World and Olympic coach Audrey Weisiger shares tons of insights about athlete development with aspiring athletes in a classroom setting at a camp a number of years ago. She starts the class by encouraging those not interested in “working hard and furthering themselves” to leave, and obviously nobody does. Instead it gets a laugh. Audrey then shows a human interest piece about Kaetlyn Osmond that was produced for TV. Kaetlyn is a 3-time Canadian ladies champion and the 2017 World Ladies Silver Medalist and had been a participant many years ago in one of Audrey’s G2C (Grassroots to Champions) camps. The focus of the video was on how Kaetlyn overcame adversity on the way to her World medal.
Audrey then explains that Kaetlyn is from a small town in Canada and she learned to skate at a very humble rink. She notes that aspiring athletes just can’t blame their training facility or rink for their lack of success. She says, “It’s not the rink that you’re in, it’s what you do when you’re on the ice that matters.” Audrey explains that she is using Kaetlyn as an example of the kind of perseverance needed by elite athletes. She also hints at the importance of working with a sports psychologist (and gives a shout out to Caroline Silby who was in attendance and is well known in the skating world). Audrey says, “There’s nothing more profound for me than seeing a kid who is good, and then is unstoppable when some obstacle gets in their way. And that’s what sports is supposed to do.”
This leads into the story of Daniel Samohin’s lost luggage before the European Championships that year. Daniel was forced to compete in someone else’s skates. Audrey then discusses attitude and strength of character in the face of bad luck.
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