It will be Wednesday in Pyeongchang but Tuesday night in Edmonton as supporters gather to cheer on figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond — led by her nervous older sister Natasha.
Natasha Osmond was pretty calm ahead of Kaetlyn's performance in the team event, where she and the other Canadian skaters earned a gold medal.
But with just hours to go before her little sister hits the Olympic ice for the singles event, she's experiencing a range of emotions.
"My nerves are so heightened," Natasha Osmond told the St. John's Morning Show. "I know what she can do, I've watched her train for the last four or five months I've been here, and I just want her to do what she can do."
From 'Bambi' to the Olympics
When they were children growing up in Marystown, N.L., as well as in Quebec and Alberta, it was often Kaetlyn watching what Natasha could do.
Kaetlyn Osmond is hoping to reach the podium in women's figure skating at the Winter Games in Pyeonchang. Her short program is Wednesday, late Tuesday night in Canada. (Kevin Light / CBC Sports)
Natasha was a figure skater at the national level herself, and said Kaetlyn looked up to her as a role model, initially starting to skate as a toddler because her older sister was doing it.
The younger Osmond's Olympic potential was not necessarily evident right away, Natasha said.
"When she was just learning how to jump, she was so tall and so skinny and lanky and just unproportionate for a figure skater," she said. Kaetlyn's initial lack of co-ordination earned her the nickname "Bambi."
But Kaetlyn continued to train alongside her sister and continued on in the sport after Natasha decided to retire.
Last year Kaetlyn wrote an article for the Woman's Almanac about the Newfoundland woman who most inspired her: her sister.
A homemade sign for Kaetlyn Osmond ahead of her performance as part of the team figure skating competition at the Pyeongchang Olympics. (Natasha Osmond/Facebook)
"Long before I can remember, I watched my sister and she pushed herself on the ice, learning to be a figure skater," she wrote. "I wanted to be just like her."
"I really didn't realize until she did that how much she actually looked up to me, and still does," Natasha said. "So I'm pretty proud of her."
Ready to watch Kaetlyn's singles skate
While she loved her time on the ice, Natasha said she was ready to hang up the skates.
Can't wait to step out on Olympic ice again! I am so excited! #ready #Olympics #PyeongChang2018 #edithpiaf pic.twitter.com/dnjjKELYcU — @kaetlyn_23
Kaetlyn has continued on, winning a silver medal at the 2017 world championships, a bronze at the 2017 Grand Prix Final, and now Olympic gold to go with her silver in the team event from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Her most recent wins come after a series of injuries, including a broken leg, that put her figure skating career in doubt.
But after taking a season off to recover, she's back. Natasha will be watching her sister in Pyeongchang on Tuesday night with a large group of friends in Edmonton as she hits the ice for her short program.
Their parents are in Pyeongchang to cheer Kaetlyn on in person, and provide regular updates.
Kaetlyn Osmond's parents Jeff and Jackie Osmond are thrilled with her gold team medal. (CBC Sports)
Natasha believes Kaetlyn is capable of earning a medal, but acknowledges that the only performance her sister can control is her own.
She understands why fans at home in Newfoundland and Labrador might be staying up late to watch, whatever the outcome.
"It's not every day you get someone from Marystown who is an Olympic gold medallist," Natasha said.
(Photo courtesy Skate Canada)
While the province is eagerly awaiting Kaetlyn Osmond’s next performance on the world stage, Marystown is pulling out all the stops for her appearance in the Lady’s Singles Short Program.
With the time difference, Kaetlyn is expected to skate at around 1:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time.
The women’s short program goes today! Get ready to cheer on Kaetlyn, Gabby & Larkyn!! #FeelTheMoment #TeamCanada #PyeongChang2018 / Le programme court féminin commence aujourd’hui! Préparez-vous à encourager Kaetlyn, Gabby et Larkyn!! #VivezLeMoment #ÉquipeCanada #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/Q34zra2s8C — Skate Canada / Patinage Canada (@SkateCanada) February 20, 2018
Marystown Mayor, Sam Synard says the community has pulled together to cheer on the pride of their town.
A special event has been slated for the local ice arena beginning at 11:00 p.m. to the public. For the younger skating fans, they held a special event for an hour at 6:00 p.m.
Kaetlyn has already taken home the gold medal along with Team Canada for the figure skating team event earlier this month. Having earned two medals in her Olympic career, family, friends and fans are hoping to see another added to her collection tonight.
