Kaetlyn Osmond will not compete during the 2018-19 season

[lanceupper1114]

Osmond is doing the smart thing.

You have to strike when the economic opportunity iron is hot, and for figure skaters, it's right after a successful Olympic Games. She has an Olympic Gold and Bronze, she is the reigning world champion, and she's pretty. It's the perfect time for her to make some money. Figure skating is expensive and lucrative opportunities are rare.

 

[icybear]

She's already achieved pretty much everything and this next couple of seasons isnt going to be easy with all these new quads and triple axels. Might as well retire and earn some money doing ice shows and sponsors while you're at the peak of your fame. Unless she wants to have a shot at the gold in 2022 which is very unlikely

 

[KiraraChin]

Huge loss for the Ladies field this season. I will miss her.

 

[millie]

To Kaetlyn......”You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own And you know what you know and you are the one who’ll decide where to go”....Dr. Seuss......You made us proud.....Oh the Places you’ll Go...

 

[theharleyquinn]

I'm sad to see her out this season, although after she pulled out of GP this had to be coming. I always liked the competitive drive between her and Gabby and will miss it this time around.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Unless she wants to have a shot at the gold in 2022 which is very unlikely

It's unlikely, but if the GOE is going to be awarded how we expect, her technical elements could set her apart from a lot of skaters who could before match (or exceed) Kaetlyn's marks with difficult entries, tanos, and/or backloading. Another Olympics could be an appealing because going with Canada almost guarantees her another team medal, and then anything could happen in the individual event.

 

[Roast Toast]

On one hand, I can't see her missing out on Worlds in Canada. On the other, planning a comeback the same season the Russian wunderkinds move to seniors sounds like a monumentally bad idea... Maybe she thinks she can't get ready in time for Nationals after the tour? How long is the tour supposed to last, anyway?

 

[Colonel Green]

As I said over the in the Canadian thread, while I was hoping otherwise, I had largely come to believe she wouldn't be back for the second half of the season, the more I thought about it. It would be one thing if she was just spending the fall chilling her heels, but she's driving coast-to-coast on a touring bus doing shows. Going from that into training up for Nationals would be a big undertaking.

As far as whether we see her in competition again, I don't think even Kaetlyn knows that, and whether we do will depend on a variety of factors. The biggest being, probably, whether seeing the competitions continue on without her makes Kaetlyn want to go back or not. She's at the point where, give or take Four Continents, she'd essentially be competing for more of what she already has, and she's been open that competing is an ongoing psychological challenge for her after the injury.

Bottom line, if we don't see her on ice again, it'll be because she's content with how her career has gone, which is probably the best way any skater can leave things.

How long is the tour supposed to last, anyway?

Final show is November 24th (in Newfoundland!). Nationals start on January 13, so she'd have maybe a month and a half, straddling the holiday season. I agree that it's not a very appetizing prospect.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

On one hand, I can't see her missing out on Worlds in Canada. On the other, planning a comeback the same season the Russian wunderkinds move to seniors sounds like a monumentally bad idea... Maybe she thinks she can't get ready in time for Nationals after the tour? How long is the tour supposed to last, anyway?

This announcement indicates that she is taking the full season off. She originally planned to only skip
The GP but has now decided to skip the entire season.

 

[liv]

Disappointed, I thought she was really starting to hit her stride... but she knows how much it took to get to this point and how much it would take to continue on... hope she comes back for Montreal, but she's already had a pretty stellar career no matter what happens in the future. Good luck to her and hope she finds what she needs in this off season to make her happy.

 

[50 Words for Snow]

I hate this attitude. Especially for this season. Without the excess backloading from Alina, Evgenia's coaching change (which could affect her consistency), and the new GOE rules on elements, I actually think this would be the perfect time for Kaetlyn to capitalize on her Worlds win. New GOE rules would probably benefit Kaetlyn overall, and the limit on backloading limits Alina's TES ceiling.

(Making a comeback next season after Eteri's current juniors have moved up? That seems like a bad idea.)

Not to mention that we do see post-pubescent ladies like Bradie Tennell making a push to up their technical game, so it's possible for Kaetlyn to do the same. If she doesn't want to, that's fine. If she's tired and wants to do other things, I get it. But giving up once you've reached the very top for the first time? It gives me "defeatist" vibes.

