A natural born speed skater
Provincial 12-year-old champion Mya Payne of the Kawartha Quarks is great-granddaughter of a world men’s speed skating champion
Mya Payne’s bloodlines might explain her speed skating prowess.
The 12-year-old Kawartha Quarks skater was the 2017 provincial champion and she’s qualified to skate at the Ontario Winter Games being hosted March 1 to 4 in Orillia and Huntsville.
Payne’s great-grandfather, the late J.J. Mulligan of Ottawa, was the world speed skating champion in 1929. Her mother Christa was also a member of Canada’s national gymnastics team and missed out on a chance to compete at the 1980 Olympics when Canada boycotted the Moscow Games.
Payne, who has played hockey since she was six, got interested in speed skating three years ago when she found out about her greatgrandfather from her grandfather Don Mulligan.
“My papa was talking about how my great-grandfather was the world speed skating champion,” said Payne, a Grade 8 pupil at Monsignor O’Donoghue School.
Her parents Christa and Eddie Payne said Mya took to the sport right away.
“There has never been one day that kid has ever missed a practice or complained about going or didn’t want to get up,” said Christa. “She loves going to hockey and speed skating.”
Quarks coach Chris Coons said he and head coach Jack Lapum and dryland trainer Elio Cozzarini recognized Payne’s ability early on.
“There are some things with Mya you can’t teach,” Coons said. “With speed skating being so technical there is this thing that we call a feel for the ice. You either have it or you don’t. She’s got it. It’s something I suppose can be taught and you can clue into it but she’s just got a feel for it. I don’t know where that comes from.”
Coons said Payne is a quick study, too.
“I can tell some skaters for three years they need to change the same little thing. I tell her once and she can change it,” he said.
“You don’t learn that. That’s a natural ability. The other thing is she’s so tenacious. She wants to win. She’s kind of quiet but you can see it in her eyes. When she goes to the line she’s not losing.”
Coons said speed skating coaches often have to undo what skaters have learned through hockey where speed is built up through quick movement of the feet. The secret to speed skating is long methodical strides emphasizing pressure on the ice and power. It’s something Payne picked up quickly.
“The things I have found to be a challenge about teaching speed skating Mya has made easy,” Coons said.
To get her competition the coaches began skating Mya with older boys and the first time out found them to be rough.
“One of her coaches, Jack, told her maybe you need to get physical back,” Christa said. “That was a real turning point for her. She really started to race.”
Payne is excited to go to the Ontario Winter Games, a multisport event with opening and closing ceremonies held every two years.
“I thought it would be really cool and a good opportunity,” Mya said. “I’ll get to experience what it would be like if I ever got to go to the Olympics.”
She is the first Quarks skater in the 10 years Coons has coached to qualify for the Winter Games.
“When she decided she was going to make this Ontario Winter Games team that was it,” said Coons. “It was her single focus. ‘I’m making this team.’ And she did.”
Limited ice-time in Peterborough means the Quarks practice once a week which makes her success even more remarkable. She also doesn’t compete as often as most speed skaters because of conflicts with her hockey schedule. She plays for the Ice Kats rep program.
“She goes against skaters who are on the ice four to five times a week so we were all kind of shocked she did so well,” said Christa Payne.
Mya says the speed skating has helped her in hockey, too. She says she loves both sports equally.
“I get to use different edges,” she said.