Kaetlyn OsmondONL (born December 5, 1995) is a retired competitive Canadian figure skater who competed in ladies' singles. A three-time Canadian national champion (2013, 2014, 2017), Osmond competed internationally at the senior level from 2012 to 2018, winning three Olympic medals (gold and silver in the team event, and individual bronze), two World Championship medals (gold and silver), and one Grand Prix Final medal (bronze).[1]
One of her country's most successful women's skaters, she was Canada's sixth Olympic ladies' medallist and its first ladies' World champion in 45 years.[5]
Personal life
Osmond was born in Marystown, Newfoundland to Jeff and Jackie Osmond.[1][6][7] At age seven, she moved to Montreal, Quebec,[8] and at age ten, she moved to Sherwood Park, Alberta[4] Osmond attended Vimy Ridge Academy in Edmonton.[8][9] She has two older siblings.[8] In April 2014, Marystown renamed their home rink the Kaetlyn Osmond Arena, named a street after her, and presented her with a symbolic key to the town.[10] Osmond noted that her favourite Olympic memory was watching Joannie Rochette win bronze at the 2010 Winter Olympics and Rochette served as a role model to her in the sport.[11]
On January 29, 2019, Osmond received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, her home province's top civilian honour for "excellence and achievement."[12]
Career
Osmond began skating at age three, following her elder sister Natasha.[8] Due to a lack of ice during the summer in Marystown, they often travelled to Montreal to train.[7] Since the age of ten, after her parents came west because of work in the oil industry[1] Osmond trained at the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club in Edmonton, coached by Ravi Walia[1] with choreography by Lance Vipond.[13][14][15]
In the 2011–12 season, Osmond competed on the senior level for the first time at the Canadian Championships. She was first after the short program, ahead of the defending champion Cynthia Phaneuf and the 2011 bronze medallist Amelie Lacoste.[16] Osmond won the bronze medal overall. At the 2012 World Junior Championships, Osmond won the preliminary round.[17] She finished tenth overall.[18]
2012–13 season: First international and national titles
In the 2012–13 season, Osmond won her first international title at 2012 Nebelhorn Trophy.[19][20] She then made her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2012 Skate Canada International. She was second in both the short and free programs, but it was enough to win the competition. Osmond remarked that "On the Junior Grand Prix, I was always ninth or 10th, so this is just extraordinary." Despite winning Skate Canada, Osmond was unable to qualify for that season's Grand Prix Final because she had not been given a second Grand Prix assignment.[2]
Osmond went on to win her first senior national title at the 2013 Canadian Championships.[14] It was the first time in ten years that a ladies' single skater from outside Quebec won the Canadian title.[8] At the 2013 Four Continents, Osmond finished seventh.
Osmond's national championship resulted in her being named as the lone Canadian ladies' singles skater at the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario. She placed a surprising fourth in the short program, which many in the Canadian skating community considered "the best global championship debut by a Canadian woman since the 1970s."[21] Osmond struggled in the middle section of her long program, falling twice and stepping out of another jump, and placed tenth in the long program, for an eighth-place finish overall. This result secured two spots for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Interviewed afterwards, Osmond stated: "I had a little thought of a possible medal in my head, but I put it out of my mind and focused on my goal, which was top 10."[3]
2013–14 season: Second national title and Olympic medal
Osmond trained in southern California for about two weeks in August 2013 under the guidance of Walia and Frank Carroll.[22] Due to a stress reaction in her left ankle, she was off the ice for most of September 2013.[22][23] In late October, she competed at the 2013 Skate Canada International, placing fifth in the short program, but pulled out before the free skate due to a torn hamstring in her right leg.[24] She also withdrew from the 2013 Rostelecom Cup but returned to competition at the 2014 Skate Canada Challenge. At the 2014 Canadian Championships, she placed first in both segments and repeated as national champion.
In February 2014, Osmond represented Canada at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Osmond skated in both segments of the team event, placing fifth in both, and contributing to Canada's silver medal. She then competed in the individual ladies' singles event and finished thirteenth.[25] She later referred to her performance in the individual event as "probably my worst short program all year."[26] In March, she placed eleventh at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan.
2014–15 season: Injury
For the 2014–15 season, Osmond was assigned to compete at 2014 Skate Canada International and 2014 Trophée Éric Bompard.[27] She wanted to include a triple loop jump in her program, which she had never before attempted in competition.[28] However, she had to withdraw from both competitions due to a broken leg, an injury she sustained on September 11, 2014.[29] This injury caused Osmond to sit out the rest of the season.[30] She had broken her right fibula and this would require two surgeries, one to implant and then another to remove a metal plate and seven screws.[11] The injury caused her to consider retiring at the age of 18, believing that her Olympic dreams might be over.[31] She later stated that the injury and subsequent rehabilitation actually helped her, as it made her more focused, more determined, and stronger.[31]
2015–16 season: Return to competition
Osmond began the 2015–16 season with gold at the 2015 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, an ISU Challenger Series event. Returning to the Grand Prix series at 2015 Skate Canada International, Osmond sprained her ankle in a practice session, but was subsequently deemed healthy enough to compete. In the short program she fell on a spin, injuring her groin and hip flexor, and had a "nightmarish" long program, falling several times and popping other jumps. She finished eleventh overall out of twelve skaters.[32] She later finished sixth at the 2015 NHK Trophy. For the first time, she included the triple loop jump in her program during this season.[33]
Although first after the short program[34] at the 2016 Canadian Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Osmond placed third overall after finishing 4.12 points behind Alaine Chartrand and 0.12 behind Gabrielle Daleman. She later credited the bronze medal finish at the National Championships as having prompted her to begin seeing a sports psychologist. Osmond ended the season at the 2016 Four Continents Championship, where she placed sixth, including a fourth-place finish in the long program, which she credited to progress from her therapy.[26]
2016–17 season: Third national title and World silver medal
At the end of January 2017, Osmond reclaimed her national title at the 2017 Canadian Championships, which she deemed an "incredible" feeling.[35] Osmond was considered a favourite going into the 2017 Four Continents Championship as a result of her Grand Prix showing, and placed second in the short program. However, she fell three times during the long program and popped an axel jump, resulting in an overall fourth-place finish. Referring to the results as "a learning experience", she vowed to redouble preparation for the World Championships the following month.[36]
In March 2017, Osmond was awarded the silver medal at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, having ranked second in both segments. It was the highest result at the event by a Canadian ladies' singles skater since 2009, when Rochette also won silver. As well, Canadian teammate Daleman won the bronze medal in the same event, a historic result. Assessing the result and the season as a whole, Osmond said that it was "what I have been working on the most this year: remaining in myself and in the moment, trusting myself and trusting my training, and finally it paid off."[37]
This was the first time Osmond participated in all the major competitions of the season: the Grand Prix series up to the final, the Canadian National, the Four Continent Championships, and the World Championships.[38] She did not participate in the World Team Trophy at the end of the season.
