WORLD BEATER
Kaetlyn Osmond won’t get the hero’s welcome she deserves back home — she’s currently on tour in Japan — for becoming first Canadian in 45 years to win women’s world championship
One of the great things about winning a world championship is returning to Canada and having dozens of people waiting to embrace you at the airport.
It’s a scene that Kaetlyn Osmond didn’t get to experience at Edmonton International Airport after becoming the first Canadian to win the women’s world figure skating championship in 45 years this past weekend.
Instead, she flew from Milano, Italy, to Japan, where — considering her gold left two Japanese skaters with the silver and bronze — her arrival was not celebrated.
Osmond also got cheated out of the coverage Canadians used to receive at the worlds. Sportswriters such as Neil Stevens, Bev Smith, Cam Cole, Steve Milton, Steve Buffery, Rosie DiManno and myself used to cover the worlds virtually every year.
Not one member of the Canadian print media was there to record Osmond’s triumph this year.
Not once in all of those years —andIcovered21ofthem— did we get to write about a Canadian woman winning the worlds.
I remember Josee Chouinard, who more than once chose my shoulder to place her head and sob in the days when the Canadian postskate interviews were done sitting in a circle of chairs in the media work room.
And I remember Jennifer Robinson with tears in her eyes walking on her skates into the mixed zone, looking at us and declaring: “I’m still a pretty girl.”
I covered the 1972 worlds in Calgary where Karen Magnussen skated brilliantly, but finished second to lumbering Trixi Schuba of Austria, who excelled at compulsory figures, worth a considerable portion of the final marks total back then.
I wasn’t there in 1973 when Magnussen won the world title in Bratislava — the last time a Canadian did it.
“I’m so happy to have done it, but it definitely hasn’t come close to sinking in that I was the first from Canada in 45 years to get another gold medal in ladies,” responded Osmond from Japan upon settling in to begin a two-week, eight-stop Stars On Ice Tour there.
“That it took 45 years is a surprise because we’ve had many strong women in skating,” she added.
While she hasn’t had the airport arrival experience in Canada, Osmond — who treasures having two hometowns — Marystown, Nfld., and Sherwood Park, Alta. — said she doesn’t feel cheated out of anything.
“The reaction from home has been incredible. I have received so many messages of congratulations. Seeing so many people excited reminds methatIhavesomuch support in Canada.”
Shesaidshemaybehalfa world away, but she can feel the happiness from Newfoundland.
“From the messages I have been getting on social media, Newfoundland seems to be bubbling with excitement, probably just as much as I am.
“It’s a very special feeling
being from a small province and a small town there,” she said of the community of 5,436 on the Burin Peninsula.
“I have a street and a rink named after me in Marystown. It’s where I was born, where I started skating, where I developed a passion for being on the ice. Ever since I was five and entered my first competition, I’ve had an abundance of unwavering support from my hometown. I will always call Marystown my home, even if I haven’t lived there since I was eight.
“We moved to Sherwood Park because that is where my family moved us to be closer together when they were working in Fort McMurray. I started going to school there in Grade 6,” she said of the Edmonton bedroom community.
Osmond suggests a similar sort of hometown feel exists there, although it’s shared with Edmonton where she trains at the West Edmonton Mall rink and Terwillegar Recreation Centre.
The 22-year-old will complete her run in Japan and return to Canada to do the same with the Canadian
Stars On Ice Tour starting in Halifax on April 27 and playing Roger’s Place in Edmonton May 13.
“I’ll fly from Japan to spend some time in Newfoundland before I head to Halifax to start the Canadian tour,” she explained.
Osmond says she doubts if she’ll have come down from her high by the time she gets to be celebrated in Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.
And she doesn’t want to come down. “I always love doing Stars
On Ice. I love performing. And it’s a way I can continue celebrating the year.
“I always love doing the Edmonton stop on the tour because it isn’t very often that I get to perform in Edmonton and it’s always exciting to perform in the city where I live.
“My emotions are running so high right now. This year has just been incredible. I did notknowthatgoldwas possible at the beginning of this year but I did place second last year, so I knew this year I wasn’t going to give up a podium spot. I was going to work to get back on to that podium. It just shocked me a little that it was on top of the podium.
“I only really got to watch the last two skaters compete. I was already excited that I was going to be on the podium again, but as the competition unfolded and mistakes were happening, my hands started shaking. I saw the judges’ scores and was so excited mine was holding up.”
What happened next gave the world a different look at her. She was so consumed by the moment skating around the arena with the Canadian flag wrapped around her shoulders, she went for a tumble and ended up being picked up off the ice by the Japanese skaters who had won the silver and bronze. That probably made more sports highlight shows than her skate itself.
“During the victory lap, it was a funny mistake that just seemed to make that moment more memorable. I didn’t see the carpet they’d put on the ice.
“The Japanese skaters were amazing supporting me and laughing with me. I was just happy that I didn’t hurt anything,” said the skater, who broke her leg in two places in 2014.
With a team gold and individual bronze at the Pyeongchang Winter Games, Osmond plans on going forward carrying Canada’s flag in the sport.
While retirement is claiming Canada’s Olympic gold medal dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and three-time men’s world champion Patrick Chan, Osmond wants more.
“To get another opportunity to represent Canada on the Olympic stage would be amazing and is definitely something I have in my mind.
“But skating is hard and unpredictable so I will be taking it next year and keep going as long as I can.”