Osmond is back and even better
A new-and-improved Kaetlyn Osmond won the Nebelhorn Trophy in Obertsdorf, Germany, on the weekend for the second time in three years.
The first time, Osmond started to make a name for herself in her first senior international competition by upsetting Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova, who later won the Olympic gold medal in 2014. At the time, she was the first Canadian woman to win the event in about 25 years.
This time around, it’s just another step on the comeback trail for Osmond, the two-time Canadian champion who broke her right leg in a freak accident while trying to avoid another skater during a training session on Sept. 11, 2014, and missed the entire 201415 season.
“I was skating really well from the moment I got there, obviously, until I left,” said Osmond, 19. “It just felt great to be back on international ice and feel so comfortable on it.
“The programs were good enough to win and I got a personal best in the long program,” she added. “There’s still a long way to go with the programs, but it’s really good to be back.”
“It wasn’t necessarily to get a certain result, just to get back out there,” said Osmond’s coach, Ravi Walia of the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club. “It’s definitely been a difficult year and she’s had to work really hard to get herself through the recovery for her injury, but also to get herself back in the form she was in before. I think she is actually better than she was before her injury.”
Walia said Osmond “competed well and felt comfortable on the ice and didn’t get too nervous, so that’s a good sign for the future” in her first real competition in 16 months.
Osmond had surgery after the ac- cident to insert a plate and screws in her leg, then needed a second surgery in early February to remove the hardware earlier than expected because she was constantly in pain. Now she says her leg “is as strong as ever … and I don’t have to worry about any injuries any more.”
She has been training full-time since April and “probably haven’t felt anything in my foot since June.” She also won a couple of warm-up competitions at Skate Detroit and the Wild Rose Invitational in Edmonton this summer.
“I know there’s still a lot of train- ing to do just to feel more comfortable with my programs,” said Osmond.
“But as my scores this weekend proved, I’m better than I was before I got injured and I can just keep building from there.”
Osmond’s next competition is Skate Canada in Lethbridge from Oct. 30-Nov. 1 and NHK Trophy on the Grand Prix Series from Nov. 2729 at Nagano, Japan. She already has a berth in the Canadian championships Jan. 18-24 at Halifax.
Walia said Osmond struggled with the mental aspect of overcoming her injury when she first returned to the ice.
“The other side of it was, of course, she was really struggling to just do basic things like regular stroking and turns. Just basic skating moves were really a challenge,” he said. “As time went on, mentally things got stronger and stronger.”
After the second surgery, Walia started from the beginning with Osmond.
“I think it was kind of a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to go back to the basics and work on techniques and every aspect of her skating,” he said. “Now that she’s back, she’s better than ever.”