Reynolds may give Japan a twirl after final hurrah at nationals
Kevin Reynolds loves Japan. Japan, or at least its skating fans, love him right back.
That connection could continue. Reynolds, the 27-year-old from Coquitlam who has been one of the faces of Canadian figure skating for the past decade, says this week’s Canadian championships at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC will be his final nationals. He hopes to do enough there to qualify for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics and make that his final competition before retiring.
After that, he’ll spend a year finishing off his international relations degree, with a minor in Japanese, at UBC. And that could be followed by moving to Japan, he admitted.
“It’s possible, whether I take a short-term job in a diplomatic format or as a skating coach or choreographer,” said Reynolds. “It wouldn’t be on a long-term basis, but I would like to experience that. It’s just an idea and a possibility, but there’s nothing set. That ability to speak Japanese will give me opportunities to work overseas if I so choose. I have a whole bunch of different paths I could take. I’ll have to settle down for a year and see which one I’ll take.
“Up until the age of 18, I hadn’t really had anything to do with Japan as a country. But then I started to be influenced by their pop culture. And when I first visited Japan for a Grand Prix competition, people were so nice and welcoming, and I thought the language sounded really cool, and they’re big, big fans.
“They’re huge skating fans there. It’s incredibly popular. All those factors, and more, influenced my decision in taking up the language.”
Reynolds said he’s been told there will be Japanese skating fans coming to Doug Mitchell to watch his final performances on Canadian ice. And there are professors in his Japanese language classes who immediately picked out who he was from skating.
Rest assured, he has fans everywhere. He’s been a fun guy to watch, what with his trademark wild hair and his ability to leap to the rafters. Reynolds was the first skater to land two quadruple jumps in a short program when he pulled it off in 2010. In 2013 he become the first competitor to have landed five quadruple jumps in one competition.
He made his senior nationals debut in 2006 and, going into this week, he’s a six-time Canadian national senior men’s medallist, with four silvers and two bronze to his credit. He also won a silver medal in the team event at Sochi 2014.
He comes across being at ease heading into these national championships. He contends the school experience has given him another focus.
Canada has 11 skating entries in Pyeongchang, including two men’s competitors.
“I think it’s a completely different mentality going into these nationals and these Olympics than before Sochi,” said Reynolds, who trains under his longtime coach, Joanne McLeod, with Burnaby 8 Rinks their home base.
“Before Sochi, skating was all encompassing. That was the only goal. At this point, I feel like I’ve been to the Olympics, I have an Olympic medal. This would just be icing on the cake.
“I still feel like I have a little bit to give. I feel like I can give it one last run, give it everything I can at the Olympics.”
Reynolds’ resume is missing a Canadian championship, in large part because his career has run side-by-side with Patrick Chan’s. It would be quite the tale if he could pull off a national title in his final attempt, but he’s not about to predict such things. He contends it’s Chan’s title to lose.
He’s very matter of fact when he speaks about that. There’s no malice or resignation in his tone.
“From what I’ve seen, Patrick’s been doing quite well. He’s still formidable,” said Reynolds. “I’m not focusing on that (the title). I’m focusing on what I need to do to do my best, and the chips will fall where they fall.”