Canadian teen takes gold in international skating competition
October 29, 2012
Kaetlyn Osmond, 16, stunned the audience when she took gold at the Skate Canada International during her first Grand Prix appearance, according The Canadian Press. Now, she is even thinking about the Olympic team.
"It definitely starts putting a whole bunch of thoughts in your head," Osmond told the news source. "It just gains you so much more confidence, and a better knowing of what you can do on the ice, how much it can lead you to. [The thoughts] have always been there, just not as loud."
Canada had a good showing at the event overall. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took gold in ice dancing and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford earned silver in pairs. Surprisingly, Patrick Chan did not take gold, but instead had to settle for silver after falling on his triple Axel.
"I've won these competitions before and for me it goes beyond winning," Chan told the news outlet. "It's become a learning process and taking this and taking it step by step for the world championships - worlds is my end goal, and it's my only goal, and the year after that will be the Olympics."
According to The Globe and Mail, many are excited to see where Osmond will go in her career, and one thing's for sure, she, along with her family, is putting a great deal of effort to succeed. Osmond and her sister moved to Edmonton with her aunt, while her parents came up on weekends until they could find jobs in Edmonton. Now, Osmond goes to the skating ring from 6 a.m. until she starts school. She is on a half-day Grade 12 schedule, this way she can make it back to the rink by 1:15 p.m., and then she practices for four to five hours.
Osmond's coach, Ravi Walia, had no doubt Osmond would make a name for herself, but he did not know it would happen so soon.
"It was a shock to actually see her at the top, but I definitely had the idea that she was prepared for that type of performance," Walia told the news source.
Those who wanted to talk about the recent event can make calls to Canada using international calling cards.