...Where Dreams Begin^®  

* Royal's Gold medal in Elite Open sparring and Chandler's Gold medal in Elite Open sparring qualify them to compete again on Friday in World Class sparring

There's only one word to describe today's events....awesome!  Today's 14 competitors brought home a total of 13 medals:  7 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze.  8 out of 14 of Team Chambliss medaled in forms and 5 out of 6 medaled in sparring!  I can't remember a more successful first day Junior Olympic competition.  We had some incredible accomplishments today:  Madison took 1st place in forms at her first Junior Olympics, beating out her 7 opponents and Kyle Nahabedian, also a first-timer,  held his 1st place position until the bitter end in his division of 33 forms competitors until he was bumped down to 5th place. Sara Crossman won her first sparring match 5-1, but lost her second, which earned her a silver medal at her first Junior Olympics.  Royal Donigan's 3-match win of the gold medal in Elite Open sparring earned him a place in World Class sparring on Friday.  All in all, it was an extremely exciting and successful day for Team Chambliss.

Today was also the Parade of States and Opening Ceremonies.  There are over 1,100 California athletes here at Junior Olympics and Team Chambliss looked great in the parade wearing their black and gold team shirts and waving the California flags we provided.  After opening ceremonies we all headed over to the Il Fornaio restaurant for dinner.  What started out as a reservation for 40 soon blossomed into a total of 54 attending.  They were nice enough to give us our own private room and needles to say, we all had a great time.  Don't think I've ever seen a dinner tab before that came to $1,011 but we passed the plate around (literally) and were able to leave without having to stay and wash dishes.  It's been a long but fun day, and the great Italian food and glass of wine make me ready to call it a night, so I'll end my ramblings now.  Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day of competition so stay tuned for all the latest results and fun from sunny San Jose.  Click here for all more of today's photos.