Team GB Figure Skaters Achieve Personal Best
Team GB’s Olympic debutants David King and Stacey Kemp achieved a personal best score of 139.94 to finish 16th in the pairs figure skating competition.
The pair backed up Sunday’s season’s best performance in the short programme, performed to music from Linkin Park, with another slick performance in the free programme on Monday, scoring 91.66 from a routine which included various lifts, spins, throws and flips.
King was happy with their overall performance, “We were just trying to enjoy it here, every moment. It’s been a fantastic experience for us. We did a great Olympic programme. There’s a lot of pressure on you to perform here and we did great, we’re really happy.
“We’re feeling really pumped after this experience to get back and get working on the elements that we’re missing, the elements that we need to compete with the very best, so we want to take these next few years to polish these elements.”
The British pair received a rapturous response from the large crowd inside the Pacific Coliseum stadium, and Kemp clearly enjoyed the experience, “the atmosphere was amazing out there, it was a great crowd. I really enjoyed it. We scored a personal best at the Olympic Games so i’m really happy. We achieved everything we set out to achieve.”
Looking ahead to future King added, “We’re 16th at the Olympics; we’ve got to move on from here. There’s a lot of hard work to do, but we’re looking forward to doing it. Our plan is to go back to our training base in Poland and train hard for Sochi 2014.”
Asked what they would take away from the Games, King said “Just that I want to do it again! We’ve tried to be like massive sponges, soaking up everything and we’ve enjoyed every aspect from the Opening Ceremony to the Olympic Village. Being an Olympian is a great feeling and it gives us a lot of strength.”
King and Kemp are looking forward to continuing their Olympic experience off the ice, King said, “In the next few days we really want to support Team GB. We’ve felt part of a bigger team than just us for a change and it’s been fantastic. The support group here is amazing and the British Olympic Association has made us feel right at home from the word go. We’ve not come expecting to win and they’ve respected that it’s not just about gold medals, it’s about personal bests, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Notes to editors:
Team GB consists of 52 athletes from 6 sports and 11 disciplines at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Visit www.teamgb.com for further information.
Team GB would like to thank the 26 official sponsors of Team GB and London 2012 including seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are six domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are thirteen domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, Crystal CG, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, GSK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, The Nielsen Company, Populous, Ticketmaster and Trident. The Worldwide Olympic Partners signed up for London 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to transform British lives through the power of the Olympic values and the success of Team GB. The BOA’s role is to prepare the ‘Best of British’ athletes for, and lead them at, the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. The BOA delivers extensive support services to Britain’s Olympic athletes and their National Governing Bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values and brand in the UK. For further information, go to: www.olympics.org.uk
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