After Dream U.S. Championships, Miami University Heads Back to First World Championships Since 2016

When the Miami University synchronized skating team walked into the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the last day of the 2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, they were ready.
 
Eerily ready, said senior Sarah Noonan.
 
"We felt very, very confident in ourselves," Noonan said. "I've never experienced that. We always get the pre-competition jitters."
 
Head coach Carla DeGirolamo said even the coaching staff was jitter-free.
 
"I was very calm from the first moment we walked in there, and I just knew that they were going to do what they wanted to do," DeGirolamo said. "And I knew that they were going to have the program, and they were going to have the skate, and it was going to be a great day for them."
 
And a great day it was.
 
Miami University won the free skate, edging the Haydenettes by just over one point, and earned the silver medal with 214.67 points overall. It was Miami's best finish since 2016, when they also won silver.
 
"It was crazy. I didn't even hear the combined score. We didn't even know we broke 200. I guess we could've done math," Noonan said with a laugh. "But it was just crazy. I fell, and everyone around me picked me up. It was so fun."
 
There were still two teams left to skate, however, so Miami had to wait to learn its final placement.
 
"I'll never forget when Carla came into the locker room and told us that we had won the long program," said junior Brittney Rivelli. "I don't think I've ever jumped so hard in my entire life. I could feel the concrete underneath my guards and I was like, 'This probably isn't good, but I'm so happy right now!'
 
"I still don't have words to describe what nationals (U.S. Synchronized Championships) was. It was a dream come true."
 
The team credits an abundance of preparation for their confidence on competition day. In particular, assistant coach Katie Bowling got 360-degree visuals of the arena in Colorado Springs so skaters were able to visualize the ice before they ever set foot there.
 
"We talked a lot in our preparation about just controlling what we can control and skating at home the way we want to skate at the event, and doing it all the way all the time," DeGirolamo said. "Because when you don't, it feels different, and that's a lot of times when you get those surprises that you don't want to have in the middle of a program. And so I think they really took that to heart and really did that from day to day. It was no more, no less.
 
"They are motivated. I like to say if I've done my job, they don't need me, and at that point, they did not need me."
 
Rivelli says that "no more, no less" is something that the skaters continued to come back to, and that it's what kept them steady when it mattered most.
 
"Every time we take a breath in our circle, that was one of the phrases that kept repeating before we skated any section, any practice," Rivelli said. "And then when we were competing, and I think that's truly what came through in that performance."
 
Noonan added, "I think we all knew when we hit the ending that that was what we all wanted to do, that we achieved that goal of putting out a solid performance."
 
What made it even more special for Miami is the fact that the U.S. Synchronized Championships was full of Miami alumni, from coaches to officials to other skaters. Miami's senior team was also joined in Colorado Springs by the collegiate squad, which won gold in its own division.
 
"All of our coaches growing up were Miami alumni too, so going into this past week, we had their best wishes, and just at awards, they were so congratulatory," Noonan said. "They were just in that moment with us. We just celebrated 25 years last year. Being able to know that you have all those incredible women fully supporting you is just amazing."
 
Having the collegiate team there for even more support was the icing on the cake.
 
"Because the collegiate division was before us, their awards ceremony was also before us, and when we walked out of our locker room, all of the collegiate teams who were on the podium were lined up in the hallway down the stairs, and they were all clapping for us," Rivelli said. "I was crying, and it was just really cool to have so much support and feel that, especially heading into Worlds."
 
Indeed, Miami will be representing Team USA at the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2022 on April 7-9 in Hamilton, Ontario. This will be Miami's 13th appearance at the World Championships and first since 2016.
 
Receiving their U.S. silver medal and being announced on the World Team was an experience Miami's skaters will never forget, as it was the culmination of nearly half a lifetime of work.
 
Noonan, admittedly not a crier, broke down during the awards ceremony and ran off to hug her mom, while Rivelli hunted down DeGirolamo to share the team's gratitude with her.
 
"I raced through all the chaos of everyone still taking pictures on the ice and jumped up kind of where the Zamboni is, and I just went and hugged her," Rivelli said. "And I think I stood there for like a full minute, just thanking her. She's said it so many times over the weekend, but just saying that she was so proud of us made me feel so happy. I'm just so grateful for all of our coaches, because they're really the reason why we've been able to do this."
 
"Really, it means everything," DeGirolamo said of watching the team succeed. "As a coach, we're here for the athletes. I'm not in this for myself. I'm doing it for them, and to give them the tools and their best chance to have success, and to see them accomplish their goals, and to see them continue to improve and to grow from year to year, from month to month, from season to season. And to be able to watch them accomplish those goals, to watch them put all the pieces together when it counted, I think was really, really a cool thing for me."
 
The team now heads to Canada for the World Championships knowing that anything is possible.
 
Nothing more, nothing less.
 
"Clearly we have had no shortage of unprecedented times, so we are just going to roll with the punches, and our goal is to place and skate as best as we can," Noonan said. "We know things are going to get shaken up a little bit this year, and we're excited to be part of that."

Fans can watch the World Synchronized Skating Championships live and on-demand next week on Peacock Premium.