When Madeline Edwards steps on the ice to compete, the Port Moody figure skater carries the words from a judge she met at the nationals: Just let the music tell you where to go.
"So I listen and I relax," the 14-year-old teen said, "and it really seems to help."
The Grade 9 Heritage Woods secondary student took the judge's advice to heart last week when she and her partner, Zhao Kai Pang, 15, earned gold at the 2011 BMO Skate Canada Junior Nationals in Victoria in novice ice dance.
The B.C./Yukon section skaters finished with 96.75 points - a new Canadian record for the category.
They were followed by Noa Bruser and Timothy Lum, also from the B.C./Yukon section, with 90.13 points, and Mackenzie Bent and Garrett MacKeen of eastern Ontario, who placed third with 87.93 points.
Standing on the podium with a medal around her neck "feels really, really great because we worked really, really hard for it. We reached our goal," Edwards said.
And work she does. Besides her studies, Edwards trains 15 hours a week on the ice at 8-Rinks in Burnaby with former Canadian national medalists and Olympians Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, as well as in the gym (she takes her homework with her on the road, sometimes communicating with teachers by email to keep on top of her assignments).
Edwards' start in the sport came at the age of four when her mom, Katarina, took her to skating classes in Rossland, B.C., where the family lived. She remembered the coach making it a lot of fun, so she continued. "I really enjoyed it but I didn't know where it was going to take me," she recalled.
She competed individually until she was matched with Pang, a Grade 11 Burnaby resident. The pair was at the 2009 nationals as juveniles; last year, she said, there were no events available for pre-novice skaters so they went to a challenge.
For this year's championships in Victoria, they skated two compulsory dances - the Westminster Waltz and the Paso Doble - plus a free dance to the Muppets' theme song.
She and Pang push themselves to do better. "We see other teams that we compete against and think, 'Oh, look how big their pattern is. Let's get it that big,'" she said. "We set standards for each other and we're really connected."
As for their next move, the pair plan to compete next month at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax, N.S.
And their future? Yes, the Olympic gold medal is a dream. "That would be amazing," she said.
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