DAY 10: Part I – THE DUST SETTLES.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Yesterday, we left off 3 points behind going into Round #10 with a slow draw on the final jump.  To make up 3 points on this particular jump, not only would we have to be our best, but we’d need help from the French to make some mistakes to allow us to pass them.  It didn’t work out that way.

Before scoring was completed, our Team knew we would be bringing home the Silver, an amazing accomplishment for such a young Team in the complex and very competitive world of 8-Way skydiving.  But after going home at the end of the second day of the competition in first place, it is clear that this team has unlimited potential in the future.

Later today is the medal ceremony and closing ceremony for the competition.  It would be disingenuous to say we are happy with second place and had higher expectations for the team.  We had trained for 16 months for this event, including 1,700 training jumps despite a training hiatus during our deployment to Iraq.  On a positive note, we have gained competition experience for five of the newer members of the team.  They had not previously competed at a World level event, and the experience will make them stronger and hungrier for the next competition.

We’ll leave Russia knowing that we are competitive at the world-level and ready to continue training to earn the title of World Champions…

ROAD TRIP TRIVIA:

Did you know the name of the Hotel where we are staying is called the Sanatarium?
And although it doesn’t look like this, it does bring this song to mind…

SANATARIUM