Tuesday, November 21, 2006

And finally it's time to reveal the BIG SECRET!




Remember a while back I had some big news about the women's foil team?

Well here it is folks!

Starting April 1st the top four women's foilists on the USA ranking list will be living together in Rochester, NY. I have already started to look for places for us to live and thinking about all the possibilities. Do you think the women would do a MTV Real World type confessional for You Tube? Or maybe not.

Mike and Nat, the head coaches of the women's foil team, decided that we couldn't train for Beijing scattered around the US. It would make the most sense, economically and logistically to base ourselves out of Rochester. The city is definitely cheap and has a history of supporting the fencing team and fencing club.

I couldn't publish the details of this earlier because the women hadn't all agreed and we hadn't decided on what date would be the best for our move.

Doris, Emily, Hanna, and I will be living together and training together for a year leading up to Beijing. We are missing one woman from the equation, 2004 Olympian and long time friend and teammate, Erinn Smart. Erinn is choosing to remain in NYC and train with my old coach Buckie Leach.

Well, I can't believe it is actually going to happen. I sort of have to pinch myself when I think about it. In true Iris fashion I have sort of taken this on as a project and started to think of ways to promote and market the women's foil team so we can come up with some funding. All the women are the same boat-we need money to train and travel.

Speaking of which I am going to take a short opportunity to complain once again about my money situation. It's just not coming in as I had hoped and it's getting close to crunch time.

Yesterday I received a bill from the place where I took the MRI of my knee a few months ago. It turns out that my insurance (the athlete insurance I receive from the USOC) doesn't cover the $890 MRI. Great. One more bill and I am not sure if the $80 in my bank account is really going to cover it.

Sorry to complain but it's a situation that is very real to me and I'm getting very close to feeling like I don't have a solution.

On the bright side, the women's foil team is coming to Rochester. This means great things for us and great things for the Rochester Fencing Club. I am very lucky to have such wonderful women as my teammates.

No comments: