- Joined
- Mar 9, 2011
New article on Joannie Rochette. It reads:-
Given Rochette's impressive performance at the Japan Open, should she make a comeback to compete at the Olympics?
Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette says she is far from ready for a comeback to high-profile competition despite upstaging some of the world's top figure skaters at a weekend event in Japan.
The Canadian, who has mainly focused on ice shows after medaling at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics just days after her mother's sudden death, said she would go to February's Sochi Games as a member of the French-language crew for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I'm going to do the introduction. I'm going to watch the practice and I'm going to report to the channel to say what I saw," she told AFP Saturday.
"It's fun. It's a new challenge. At 27, I feel like it's time for me to move on and do something else other than skating."
Rochette, who won Canada's national title six times in a row, the 2009 world silver medal and five Grand Prix titles, has competed only at the Japan Open since the last Olympics.
At the 2013 edition on Saturday, she landed six triples with ease, two of them in combination jumps, and placed second at 123.99 points behind Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion Mao Asada of Japan at 135.16.
"I'm surprised. I was training like that at home. But I didn't know how well I'd do it with pressure," Rochette said after her routine to the music of "Notre Dame de Paris" by I Fiamminghi and Rudolf Werthen.
She finished ahead of U.S. national champion Ashley Wagner at 119.77 and Russia's 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova, the European championship silver medalist, at 105.95.
Given Rochette's impressive performance at the Japan Open, should she make a comeback to compete at the Olympics?