She has probably trained with the Olympics in mind for much of her career. Medvedeva said that her goal had been those games since she was 10 years old; I can't imagine it would be much different for Kaetlyn. So she trains so very, very hard for so long, and then she wins two medals, one of them gold(!) and follows it up with a World championship; that's a lot: a lot to achieve, a lot to process, a lot to exhale after, and she surely needed to exhale--they all did, all the Olympians in all the winter sports from all the countries needed to breathe after the culmination of all those years of hard work and all that pressure and tension and extra work during this Olympic season. And maybe, after exhaling, it felt good and seemed like too much to take another deep breathe right away, so she sat out the Grand Prix, and maybe, it is just starting to feel good to rediscover other interests that had been shelved in favor of an Olympic dream and to rekindle relationships that had been neglected in order to train for the biggest moment in her life, and maybe...maybe it feels like victory to her and not defeat at all. I'd like to see her continue, but godpseed if she doesn't; she had one helluva year!

 

[narcissa]

Good luck to Kaetlyn. She will be missed. I hope she comes back because I really liked her short program and want to see more like it. And her jumps are huge and would likely be rewarded under the current system, or at least I hope. Hopefully Worlds in Montreal will encourage her to return!

 

[Osmond4gold]

To Kaetlyn......”You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own And you know what you know and you are the one who’ll decide where to go”....Dr. Seuss......You made us proud.....Oh the Places you’ll Go...

Thank you and Millie, and also to the many fans of Kaetlyn’s skating!

O4G

 

[4everchan]

i don't get all the talk about beating other skaters and now that there is no backloading or she will have to face the new juniors when she comes back or not...

"she probably doesn't care about any of that" for an athlete who trains at high level, they do it by passion and will... not because there is no backloading or trusova or what not will be there the year after.... they also don't do it exclusively to earn more medals...

it's clear in Kaetlyn's case that she came back after a major injury for true love of the sport and desire to fulfill her dreams within the sport..

Before the injury, she was already an olympic silver medalist...

If she were to stop now, she would have an olympic medal of each colour, and a silver at worlds and of course, the crowning moment of winning the gold at worlds...

Many have noticed the many similarities with her career and Jeff Buttle's who retired in 2008 after having a bronze at olympics, and winning a gold at world, just after having lost his title at nationals..

Kaetlyn lost her title at nationals too... she won a bronze at olympics... and a fabulous world championships as well...

Jeff didn't feel that home olympics was a sufficient enough reason to continue.... Kaetlyn may or may not feel that home worlds is a sufficient reason to continue...

But in any case, she has nothing to prove to anyone and I hope that people will rejoice for her, no matter what she chooses to do... if anything the new rules would have favoured her... she probably doesn't care about the rules...

 

[hippomoomin]

I smell retirement. It is hard to come back after one year of not competing, especially at her age and with what she has accomplished.

 

[emdee]

But Jeff had our ‘boy’ at his heels!

 

[NymphyNymphy]

I dont blame her for not returning. With the current trajectory of ladies field and the new +5 goe system, we will be seeing uncalled URed tiny quad jumps getting twice the points of a perfectly executed triple of the same jump. Osmond is from a different era and it will not only be impossible but also frustrating for her to compete with a bias judging system that value muscled tiny quads at double the points over huge triples. Heres hoping Evgenia and Alina remain competitive when Eteri's juniors turn senior.

 

[4everchan]

^^ i actually think that the new GOE would favour Osmond over many, including the Russians.

 

[NymphyNymphy]

^^ i actually think that the new GOE would favour Osmond over many, including the Russians.

On paper yes. But we all know the judges have majority of the bullets ticked before any of eteris skaters actually jump. They couldnt get it right when the bullets were specific. How do we expect them to be objective when the bullets are now ridicoulously vague.

 

[4everchan]

On paper yes. But we all know the judges have majority of the bullets ticked before any of eteris skaters actually jump. They couldnt get it right when the bullets were specific. How do we expect them to be objective when the bullets are now ridicoulously vague.

i don't know... now that effortless throughout and amplitude of jumps are the important bullets... i don't think those will be automatic eteri bullets as you mentioned... tanos were... but those were taken away... backloading was 10% automatic.. that's also taken away... so i don't see the advantage for eteri skaters as you call them... other than if they keep raising base value.. but with a proper TP, lots of carrots are given and they hurt.