If she had to guess, Joannie Rochette wakes up some days thinking she’s going to Sochi, some days she wakes up thinking she won’t. The Olympic bronze medallist told Global News that’s something she still has to figure out.
“I do love competing,” she said, just before hitting the ice to wow a crowd at the Fête de Neige at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Since she won over Canadians of almost every stripe in Vancouver in 2010- taking her medal days after losing her mother to a heart attack- Rochette said she’s had to shift gears on the ice. She now performs to entertain in places like Japan and South Korea.
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“The challenge right now is that I’m performing mainly in shows, so I want the crowd to enjoy that. It’s not the same concern than if I’m competing,” she said. “The only difference is that the judges are not judges — it’s the crowd watching.”
And that crowd gave her high marks Sunday.
“I thought she was going through a lot at the time” (at the Vancouver games), said Mike Foley, a spectator who was one of about 20,000 guests at Parc Jean-Drapeau Sunday. “I appreciated her a lot that day, and I appreciated seeing her today in person.”
In person, Rochette’s petite figure and feather-light appearance belies the commanding presence she had on television, a presence that connected with scores of Montrealers.
I know the whole story going to the Olympics, with her mother,” said Christelle Montreuil, who watched Rochette rinkside, “so it was really nice seeing her perform.”
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