Breezy and clean performance in the short dance has the 22-year-old from Newfoundland within reach of event-leading Russian teenagers Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva entering Friday’s long program, Rosie DiManno writes.
Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada performs during the women's short program figure skating in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018.
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 female and even Medvedeva looked under-impressed with her marks.
“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.
(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 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’
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Having just finished her short program and traded her skates for running shoes, Kaetlyn Osmond knelt down to retie one of her laces, saying she would most certainly trip over herself if she didn't.
"It would be something I would do, so," Osmond said.
On the ice, however, the Canadian figure skater was as precise as ever, landing her two hardest jumps – a triple Lutz and a triple flip, triple toeloop combination – which put her squarely in contention for a medal heading into Friday's free skate.
Osmond sits in third place after the short program, with a score of 78.87, behind Russia's Alina Zagitova (82.92) and Evgenia Medvedeva (81.61).
Canada's Gabrielle Daleman is seventh, with a score of 68.90, while Larkyn Austman, making her Olympic debut, is 25th, with 51.42 points.
Osmond, who did not skate a clean short program during the team event earlier in the Olympics, in which Canada won gold, said she was happy to have improved upon that performance, set to Edith Piaf's 'Sous le ciel de Paris.' "I am very thrilled," Osmond said. "That short program is definitely one of my favourites to compete… and every day in practice that's pretty much the way it goes, it's clean."
Osmond said she was overly excited in the team event, which opened figure skating at the Olympics, and that affected her performance. For Wednesday's short program, she was more collected.
"I had to keep telling myself to relax a little bit. But I felt very strong and very in-the-moment," she said.
The performance sets up a battle for the podium on Friday. In addition to chasing strong scores by both Zagitova and Medvedeva in the short program, Osmond will also be trying to fend off Japan's Satoko Miyahara, who is fourth with 75.94 points, and Kaori Sakamoto, sitting fifth with 73.18 points. Italy's Caroline Kostner is sixth at 73.15.
Daleman, who touched the ice on her specialty jump – a triple toeloop, triple toeloop combination – was unhappy with her skate and struggled to force a smile as she waited for her marks.
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