YOU LOOK FAMILIAR ...
Canadian figure skater Austman an Olympic rookie, mostly
GANGNEUNG — This was Larkyn Austman’s Olympic debut. More or less.
She was on the Pacific Coliseum ice with the grieving Joannie Rochette for the short and the long program at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Austman was also there when Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were taking their bows, ready to collect gold medals after an inspired free dance.
Austman, who turned 12 that day, was a flower retriever.
“And it was insanity for both Joannie and Tessa and Scott,” Austman said. “We were all out there.”
On Thursday she will turn 20, and she is an Olympian. She skated her short program here on Wednesday, to a disappointing score of 51.42. That left her in 25th place, one short of qualifying for the long program. Agonizingly close, too, just 1.04 points out, but out nonetheless.
“I felt very comfortable and confident out there,” she said, before finding out that she hadn’t qualified. “I wish my score could have been higher but there is nothing else I can do about it at this point.”
Anyone who has watched figure skating at an Olympics knows that’s how it goes. Fans also know that after really good skates by the top contenders, the ice is littered with stuffed animals and flowers, which have rained down from the stands.
That’s the cure for a horde of teeny, tiny flower retrievers to skate like water bugs all over the ice surface, gathering up the booty, which is stuffed into big bags and offered to the skater whose performance inspired the plush avalanche.
“Often skaters, especially high-calibre skaters like Joannie, don’t take all of it because it’s just way too much for them,” Austman said.
And how does one become a flower retriever? Austman attended a tryout at the Four Continents competition held in 2009 at the Coliseum as a test event for the coming Olympics.
“The criteria was nice skating, we had to be a certain age and under. It was purely based on esthetics, pretty much.”
She remembers the experience primarily because of the family tragedy that befell Rochette — her mother died days before Rochette was to compete, which she did under tremendous scrutiny and pressure and heartache. She won the bronze.
“I very much remember the whole scenario with Joannie. And just being totally amazed at how she handled the whole situation and coming out basically on top. I’m so inspired by her and so happy that I can have a Canadian role model like her.
At the time, Austman had no Olympic ambitions.
“I had no idea. I was, honestly, not a talented skater as a kid. I had no potential. Nobody looked at me and said ‘wow that kid is so good for her age.’ But once I hit like 13, I started to actually realize what technique is.”
She is still refining hers, and will obviously need to keep at it to climb into the upper echelon of the women’s discipline. She has made a significant step already, one toward feeling like she belongs on this stage. That beats the way she felt in Regina at Skate Canada, her first senior Grand Prix assignment. She finished last.
“I was absolutely terrified and the whole time I was there it was like, wow, I do not belong here. But I would say that I have more confidence now and I feel better about what I’m doing.”