. I handed him my resume and he promised to get back to me. The most interesting part-I believe he will. He made sure to give me a time frame in which I could expect a response. I am not so sure if he's a politician, I'm still checking.

Hopefully by the middle of next week I'll have more updates.

Have a good Friday!

Russky Lesson One

I had my first Russian language lesson today with Ira. I think every Russian woman I know is named Ira. I think my host family tried to call me Ira when I lived in Moscow.

I am a little bit iffy about Teacher Ira-not sure about her teaching methods. In the event I didn't pronounce a word correctly she would repeat the word, and then I would repeat the word, and she would say NO and then repeat the word louder. She would get louder and louder until finally I just sighed and she decided we had to move onto the next word. Not sure if "screaming" is the top teaching method of the year. Perhaps I should think about taking sign language lessons.

Competition Schedule

Some of you asked for my competition schedule for next year. Stop by and watch some fencing if you're in the area!

DATE COMPETITION LOCATION

Sept 30-Oct 7, 2006 World Championships Turin, Italy

Oct 14, 2006 Pan American Zone Champs Venezuela

Dec 19, 2006 National Cup TBD

Jan 13, 2006 National Cup TBD

Feb 17-18, 2007 World Cup Salzburg, Austria

Feb 24-25 World Cup Leipzig, Germany

Mar 3-4 World Cup Gdansk, Poland

Mar 10-11 World Cup St Petersburg, Russia

Mar 17-18 World Cup Budapest, Hungary

March 24-25 World Cup Marseille, France

April 21 National Cup TBD

May 5-6 World Cup Seoul, Korea

May 12-13 World Cup Shanghai, China

May 19-20 World Cup Tokyo, Japan

May 26-27 World Cup Cairo, Egypt

June 2-3 World Cup Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 13-14 World Cup Havana, Cuba

June 21-22 World Cup Las Vegas, USA

June 30-July 7 National Champs TBD

July 14-21 Pam American Champs Rio

Aug 11-18 World University Games TBD


I will fill in the TBD's in this blog post once I know them. I won't be going to all these competitions but I'll be at most of them. Let me know if you want to meet up with me-sometimes I spend more than a few days in a location to train. More than likely I'll be making my way to Moscow after and/or before the St. Petersburg tournament.

Just two more...

I had to put this up because the other photo of Taualai and I in a previous post was no good. Thanks T-Lai for the pics!

Photo Post II - Iris "The Fearless"

Photo Descriptions:

1.The infamous Anthony "Buckie" Leach-my former coach.

2.Here I am fencing a German girl who knows where. Just had to get an action shot in.

3. This is 1999 in Seoul, Korea when I took the bronze at World Championships. From left, Sabine Bau (German, no longer fences), Valentina Vezzali (Italian, still fences and has won the last two Olympic games along with being the most decorated fencer in history. She's the Michael Jordan of fencing.) Svetlana Boiko (Russian, a power house. She's in her thirties now and still fencing.)

4.The photos didn't put themselves in the right order but this photo is from 1997. These are some of my friends on the Junior World Championship team. The guy on the left, Cliff Bayer, was one of the best American fencers and one of my best friends. He is now retired from fencing and working in NYC doing something amazing.

5.This was at World Championships in 1999 to get to the top-four. On the left is Giovanna Trillini and I am on the right. Significance: my coach came back from a trip to Italy when I was about 11 or 12 and decided that he would model me after Giovanna Trillini (Olympic Champion in 1992 and living fencing legend). This was the first chance I ever had to fence her and I beat her in one of the most amazing matches I've ever had. I was down 12-8 going into the final round and I ended up beating her 15-12. I have fenced her several times since then but we had the opportunity to fence at the Sydney Olympic games, and she beat me there where it counted most.

I have been told that this girl or that girl in American fencing has been modeled to fence like me. A parent of a 13 year old (who is actually pretty amazing) gushes everytime she tells me, "my daughter fences just like you!" I am so flattered and I can only hope that these girls have an easier path in fencing (without too many injuries) and break all of my records.

That's it for the memorabilia for now. I'm going to go ice my knees after my first day back at the Rochester Fencing Club. My lesson with my coach Nat Goodhartz was amazing, and I look forward to another one-on-one lesson tomorrow morning. Until then-have a good Monday!

Photo Post I - Iris the Golden Years

Photo Descriptions:

1.Me with fencing stuff. I'm 14 in this photo. Haven't changed much-have I? Give or take a few pounds I guess.

2.Jumping around a bit-I'm about 11 in this photo. Can you guess which one was me? Felicia won the tournament and I took eighth. I think it was a national junior competition (Under-20 age category). The significance of the photo-the gym is at Stanford. Little did I know, six years later I would be fencing NCAA meets there.

3. Here I am in Paris being tossed up in the air after having won the Cadet World Championships (Cadet=under 17 age category). Significance of this photo: I was 14 when I won, the youngest person to ever win this event. Also, I was the first American to ever win a world championship. Older/retired fencers from the states were there watching and they told me later that they cried when they heard the American national anthem. Funny story-I was just happy to be up on the stage so that the cute french fencer was able to see me. :) Haven't changed much have I? Give or take a few relationships.

4. A picture of me and Felicia. Significance of the photo: I'm holding my cadet world championship medal and my sister is holding her medal for winning the Junior world cup title. Felicia was the first to win this as well-world cup title means that she was ranked number one in the junior world standings after a series of about 10 or more world cups. So here we are-in all our golden glory.