Athlete Bios
Figure Skating
Rochette, Canada's sweetheart, faces Games pressure
Last Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010 | 12:27 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Canada's Joannie Rochette skates to victory at the HomeSense Skate Canada International at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario, November 1, 2008. (Geoff Robins/Getty Images)With the Olympics in her home country, Joannie Rochette, a five-time national figure skating champion, has felt both the pressure and the excitement of being the home-country sweetheart at the Vancouver Games.
Recently, she had a street named after her in her hometown — the village of Île Dupas, Que.— and has been featured in at least one television commercial, for a brand of cold medicine. The spotlight on her will only increase as the Olympics approach.
“Every day you go to training and you can feel it’s so close,” Rochette said on her website. “Honestly, it is easy to feel motivated.”
After her breakout season in 2008-09, Rochette, 23, appears ready to handle the attention. That season, Rochette won both Skate Canada and Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, her two Grand Prix events. In Paris, she was good enough to beat the 2008 world champion, Mao Asada.
Last March, Rochette finished second to South Korea’s Kim Yu-na at the 2009 world championships, becoming the first Canadian figure skater to win a medal at the worlds since Elizabeth Manley won silver in 1988.
But 2006 was also a good year for Rochette, a native French speaker who competed for Canada at the Turin Olympics, where she finished fifth. But in Turin she also met François-Louis Tremblay, a short-track speedskater for Canada who is now a three-time Olympic medal winner. She and Tremblay, who has won one Olympic gold medal and two silvers, ended up dating and now live together.
Rochette has said that Tremblay’s success has inspired her to train harder to achieve her own goal of an Olympic gold medal. That dream was born back when she took her first steps on the ice. She was just 22 months old.
When she turned four, her father — a youth hockey coach — took her to play hockey at a local rink. He taught her the basics of the sport. She began taking lessons when she was six. At 16, she moved to Montreal, leaving her family, to train for the Olympics.
For years, Rochette has been coached by Manon Perron. This season, she has performed her short program to La Cumparsita by Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodriguez. Her long program is set to Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saens. Her choreographers are David Wilson, Lori Nichol and Shae-Lynn Bourne, the former Canadian and world ice dance champion.
Outside the rink, Rochette is studying natural and health sciences at the College Andre-Grasset in Montreal. She said she did not expect to go into coaching when she retires from skating, but may continue to study science or go into business.
“I’m very competitive at school as well,” she said on her website. “Sometimes nights are shorter when you’re studying for an exam, but it’s good to keep my head busy. When I’m done with my skating career, there’s another life after it. When I’m ready for it, I want my studies to be there.”
Her other interests include trampoline jumping, ballet, yoga, inline skating, reading, dancing and music.
