The World University Championships will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece July 11-13, 2008 and the women's freestyle team is being coached by Trevor Keifer and Shannyn J. Gillespie.
This semi daily journal is brought to you at the hands and mind of Shannyn J. Gillespie.
For starters, all of the bags scheduled to fly into Sofia, Bulgaria did not make the trip from Chicago. I guess I should back up to Chicago and perhaps Denver.
The flight from Denver was delayed for unknown reasons into Chicago which left us (Sara, Katherine, Chelynne, Othella, Alaina, Elena, and
Stephany) minutes to spare just making the flight traveling to Sophia via Vienna, Austria.
To say there were a lot flight this day would be sufficient.
Nonetheless, about 15 hours later, we arrived in Sophia, Bulgaria safe and sound minus 9 bags and to sum this story quickly, Sara and Shannyn's bags are still missing.
After a nights stay in Sophia, Bulgaria, Team USA travelled to Thessaloniki, Greece to register and workout just prior to the World University Championships. Actually, Team USA trained at the wrestling national team training center in Sophia with the help of Ivan Ivanov, Emil, and Valentine (Valo) Jordanov.
These men just mentioned are legends in Bulgaria and you can Google them for sure.
Valo, who is the President of the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation and also an Olympic Champion and 4 time world champion, greeted a portion of Team USA at what I believe was the Dan Kolov competition. (The shirt given to me was written in Bulgarian and Elena is in her room.) At this tournament, Shannyn, Ron Fazio, and Cody Hesser (USA FILA
officials) were invited to sit in a special section to view the finals by Valo.
Also, at this tournament, I was able to see Ivan's brother Stephan Ivanov. (Ivan and Shannyn coach together at the USOEC and Ivan was the key contact who set up the trip via Bulgaria.) Stephan and Shannyn trained at the USOTC for 2 years together about 10 years ago...a small world indeed.
There is a a lot to write about and I certainly will tomorrow.
By the way, Elena speaks Russian and is certainly a big help here as many folks speak Russian here -Thanks Elena!!!
Finally, check http://freestylefemales.com and click Greece after clicking Photos to see pictures...this will be updated soon and daily.
This semi daily journal is brought to you at the hands and mind of Shannyn J. Gillespie.
For starters, all of the bags scheduled to fly into Sofia, Bulgaria did not make the trip from Chicago. I guess I should back up to Chicago and perhaps Denver.
The flight from Denver was delayed for unknown reasons into Chicago which left us (Sara, Katherine, Chelynne, Othella, Alaina, Elena, and
Stephany) minutes to spare just making the flight traveling to Sophia via Vienna, Austria.
To say there were a lot flight this day would be sufficient.
Nonetheless, about 15 hours later, we arrived in Sophia, Bulgaria safe and sound minus 9 bags and to sum this story quickly, Sara and Shannyn's bags are still missing.
After a nights stay in Sophia, Bulgaria, Team USA travelled to Thessaloniki, Greece to register and workout just prior to the World University Championships. Actually, Team USA trained at the wrestling national team training center in Sophia with the help of Ivan Ivanov, Emil, and Valentine (Valo) Jordanov.
These men just mentioned are legends in Bulgaria and you can Google them for sure.
Valo, who is the President of the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation and also an Olympic Champion and 4 time world champion, greeted a portion of Team USA at what I believe was the Dan Kolov competition. (The shirt given to me was written in Bulgarian and Elena is in her room.) At this tournament, Shannyn, Ron Fazio, and Cody Hesser (USA FILA
officials) were invited to sit in a special section to view the finals by Valo.
Also, at this tournament, I was able to see Ivan's brother Stephan Ivanov. (Ivan and Shannyn coach together at the USOEC and Ivan was the key contact who set up the trip via Bulgaria.) Stephan and Shannyn trained at the USOTC for 2 years together about 10 years ago...a small world indeed.
There is a a lot to write about and I certainly will tomorrow.
By the way, Elena speaks Russian and is certainly a big help here as many folks speak Russian here -Thanks Elena!!!
Finally, check http://freestylefemales.com and click Greece after clicking Photos to see pictures...this will be updated soon and daily.
