The Road to Gold, Part 1
by Laurie Nealin, Special to U.S. Figure Skating Online |
| Joannie Rochette at the 2005 Campbell's Classic Photo by Paul Harvath |
Rochette Pegged as Canada's Rainmaker
(11/16/05) - The image of an incredulous Elizabeth Manley plopping a white Stetson onto her head as she celebrated her silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games is still fresh in the minds of many figure skating fans, especially Canadian ones.
Although, to some, it might seem like Manley's Kodak moment happened only yesterday, the memorable celebration actually occurred 17 years ago. Since then, no Canadian women's competitor has landed on the Olympic figure skating podium.
Reigning Canadian champion Joannie Rochette had just turned two when Manley outskated American Debi Thomas to claim the 1988 Olympic silver. In the years following, Canadian women - with the exception of Josee Chouinard, perhaps - were seldom considered medal threats in the global arena until two young Quebec skaters, Rochette and her chief rival Cynthia Phaneuf, began their successful international campaign last season.
With Phaneuf, who won Grand Prix gold and silver last season, withdrawing from her fall assignments to recover from a stress fracture in her foot, Rochette now finds herself alone in the spotlight.
In Torino in February, Canadians will be looking to Rochette to end the country's Olympic medal drought, yet she seems unfazed by the expectations.
“This year I know how pressure feels, and I'm more prepared to deal with it,” she said.
This week in France, Rochette, 19, will take the next step toward the 2006 Olympic podium at Trophee Eric Bompard, the fourth of six Grand Prix events. Given the depth of the field, which includes Americans Sasha Cohen and Kimmie Meissner, Japanese Mao Asada and Shizuka Arakawa, and Russian Elena Sokolova, winning a medal in Paris should serve as a real confidence booster.
In her first Grand Prix of the season at MasterCard Skate Canada in October, Rochette snagged the silver medal behind U.S. rising star Alissa Czisny. In Paris, where she won a year ago, Rochette will be looking for another podium finish to earn her second consecutive trip to the Grand Prix Final.
Rochette has made significant strides since placing 17th in her World Championships debut in 2003 in Washington, D.C. A year later, she climbed all the way to eighth place. Last season, she picked up gold and bronze medals on the Grand Prix circuit before pocketing the bronze at the Grand Prix Final. At the World Championships in Moscow last March, however, Rochette struggled under the pressure of medal expectations and dropped to a disappointing 11th.
After deciding to discontinue training at the school to which she had moved the previous fall, Rochette asked coach Manon Perron in June to take her back. Perron, who coached Rochette to national titles at both the novice and junior levels, had sent her prize student packing at the start of the 2004-05 season because she felt Rochette lacked dedication.
Judging by Rochette's performance at Skate Canada, Perron's tough love appears to have paid off. Rochette said she realizes there is no shortcut to the top and is prepared to put in the work required to get there.
“The motivation has to come from yourself, not from your training mates. I've learned a lot from (training elsewhere) ... I know the reason why I skate now, and I can get the motivation myself,” said Rochette, a student of natural and health sciences at a Montreal college.
She also realizes that the intensity of the Olympic season will be like nothing she has ever experienced.
“The training will be more condensed,” Rochette said. “You need to train like a champion and use all the tools available and stick to a solid plan, to set high goals.”
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At Skate Canada, Rochette struggled with the triple flip in both programs, but those two bobbles were her only major errors. She described the week in St. John's as “a good start, an improvement over Campbell's,” referring to her fourth-place finish at U.S. Figure Skating's invitational event in Minnesota in September.
David Wilson, figure skating's newest choreographic star, designed both of Rochette's programs. The short is set to an instrumental version of Madonna's “Like a Prayer,” while the free skate features classical piano orchestrations of French chanteuse Edith Piaf's “Autumn Leaves” and “Hymn to Love.”
“The long is a more challenging program because it asks for more interpretation from myself,” Rochette said, comparing the program to last season's very successful “Firebird” routine.
As the Olympics near, Rochette hopes to up the technical ante in her short program with a triple-triple combination - either a triple Lutz-triple toe or triple flip-triple toe.
To improve her flexibility so she can hit and hold positions that will earn more points in the new judging system, Rochette has added four weekly ballet sessions to her training regimen.
“It's harder to improve flexibility when you're older, but with the new (judging) system, I don't think you have the choice,” she said. “For myself to do it at 19 years old, it's maybe a lot harder than when you are five, but I love skating, and I think it's worth doing it.”
Rochette is also determined not to repeat the mistakes of last season, when she started off with a bang but faded at Worlds.
“After skating so well at nationals, it was hard getting settled down again, and then with all the media attention, I wasn't used to it, so dealing with everything was a bit of a challenge for me,” Rochette admitted.
“Two weeks before I left for Worlds, I was so stressed out, I couldn't do some of my elements any more ... I don't want to let this happen again.”
Rochette's defense of her Canadian title will come in early January in Ottawa, the nation's capital, where the top two women's finishers are expected to be handed tickets to Torino.