(Photo courtesy Skate Canada, by Greg Kolz.)
Kaetlyn Osmond had the skate of her life, setting a personal best in the women’s short program at the Winter Olympics in South Korea early this morning.
She sits in third place, a healthy distance ahead of number four but within striking distance of first and second. If not for two Russians setting world records, one after the other, Osmond would be in first place.
Members of Kaetlyn’s family gathered in Mount Pearl last night to watch the event. Her aunt, Colleen Devereaux, said it’s overwhelming to know that an athlete from Newfoundland and Labrador is now a household name across the country. She says Osmond is “amazing”, and is as sweet on the inside as she is on the outside.
Kaetlyn’s score was 78.87 while the leaders scored 82.92 and 81.61 respectively. The second and final portion of the women’s singles is set for late tomorrow/early Friday.
VOCM News will have extended pieces on the skate between 7:00 & 8:00 this morning.
Family and friends cheer on as @kaetlyn_23 received her 78.87 score @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/EsfrKVEW1a — Ben Murphy (@BenMurphyVOCM) February 21, 2018
Kaetlyn took home gold as part of Team Canada in the team event earlier this month. It was the second medal of her Olympic career, having taken home silver in the same event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
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.
Maybe it rubs off on parents, especially when they come halfway around the world for the kid’s ta-da tick-tock.
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.
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.
(The Olympic Athletes from Russia, that is it say, who have yet to cop gold in anything at Pyeongchang. But likely will in ladies single skating.)
“I am not chasing after numbers but after inner feelings,” said the 18-year-old who hadn’t lost a figure skating competition during a two-year 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.
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 female and even Medvedeva looked under-impressed with her marks.
“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 her 15-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 and incomparable throughout the entirety of the program. “I was very happy when I saw the score but I did not expect it,” said the wraith. “Now my name will be connected to that record.”
Maybe for a minute and a half, as these things have been going.
The Russian nesting dolls — Maria Sotskova the third entrant — are totally expected to finish 1-2 at these Games, though this was not the 1-2 order most had anticipated, albeit separated by just over one point.
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.
“In the team event, I had so much excitement,” she explained. “It almost shocked me, the amount of excitement that I had in the team event.”
This is not her first Olympics rodeo, after all.
“As good as I felt, I couldn’t control the jumps the way I wanted to. So in the past week since then, I’ve been focusing on keeping my jumps the same way that are every day.” Back home, which is now Edmonton, she meant. “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 Osmond 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.
“That short program has always been one of my favourites to compete — for the last two years.”
Liked it so much — helped lift her to No. 2 in the world — that she and coach Ravi decided to stick with it for the Olympics year.
“The last time, performing the short program, it didn’t go the way I wanted,” said Osmond. “So I was really excited to just go out there, enjoy every moment of it. I had to keep telling myself to relax a little bit but I felt very strong and in the moment.”
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.”
Just as she’ll be in the same final flight with them for Friday’s free skate competition. “It shows that I have the same strength.”
Osmond came out determinedly, attacking her jumps, feeling fitter and stronger than ever before in her life. “I wasn’t going to shy away from anything in my program. That’s the way I’ve been focusing at home, to attack every element, and leave nothing behind.”
Doubtless Gabrielle Daleman had the same idea, simply because that attack-mode style is in her DNA. But the current Canadian champion — a title wrested from Osmond in January — had one costly flub in her “Carmen”, with a over-rotation on a measly triple toe, the back end of her triple-triple combination, resulting in a hand down. Rest of the program was fine, how, earning a score of 68.90 and, ultimately, seventh in the short program.
But Daleman was seething at herself and clearly upset in the kiss’n’cry before the marks went up, even more so once they did.
“I’m very hard on myself,” said the 20-year-old from Newmarket, lips quivering. “Overall I just wasn’t happy because that’s my jump. It’s just a stupid mistake.”
Although she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly went wrong with the toe. “That’s what I’m most frustrated about. But at the end of the day, I could have let the program completely go. I have in the past. But I’m very happy how I fought everything and how I handled myself today.”
When it was suggested she was perhaps beating herself up over a minor misstep, Daleman dug in her heels. “I’m being very hard on myself but that’s who I am. To be honest, I’m going to get angry over the next few days and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Four Carmens in the short program, by the way. Just sayin’.
