After tiny first steps in skating, Osmond has come a long way
Longtime Marystown arena worker recalls Olympic medallist’s first days on the ice
Kaetlyn Osmond’s climb to the podium at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang had a lot of people in her hometown of Marystown thinking about her first steps in figure skating.
The 22-year-old Osmond has been living and training in Edmonton for more than a decade, but began skating with the Ice Crystals club in Marystown as a tot.
Gerard Baker, who has worked at the town’s arena — now known as the Kaetlyn Osmond Arena — for 38 years, can still remember seeing the facility’s namesake first take to the ice.
“She was only three years old when she was here first skating,” said Baker, adding he recalls how determined Osmond was during those early days when she followed her older sister Natasha into the sport.
“Whenever she was on the ice and when she fell down, she’d cry and come off (the ice) and get up in her mom or dad’s arm, go to the bathroom and get her tears dried up, and before you knew it, (she would be) back on the ice again.”
Just about 20 years later, that stubborn little skater has a full set of Olympic medals — silver and gold as part of Canadian entries in the team events in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Games, respectively, and a bronze in the ladies’ individual event last week in Pyeongchang.
“To see someone come from here… and now be on the Olympic stage, it’s phenomenal,” said Baker, comparing his memories of a little girl taking her first skate at the arena to his witnessing her Olympic triumphs as a young woman.
“I could never even have imagined it, that someone (from the town) would go this far.”
Baker said figure skating in Marystown has grown as Osmond’s popularity — and international success — has increased.
“The kids really look up to her now, and want to be like her,” he said.
Members of the Ice Crystals will get to express that in person in just under seven weeks; Osmond will be the special guest for the club’s annual skating show on April 14.