Medallist has connection to Peterborough

There’s a Peterborough connection to Canada’s newest figure skating star.

Keegan Messing, 26, won the silver medal in his first Grand Prix event over the weekend at Skate Canada International in Laval, Que., making him the most likely heir to replace three-time world champion Patrick Chan, following his retirement after the Olympics, as Canada’s top men’s figure skater.

Messing was born in Girdwood, an Alaskan resort town just south of Anchorage, where he now lives.

Messing skates for Canada because he has dual Canadian-American citizenship.

His mother Sally Messing was born in Edmonton and raised in Peterborough. She moved to Alaska where she met Messing’s father.

It’s a similar case to Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman who as a dual citizen played for Team Canada last year to honour his late mother Rosemary McDonald Freeman, who was raised in Peterborough.