The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
City skating star’ s dream comes true
When Natasha McKay steps on to the ice of Beijing hoping for the perfect score on her Winter Olympics debut, the figure skater will proudly sport a little number from Dundee as a comforting reminder of home.
A special outfit for an unforgettable occasion, designed by a former rival turned fashion designer who is now a key member of her back-up team.
“Jodi Easson used to compete against me but she went into fashion design and quit skating,” the 27-year-old reveals.
“Now she makes my dresses. I was the first person that she’d done it for. Now everyone in Dundee gets their dresses from her.
“We put more time into designing these ones, though. She’s made them a little bit more special for the Olympics with some new stones.”
Unpacked now, and ready to sparkle with a billion faces watching on. As is McKay in her initial short programme with a driving ambition to beat the cut and survive through to the medal battle in Thursday’s free skate.
The event has been overshadowed by the doping controversy surrounding 15-year-old Russian Kamila Valieva, who will be allowed to continue following a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday that a provisional suspension for the positive test she produced from December 2021 “would cause her irreparable harm”.
The world record holder, Valieva will now be hot favourite for gold – even if she might still be stripped of the crown and the team title Russia acquired last week at a later date.
Although a parade on the podium is the longest of shots for McKay, there are other big wins up for grabs.
The Games offer a showcase to inspire, as she knows first-hand.
“I watched the 2006 Olympics on TV because my mum loved watching figure skating.
“She had it on and I saw the American skater Sasha Cohen, and just loved it. I was like, ‘Mum, I want to go there. I want to go to the Olympics.’
“The whole atmosphere of it, I just loved it and fell in love with it.
“I wanted to go to an Olympics from that point.”
There will be a group of spectators who may be begging a look at a school TV this morning or have set their recorders in advance.
The young girls and boys who McKay coaches back at Dundee Ice Arena who, she hopes, will be moved to become the Olympians of the future.
Having a role model on their doorstep may make an extraordinary dream seem far less possible.
“I was training with Jenna McCorkell, who went to the 2010 Olympics,” she recounts.
“And that was me. I wanted to be her at that time when I was training with her – and now I’m there.”
Dundee figure skater Natasha McKay fell under the spell of the Winter Olympics as a little girl watching the 2006 games on TV with her mum.
Now she is the one providing the inspiration as she prepares to take to the ice in Beijing.
This time the audience back home will include youngsters she coaches at Dundee Ice Arena.
As an example of what can be achieved through hard work and dedication, she is a terrific role model and supporters across Scotland will be cheering her on.