Osmond ‘thrilled’ to be in medal hunt
Short program puts Canadian in third place just behind record-breaking Russian pair
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Just before Kaetlyn Osmond stepped on the ice to skate her short program, the Kiss-Cam caught her parents, Jackie and Jeff, in the crowd. “Oh. Really?” So everybody in the Osmond family kind of had their “moment” — as Canadian athletes invariably describe their fragment of competition limelight, like they’ve all been processed through the same emotional-visceral-visualization sausage-maker. They speak in sports psychologist cue cards.
Maybe it rubs off on parents, especially when they come halfway around the world for the kid’s ta-da tick-tock.
In any event, the only moment that mattered was tucked into Osmond’s two-and-a-half-minute rendition of Edith Piaf’s “Sous le ciel de Paris” and “Milord”, sur le glace, a breezy and clean performance at the Gangneung Ice Arena on Wednesday that brought the 22-year-old from Newfoundland wrinkly-nosed sniffing around the event-leading teenagers from Russia.
Evgenia Medvedeva, two-time and reigning world champion, led off the final flight of lady skaters and immediately threw up a new world record score for the short, besting the world record score she already owned. Yet 81.61 seemed kind of fragile for this prodigiously talent crop of females and even Medvedeva looked under-impressed with her marks.
“I am not chasing after numbers but after inner feelings,” said the 18year-old who hadn’t lost a figure skating competition during a twoyear run, until an ankle injury in late autumn. She was not delighted with her opening triple flip-triple toe combination — and by opening, we mean no jumps until past the halfway point of the routine, when they’re ascribed a 10 per cent added value, a quirk of the scoring that is being utterly exploited by the Russians.
(The Olympic Athletes from Russia, that is to say, who have yet to cop gold in anything at Pyeongchang. But likely will in ladies single skating.)
“I could have had a higher score if the combination would have been better,” Medvedeva observed.
World record loftiness, so what’s the prob?
Alina Zagitova was the problem, and maybe Medvedeva had an intuition about her15-year-old compatriot, decorated as Russian champion last month, with Medvedeva still recovering.
And, yup, Zagitova stepped out there, all aflutter to “Black Swan”, laying down a new-newer-newest world record score of 82.92, with a stupendous triple Lutz-triple loop combination. “I was very happy when I saw the score but I did not expect it,” said the wraith.
The Russian nesting dolls — Maria Sotskova is the third entrant — are expected to finish1-2 at these Games, though this was not the order most had anticipated.
Right up in that high order of angels, however, is Osmond, who struck a much finer routine chord than she’d contributed to Canada’s team event gold last week.
“As good as I felt, I couldn’t control the jumps the way I wanted to (in the team event). So in the past week since then, I’ve been focusing on keeping my jumps the same way. And I grounded myself a little bit more. Still enjoyed the performance and still put myself into the program component side of my short.”
Actually, that less than self-thrilling team event short — she was third then, just like now, but now feels a lot different — “definitely” helped Os- mond get her short-groove-on for Wednesday. Like a run-though for the reigning world silver medallist.
“I am very, very thrilled,” said the 22-year-old, still beaming from her 78.87 score.
Liked it so much — helped lift her to No. 2 in the world — that she and coach Ravi Walia decided to stick with it for the Olympics year.
It’s a tough gig, fighting for podium space amidst those Russian ingenues — though Sotskova came a cropper at 12th — with Japan also having strong representatives and the U.S. too. But over the last couple of years, certainly since worlds, Osmond believes she can breathe the same rarefied air as the Russians.
“They’re such strong competitors. They’re always at the top of every event. So it’s really inspiring, not so much intimidating, being on the ice with them, knowing that I’m able to compete at their level.”
Canadian champion Gabrielle Daleman — a title wrested from Osmond in January — had one costly flub in her “Carmen”, with a overrotation on a measly triple toe, the back end of her triple-triple combination, resulting in a hand down. Rest of the program was fine, however, earning a score of 68.90 and, ultimately, seventh in the short program.