Joannie Rochette by French Composer Camille Saint-Saëns
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figure skating an act of courage Skating just days after her mother’s death, Joannie Rochette by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. “I was so ready coming here, and thank God BY Ken MacQueen delivered the defining moment of the Games for that,” she said. “I could rely on my train- ing. I could rely on my instincts and let my body do what it has to do.” t was late; 11 p.m. had come and gone, nomenal skate in her short program put her Joannie the athlete delivered a strong per- and Joannie Rochette, the bronze medal in third place, but did she have it in her to formance, though not without glitches. She around her neck, was still lingering at repeat that performance? What they got was stepped out of her landing on a triple flip Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum, talking the persona she calls “Joannie the athlete.” and she dropped a second double axel. Still, about the sudden death of her mother She wore a pretty turquoise costume, stud- it was a well-executed, challenging program, Thérèse. “It feels good for me to talk ded with intricate beadwork. Her blond hair one that fell just short of the silver medal. about it,” she said. An empty arena can was swept up tight, held with an elaborate Flowers and stuffed dolls rained down. I be a chill and spooky place, but for Rochette, gold-metal clasp. Somewhere deep inside, Rochette scooped up a tiny mascot, smiled any rink echoes with memories of home. The emotions were bound even tighter; she was and waved it to the crowd. Young girls from audience of almost 12,000, at turns boister- a warrior in perfect makeup. local skating clubs swept across the ice gath- ous and weepy, had long since filed out, doubly This is what her mother, an unrelenting ering the rest by the armful. One hopes they blessed by two moments of Olympic magic. perfectionist, had prepared her for. This was appreciated what they saw; that they have First, they had witnessed four minutes of their “lifetime project,” as Joannie later put mothers to advise them to treasure this mem- near perfection in the gold-medal skate of it. This was a long program she knew so well, ory, and all the courage it represents. Korea’s Yu-Na Kim, the 19-year-old prodigy skated to the operatic Samson and Delilah Even under better circumstances it was no coached by Brian Orser, one of the finest small achievement. She becomes only the male skaters Canada has produced. It was fifth Canadian woman singles skater to win fluid and strong and so self-assured that even a medal, after Elizabeth Manley, Karen Mag- those unschooled in the intricacies of the nussen, Petra Burka and Barbara Ann Scott. sport could see Kim operated at a different It came just days after the gold-medal skate level. As the last strains of Gershwin’s Con- of ice dancers Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue; certo in F faded, and the crowd roared, Kim Virtue was, until the tragedy, Rochette’s room- surprised even herself: she started to cry. mate in the Olympic Village. Both medals Later, the 19-year-old Kim seemed almost were welcome morale boosts for Skate Can- embarrassed by this weakness. She never ada after Patrick Chan, not skating his best cries, she said. “Watching previous figure in his first Olympics, finished fifth. skaters, I always wondered why they cried As beautiful as Rochette’s bronze-medal after their performance,” she says. “I’m really moment was, for many it will be her short happy. I don’t know why I cried.” program, two days after her mother’s death, If Kim’s tears were a surprise, so too was that reigns as one of the defining moments the calm, collected demeanour of 24-year- of these, or any, Olympic Games. Joannie the old Rochette. Many tears had been shed in athlete delivered a raw, unsmiling perform- the four days since Thérèse Rochette, just 55, ance, all the more powerful because Joannie died of a heart attack early on Sunday, Feb. the person, aching with loss, struggled just n/CP 21, hours after arriving in Vancouver with beneath the facade. her husband, Normand, to watch Joannie There was only the program to carry her, iasso Ch skate. The days since were filled with grief Joannie Rochette and the music: La Cumparsita, a tango at L u and turmoil and just the faintest flickers of points jaunty and wistful and sad. Sometimes, A she had Canadian shae-Lynn Bourne, doubt. Could she skate? Should she skate? goes the bumper sticker, life is just about a former world ice dancing champion, P /AP; OLYMPICS SPECIAL s Should she return with her father to tiny Île choreograph her short program • she showing up. Rochette did so much more than Dupas, Que., to bury her mother? can’t live without nutella, face cream, that. She launched into her triple-Lutz-double- ILLIP Neither the audience, nor, perhaps, Roch- mascara and a dishwasher • aside from toe-loop combination. It was clean and solid skating, her favourite sport is tennis— Ph J. ette herself knew what to expect when she she’s a big fan of rafael nadal ID Brave face: When she finished her short pro- v A maclean’ took to the ice for her long program. A phe- gram, rochette’s emotions broke through D 72 flawless: kim Yu-na of south korea, with her coach, Canadian Olympian Brian Orser, earned a world-record score for her efforts and brave, and if she was relieved, there was in her way. “Joannie has always been natur- ron took Thérèse’s glasses from her purse. no hint of it. She carried on: flying sit spin, ally determined and persevering.” She put them in her team jacket for Joannie’s double axel, and on and on. There was no Like all families of figure skaters, the sport short and long programs. “I wanted her with attempt to sell the program to the audience carried a high price for the Rochettes. Joan- us,” says Perron. or to the judges. It was obvious by being here nie effectively left home at 13 to train in Trois The times outside of practice and perform- how much this meant to her. Rivières with her coach, Manon Perron, and ance time were the most difficult. They’d read It ended with a spin. Her composure then later in Montreal. It was the greatest through the hundreds of emails flooding in cracked when the music stopped and the sacrifice the family made, far more than the offering sympathy and support. crowd exploded in applause. The real world financial burden and the Perron kept Rochette in came back into focus, and she shuddered foregone vacations, her a protective bubble. The with grief. She skated off the ice into the mother said. Those years media let her practise in arms of her coach, and they wept. She com- were lost forever, she said, ‘The only peace. They saw few news- posed herself in the place known as the kiss but it was Joannie’s dream papers and there was no and cry zone. It’s a tiny place; just room and they supported it. thing I could television in their level of enough for a skater and a coach, and, this More than supported it. do is step on the village. “We didn’t real- night, for 11,700 members of the audience. Thérèse threw herself into ize the impact,” Perron said, The short program was far harder on her, it. “It’s because we love her the ice, put a “how big this is.” she admitted later. “Even though I was try- that we agreed to live smile on my As recently as the first week ing to be focused on my goals, emotions got through all the stress from of the Olympics, Rochette the better of me. I didn’t know if I could the top of the stands,” she face—and was phoning home to her skate, my legs were shaking.” said. Unlike mothers who feel alive mother every day, lamenting Anyone in that arena who had experienced would use practice times at the problems she was hav- loss—most people, in other words—must have the rink to slip out for din- again,’ says ing in training with her triple wondered what they would do under similar ner, Thérèse stayed and cri- Rochette Lutz. And her mother, in a circumstances. And most, if they are honest, tiqued, often to her daugh- role she enjoyed far more don’t know. It may be as simple as sticking ter’s annoyance, Joannie than the stress of competi- to your routine. You do what you’re good at admitted. “She was not the tions, offered her love and because that gives you solace. “It was very best skating coach; she was very [critical] but advice. Close your eyes, she told her daughter. tough for me tonight,” Rochette said, “but she had a good eye.” And Rochette laughed Visualize. You’ve been landing them for years. the one thing I could do is step on the ice, put at the memory: “Even though she’s not here And so she skated for herself. And for her a smile on my face—and feel alive again.” anymore, I’m not afraid to say it. Sometimes mother, too. Because 10 years from now, /AP OLYMPICS SPECIAL A s She is also her mother’s daughter, with all she was a pain in the ass.” “when the pain has gone away a little bit,” that entails.