SKY’S THE LIMIT FOR RISING STAR
Osmond has plenty to smile about at nationals.
In the bowels of the Hershey Centre afterward, Seguin was part of a squealing tandem with Newmarket’s Gabrielle Daleman, who turned 15 just last Sunday. Daleman, also in cat suit noir — must be a trend — is fifth going into Saturday’s free skate. But the adolescent rattled off an impressive tripletriple combination, one of only two females to even attempt the big trick that now separates the girls from the women on the global stage.
An observer wondered where a young teen, neophyte on the scene, gets the guts to go 3-3 at her first nationals.
“It’s a whole different ballgame,’’ said Daleman, Canada’s junior champion from 2012. “You have to show all of Canada what you can do. Junior, no one really knew you.’’
As for the triple-triple: “You need to take risks. You’ve got to do hard tricks to get where you want to go.’’
See, this is a huge shift in philosophy from the cocooning that once characterized Skate Canada’s approach towards budding talent. The brain-trust worried that kids would get hurt attempting triples and thus discouraged skaters from jumping with abandon. The rest of the competitive universe went in a different direction, cranking out 15-year-old world and Olympic champions.
Meanwhile, but for the saving grace of magnificent Joannie Rochette, female skating in Canada sank into the dregs. Our lasses couldn’t keep up and nationals often turned into an over-under on how many full-body splats would occur.
Human Zambonis, the girls were called.
Rochette’s legacy is now, finally, on display. There are sprouts coming through the pipes, recent juniors — still junior-eligible on the Grand Prix circuit — chomping for attention, for accolades, and they have no memory of the bad old days.
This was Gabrielle, translating a reporter’s question for her friend Julianne, editing out some of the gentle couching: “Do you get it? Remember how women went up and then they went down? Were you aware that before Joannie and after Joannie there weren’t any other good skaters?’’
No, they really can’t recall life before B.J. — before Joannie. It was a different era from this one-rushing cohort of girl skaters. And suddenly the Canadian landscape for females is looking much less barren. In fact, ask Seguin who inspires her in the sport and she’s quick to respond: “Kaetlyn!’’ Not Rochette, but Kaetlyn. That’s Kaetlyn Osmond, who charged onto the scene as a 16year-old last season, bronze at nationals and then winning Skate Canada International, her only Grand Prix assignment. The Newfoundland-born teen is poised to take away the national title that Amelie Lacoste collected a year ago for the first time. There is a palpable sense of things shifting swiftly up top, with Lacoste — who’s yet to earn the minimum score now required by the International Skating Union to qualify for worlds — on the bubble. Osmond and Lacoste are 1-2 after the short program, but Osmond boasts a score of 70.04 compared to Lacoste’s 57.86. When the stuffed animal in Julianne Seguin’s lap started to move, it was a startling moment even for the weirdo-world of the kiss ’n’ cry.
Oh. Real dog. A teacup Yorkie called Chicklet, sparkly pink barrettes in her hair, quickly stuffed back into the purse of her owner, Seguin’s coach.
“She looks like a figure skater, doesn’t she?’’ cooed Julianne.
And you know what? Doggiestyle isn’t even a first for figure skating. There was once a French pairs guy who brought his pooch right onto the ice. It is an eccentric sport. More notable is that Seguin, from Longueuil, Que., is third at the Canadian figure skating championships after Friday’s short program. She’s 16 and most people outside her tiny corner of the planet had likely never heard of the girl before, though she was second at the national juniors a year ago. Yet there she was, in her slinky black cat suit, making a bold medal bid at her first senior competition, effortlessly tossing off a triple Lutzdouble toe combination and nifty triple loop, sinuously winding her way through a program choreographed to the sizzling Peggy Lee standard Fever.
This is a different Osmond from the girlish skater who made an eye-popping debut 12 months ago, following a ho-hum junior career. Indeed, there’s nothing girly-cutesie about the Osmond who wowed with a foxy rumba routine, opening on an absolutely seamless triple toe-triple toe. She only landed her first 3-3 a year ago and now it’s done with assurance.
“This is actually one of my easiest triple-triples. I can do flip-to and Lutz-toe too.’’
Raven-haired Osmond has one eye on the prize — national title, top 10 finish at worlds in London, Ont., in March (Canada can send only a single female entrant) — and one eye on the upstarts already pushing from behind.
“A lot of the younger skaters are coming up with a lot more difficult elements. Last year, I was one of the only (actually the only) people who attempted a triple-triple. We all seem to be competitive with each other. When one person does something different, you want to learn it.
“If you don’t take chances, you’re not going to win. If you take chances, you do risk making mistakes more often than keeping it safe and doing only what you know you can do. “Times are changing.’’ And that’s no shaggy teacupYorkie-in-a-purse dog story.