MEDAL HOPEFUL
Canadian champ ‘on track to do better’ at Sochi Games
Kaetlyn Osmond wants to be “perfect” and have some fun at the Olympic Winter Games.
The two-time Canadian women’s figure skating champion is trying not to think about the possibility of winning a medal in Sochi, Russia, but the thought occasionally creeps into her mind.
“It happened last year. I wasn’t expecting to medal when I ended up medalling,” she said, referring to a Grand Prix event held in Canada.
“But the only way I can do that is if I skate the way I know I can skate. That’s what I’m aiming on, is just to skate strong and to skate perfect.”
In fact, Osmond is hoping “to skate better than I ever have before in competition and just to have fun with the experience.” She wants “to be able to show not just the skating world, but the entire world, that skating is a fun sport. It’s something I’ve always loved and it’s something I’m good at.”
The 18-year-old was feeling the love Thursday night under a banner declaring West Edmonton Mall’s Ice Palace as “the home of Kaetlyn Osmond.” The Ice Palace Figure Skating Club organized a send-off party for the first Olympic skater training in Edmonton since the pairs team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in 2002 and the first singles skater since Susan Humphreys in 1994.
“I know I have so much support from my family and my friends, but to see the whole club like this and to see so many people show up for this, it really feels like I’m part of something so big,” she said.
The love, actually, has been coming in “so many messages from across the country” since Osmond came within a point of Joannie Rochette’s Canadian championships record when she defended her national title with an overall score of 207.24 points in Ottawa in early January.
“She came back from her injuries and kind of caught up to where she should be,” said Osmond’s coach, Ravi Walia. “It was great because she skated well ... but she hasn’t peaked yet. She’s got more to give and she’s on track to do better in Sochi.
“I think she could skate clean programs all the way through the event. She’s ready.”
If Osmond reaches the podium in a strong field that includes reigning world and Olympic champ Yuna Kim of South Korea, Vancouver 2010 silver medallist Mao Asada of Japan, 2012 world champion Carolina Kostner of Italy and 15-year-old Russian Julia Lipnitskaia, the reigning European champion, she would be only the fifth Canadian woman to medal at the Winter Games.
The others are Rochette (bronze) in 2010, Elizabeth Manley (silver) in Calgary in 1988, Karen Magnussen (silver) in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan, and Barbara Ann Scott (gold) in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
“Just to think of what I went through this year, it’s still shocking to know that I’m leaving on Sunday to do the Olympics,” Osmond said. “I started off this year with so many injuries and coming off such a fantastic year, it was so nerve-racking that I had to withdraw from competitions, I couldn’t practise.
“It was also such a great learning experience and probably one I needed going into the Olympics. I know how to focus and I know how to deal with anything that gets thrown at me,” she said. “I feel completely strong and completely healthy, finally, and I’m ready to go.”
Osmond was nervous going into nationals because it was her first major competition of the season.
“For the short program, I just really wanted to go out there and have fun with it. I did that. I had so much fun, I nearly fell at the end because I was so excited. It was really good,” she said.
In her free program, she knew she “just had ... to skate the way I know I can skate and I’d have that title and I’d have my spot on the Olympic team.
“To skate two strong programs, it gives me so much more confidence to go forward.”
It was also a relief to skate both programs without reinjuring herself.
“Even after the year I had, I can still skate two perfect programs. Actually, my long program was the first time I’ve skated clean at nationals, ever,” she said. “It was absolutely amazing. When my music ended, I felt perfect.”
Because of her injuries last fall — the stress reaction in her left foot and torn hamstring in her right leg — Osmond didn’t upgrade her triple-triple jump combination in her short program and doesn’t have one in her free program.
But she can compete against skaters doing bigger jumps because “I have the second marks to be able to fight back,” she said of her component (presentation) elements.
Osmond, who placed eighth in her first appearance at the world championships last year in London, Ont., could skate both of her programs twice at the Olympics. Because of an 11-day gap between the new team competition and the women’s individual events, Skate Canada could ask her to do both women’s programs in the team event.
The women’s team events are on Feb. 8 and 9. Edmonton fans will be able to watch Osmond’s individual programs on TV at 7a.m. on both Feb. 19 (short) and Feb. 20 (free).