Our Olympic Athletes! - Our Veteran Skaters

In order to celebrate the world's first ever silver medal won in Team Figure Skating, the Sulli Scholar will continue to write about the Canadian team that made (and continues to make) our country proud! This time around, we're focusing this article on the skaters with national and international experience.

("Wait... But what's Team Figure Skating" you ask? "We won silver?!" Yes, we did! Check it out on my previous article! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-2014-winter-olympics-in-sochi.html)

Our first lovely lady is Kaetlyn Osmond from Sherwood Park, Alberta who is the newest star of the Canadian figure-skating scene. Winning a bronze in Vancouver, Osmond's international career all started when she won the Nebelhorn Trophy back in 2012. A bit of background knowledge, the Nebelhorn Trophy is a coveted trophy given to the winner of an international senior-level competition held in Oberstdorf, Germany every year. The trophy is named after the nearby mountain. Anyways, Osmond is a new face to figure skating in general. She got into the sport when she saw her sister, Natasha Osmond, figure skate. Like all siblings, she wanted to be just as good as her, and from the age of two, started pushing herself to be at the same level as her sister.

(Did you know that siblings often compete in the Olympics together? For some siblings, check out my article here! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/01/our-olympic-athletes-siblings.html)

Our next athlete is Tessa Virtue, an athlete born and raised in London, Ontario with the fantastic reputation of earning North America's first ever Olympic Ice Dancer Champion with her partner Scott Moir. Being trained in other dance styles such as ballet and modern dance, Virtue started skating when she was six in order so that she could skate with her friends in her upcoming grade 1 field trip. When she turned seven, she was already starting to skate on the ice. At that time, she was paired up with her current partner, Scott Moir! Though shy at first, the pair slowly but surely grew together, becoming one of Canada's most successful and passionate ice dancing pairs.
Along with the lovely Tessa Virtue we have her charming partner, Scott Moir! Raised in Ilderton, Ontario, Moir happily carries the title of Olympic Ice Dancer Champion with Virtue. His skating journey came about when he was a young three year-old, wanting to be able to skate with his mom. After that, he tried skating faster in order to get to hockey, but upon finding some REALLY pretty girls in figure skating, he decided to do that instead. His first partner was Tessa Virtue, a young seven year-old at the time. Though shy, their friendship and trust began to grow into one of the most powerful team Canada has ever seen.

A REALLY local BC boy (Coquitlam, to be exact) Kevin Reynolds had his first Olympic breakthrough last year, taking an unexpected gold medal in the International Skating Union's (ISU's) Four Continents Championships. This medal marked his first senior victory, adding on to his many, previous national titles. Being just short of making it to Vancouver, Reynolds successfully qualified for the Figure Skating Team in this year's Olympics. A cool fact to know about Reynolds, he enjoys playing video games and is determined to learn Japanese in order to communicate with other athletes and fans.

Last, however as always, certainly not least, we have Patrick Chan. Brought up in Toronto, Ontario, this Canadian figure skater is perhaps one of the most famous figure skaters, being the reigning world champion for THREE years in a row. Along with this are his two impressive Grand Prix Final and ISU Four Continent champion titles. Despite this handsome resumé, Chan continues to strive to become Canada's first ever male figure skating gold medallist. Continually working hard, Chan moves on. One more day passed and another step closer to his dream.

Want to know about the other members of the team? Check out my previous article! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/our-olympic-atheletes-debut-figure.html
Have any athletes you want to know about in particular? Let me know!