Osmond's short program for the 2016–17 season, a medley of songs by the French singer Edith Piaf, would become her most acclaimed program to date, with Excelle Sports describing it as "widely heralded as tops among all 2017 offerings."[39]Time would later praise it as "exuding a flirty sensuality reminiscent of Cyd Charisse."[40] For her long program, Osmond had initially hoped to skate a version of Black Swan and Swan Lake. Both her coach, Ravi Walia, and her choreographer, Jeffrey Buttle, suggested La boheme as an alternative to further develop her performance ability, and this was ultimately adopted.[41]
2017–18 season: Two Olympic medals and World title
After initially developing a new short program to George Gershwin's "Summertime", she opted to retain her Edith Piaf program for another season, explaining "with it being an Olympic year I want to skate the two best programs I possibly can and I believe this short is." Having judged her La boheme program a success at developing her lines, this time her desire to skate to a Black Swan long program was realized.[1] She described herself as a fan of Swan Lake's music from childhood, but that "when the movie Black Swan came out, I liked the darker side of it. I was much more dramatic. That’s what I find I can speak to more on the ice."[42]
As a member of Canada's figure skating team at the 2018 Winter Olympics, she placed third in the short program portion of the team event, where the Canadians ultimately won the gold medal. In the individual event, Osmond set new personal bests in the short program and free skate, and won the bronze medal behind Zagitova and Medvedeva. Osmond's was the twenty-seventh medal won by Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics, setting a new national record and surpassing the total earned in the Vancouver Olympics eight years prior.[44] It also set a record for Canada with four medals in figure skating at a single Winter Olympics.[45] After winning two medals in 2018, Osmond would comment of the future of Canadian figure skating and of her new status as the veteran of the team saying: "Being on a team with such a veteran group, it's been so much fun, they've been so close and I've just kind of mingled my way into it. It will be exciting to see a new generation, and to see what they are willing to fight for and what they can accomplish, and if anyone needs help with anything, I hope that I can be a little bit of a mentor."[45]
Osmond finished the season at the 2018 World Championships in Milan, Italy, where she was the defending silver medallist. She would subsequently describe the process of beginning training for the World Championships as difficult, feeling exhausted following the Olympics, but that her goal was to demonstrate that her Olympic free skate had not been a fluke. Osmond injured her ankle at her first practice session in Milan, but opted to compete.[5] She placed fourth in the short program, following a botched double Axel. In the free skate she placed first, to finish first overall.[1] She became the first Canadian woman to win the World Championships since Karen Magnussen in 1973[1] and the first Canadian woman since Magnussen to win multiple World Championship medals.[46]
2018–19 season: Retirement
On June 4, 2018 Osmond announced that she was planning to skip competitions on the Grand Prix series.[47] The following day her participation in the cross-Canada "Thank You Canada Tour" was announced.[48] On August 21, 2018 Osmond confirmed that she would not compete at all during the 2018–2019 season.[49] She subsequently stated that her return to competitive skating is uncertain.[50] On May 2, 2019, Skate Canada announced her retirement from competitive skating.[51][4]
Post-competitive career
Since retiring from competition, Osmond has continued to participate in Stars on Ice' annual Canadian tours.[52] She also participated in both the "Thank You Canada" and "Rock the Rink" tours organized by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and international show skating including Art on Ice.[53]
Osmond moved to Brantford, Ontario in 2019, and subsequently began coaching at the Brant Skating Club while not touring.[54] She also began organizing training camps for figure skaters in her native Newfoundland.[55] Subsequently, moving to Toronto, she began studying journalism at Centennial College in September 2020.[56] In November 2020, she joined the staff of the Richmond Training Centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario as a skating coach.[57] In April of 2021, she returned to Edmonton to continue her journalism training.[58] She now coaches at the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club in Edmonton
Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals awarded for team results only. Current ISU personal bests highlighted in bold and italic. ISU season's bests highlighted inbold.
^Smith, Beverley (January 11, 2016). "Shall we dance, Kaetlyn Osmond?". Beverley Smith, a figure skating insider. Archived from the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
^Smith, Beverley (September 14, 2017). "Osmond turns back to Piaf". Beverly Smith - A figure skating insider. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
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