The last time Larkyn Austman returned from a training camp in Colorado Springs, she quit figure skating.
When Austman was on a plane Dec. 16, on her way home to Coquitlam from another three-week training camp in Colorado Springs, she was looking forward to competing at the Canadian Tire national skating championships that are being held next week at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver where she’ll be trying to secure one of three places on the Olympic team that’s going to PyeongChang, South Korea, in February.
A lot has changed in two years.
She has a new coaching team at the Coquitlam Figure Skating Club, she’s conquered the last two triple jumps her repertoire was missing, she’s eating right and, most importantly, she’s back in love with the sport.
It’s been an arduous journey that hasn’t been without its speedbumps along the way, including a pair of troublesome skates that hurt Austman at her first International Skating Union Grand Prix event as a senior competitor, last October’s Skate Canada International in Regina where she finished 12th in a field of 12 women.
That kind of result may have sent Austman spinning in the past. Instead the 19-year-old took encouragement that she was able to overcome the terror she felt going into the event, as well as the problem with her skate boots, and compete with some of the world’s top 35 skaters — far above her 165 ranking heading in.
It also toughened her mentally, Austman said. “It was an experience I didn’t like at the time, but I’m glad I had it.”
In a way, Austman has been preparing her whole life for the opportunity she’s being presented out at UBC next week — even if it wasn’t easy.
Her mom, Heather, and dad, Leonard, were both competitive figure skaters. And when her older brother, Connor, started playing hockey, the family was at the rink pretty much seven days a week.
Still, Heather said, Larkyn had to come to the sport at her own pace.
She started taking dance lessons, then eventually strapped on the blades. The former helped her hone her technical and presentation skills while she worked on her jumping. Slowly.
Austman landed her first triple jump when she was 12 years old, another a few months later when she was 13, but then it took her another year before she was able to achieve her next one.
“I was a slow learner,” Austman said. “I’m not sure why my body wouldn’t do the jumps.”
Austman’s body betrayed her in other ways. She struggled with her diet and put on weight.
At Austman’s first go-round at Colorado Springs, where she was training four times a day with elite skaters from around the world, she had difficulty coping with being on her own for the first time, managing her time, doing her school work by correspondence, planning and cooking her own meals.
“I was stressed out,” she said.
So when Austman got home, she quit.
“I just decided I was over it,” she said.
But not completely.
Austman still went to the rink to help coach younger skaters. She took control of her diet by becoming a vegan. And when her school work in the EPIC program at Dr. Charles Best secondary couldn’t give her the buzz of a perfectly-executed Biellman spin, she put the blades back on.
Austman connected with a new coach, Zdenek Pazdirek, who, along with co-coach Liz Putnam, encouraged her to seek motivation and inspiration from other skaters like three-time Canadian champion and World silver medalist Kaetlyn Osmond and former U.S. Olympian Christy Krall.
“As a young person, she needed to be listened to and understood what she went through,” Pazdirek said.
In short order, Austman learned how to do her fourth triple and then finished sixth at the 2016 nationals. She improved to fourth at last January’s nationals in Ottawa, then added a fifth triple in February.
When Canadian skaters performed well enough at the 2017 worlds in Helsinki, Finland last March to earn a third position in the upcoming Winter Olympics, Austman set her goal to be among them.
In the summer she travelled to Edmonton to train with Osmond and on Nov. 30 she returned to Colorado Springs to skate with top competitors from the U.S., Japan and Australia.
Stepping back on the ice where she had created so many bad memories a little over two years earlier was a surreal experience, Austman said.
“It felt like total deja-vu.”
But she didn’t let it overwhelm her.
“Now I was a totally different person,” Austman said. “I wanted to show people I was ready to compete.”
Which is just what she plans to do again when she hits the ice next Friday for the women’s short program at nationals.
• The Canadian Tire National Skating Championships begin Jan. 8 and run until Jan. 14 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC. For more information https://skatecanada.ca/2018-canadian-tire-national-skating-championships/
