Kaetlyn Osmond‘s confidence was rattled to the core when a freak training accident nearly three years ago led to a gruesome broken leg.
Standing on a the podium Friday celebrating a silver medal at the world figure skating championships, she felt all the doubt finally leave her body.
The 21-year-old from Marystown, N.L., who now lives in Sherwood Park, led Canada to a historic two medals in the women’s event – Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., took bronze. Two Canadians had never shared the world championship podium in the event.
It was especially satisfying for Osmond.
She missed a season and a half after snapping her fibula in her right leg in two places when she swerved to avoid someone in practice in September 2014. The X-rays showed the bones bent sideways like broken toothpicks. She underwent two surgeries, and then embarked on a comeback that was both arduous and rattling to her confidence.
“When I broke my leg, I never thought I’d ever be skating again let alone be standing on a world podium,” she said Friday night. “I had to relearn how to skate, relearn how to even stand on one foot again. I had to relearn all my technique.
And, she had to learn how to compete again.
“I doubted myself so much last season,” she said. “I doubted whether I’d compete at my best ever again, and finally this year, that doubt I think has slowly be washed away.
“The last remaining of it finally went today.”
READ MORE: Family, friends watch from home as Kaetlyn Osmond helps Canada capture Olympic silver
Osmond finished with a combined score of 218.13 while Daleman collected 213.52 points. Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva won gold with a score of 233.41.
Not only was it the first time Canada has won two women’s medals, it was the first podium result since Joannie Rochette won silver in 2009. Before that, Elizabeth Manley was the last Canadian medallist in 1988.
When Osmond burst onto the scene in 2012, hopes were high that she would follow in Rochette’s footsteps before she was derailed by injury.
READ MORE: Edmonton-area figure skaters get some ice time with former Olympic medalist
Osmond and her longtime coach Ravi Walia started over and rebuilt all her jumps, and while she showed great improvement in practice last season, she was unable to produce the same performance in the competitive spotlight. She didn’t qualify for last year’s world team.
The long program had been her albatross this season, but she landed a solid performance to maintain the silver medal position she held after the short program.
Daleman also maintained her spot as the top three after the short program ended up on the podium.
Earlier in the day, ice dance darlings Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir put themselves in the driver’s seat heading into the free skate after roaring to 82.43 points, breaking their own world record in the short dance.
And in the moments after their win, Virtue, a 27-year-old from London, Ont., talked about their quest to come back stronger than ever after taking a two-year break from competition.
“I think that was a big part of the appeal in this comeback was to try and make our skating a little bit different,” Virtue said. “We are trying to push ourselves technically. We’re trying to have a bit of a departure artistically as well, but the real intention behind this comeback was to challenge ourselves.
“We knew that we were coming into a very deep and strong field so we needed to raise the level of our skating. We didn’t want to come back and do things the same way. That just wouldn’t have been motivating and inspiring.”
Two-time defending champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France are second with 76.89, while Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are third at 76.53. All three teams train in Montreal with Canadian coaches Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., are sixth with 74.84 while Toronto’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are ninth with 72.83.
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