With new perspective, Walsh focused on future
Evelyn Walsh, who narrowly — and controversially — missed a spot on Canada’s Olympic figure skating team, has since won an international medal and turned the page to a new chapter in her career.
(Photo: Imago / Aflosport).
Social media was abuzz last month when Skate Canada announced the 13 skaters it had chosen to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. One of the choices in particular drew a lot of criticism from Canadian figure skating fans.
On the selection process as a whole, Kaitlyn Weaver, a former Olympian and Canadian champion, shared her thoughts about the ‘thrilling’ or ‘devastating’ experience Canadian skaters were feeling at the time.
“I’ve been thru both,” Weaver tweeted. “My stomach is in knots thinking of those on either end of these decisions completely out of their hands. Sending love to those that need it. It’s gonna be ok.”
She may as well have just sent the message directly to Evelyn Walsh.
The day before, the 20-year-old Walsh, and her pairs partner, Trennt Michaud, had skated to a silver medal at the Canadian Championships. They’d laid down two great skates, both in the short program and the free, and made their case to be the second team chosen to represent Canada in Beijing. They were passed over.
Instead, the honour went to Vanessa James and Eric Radford, who had withdrawn from the championships after the short program – in which they had placed fourth.
The people weren’t happy. Overwhelmingly, Canadian figure skating followers fell on the side that Walsh and Michaud had earned the right to represent Canada. But this isn’t your parents’ Olympic qualification process. Placement at national championships is but one consideration. ‘International results and scores from the past two seasons’ are also a factor. And a good deal of subjectivity. Skate Canada went with James and Radford.
Devastation? That might be an overstatement. Disappointment? That might be an understatement. But this is no sob story, and Walsh didn’t have time to dwell on it anyway. She had another big skate to prepare for – just 10 days later.
The sport’s governing body sent her and Michaud to the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, held in Tallinn, Estonia. There, the pair placed second in the short program and finished third overall for the bronze medal – the duo’s first international medal at the senior level.
“We were happy with our skates, and we learned a lot going into that event because we had to quickly bounce back from nationals and focus our attention on something else,” said Walsh, who has been skating with Michaud since 2016. “I think that was maybe a blessing in disguise, because the Four Continents was just as important to us, and we didn’t want that (event) to be an afterthought.”
An afterthought it was not. That first medal was an accomplishment – made all the more impressive given the circumstances. If anything, it showed the resilience of a pair of young skaters who picked themselves up after deep disappointment and just 10 days later won a medal for their country.
“It was a rollercoaster of emotions,” said Walsh. “At the end of the day, though, we’re proud of everything we’ve done, and we try not to lose sight of those accomplishments. If anything, we’ve learned so many lessons throughout this – not just as athletes, but as people.
“It doesn’t feel great going through it, but I think it will only make us better in the long run. We’ve really had to learn how to rely on our team, (learn) who our real team around us are, and how important those people are for us.”
Alas, the drama that was the 2021-22 Olympic year, in which Walsh and Michaud’s former choreographer (Radford) decided to come out of retirement, team up with a new pairs partner, and eventually be named, at 37 years of age, to the Olympic team, was over. It was the stuff of soap operas, to be sure, but Walsh doesn’t have any time for it. She’s focused instead on the future.
Walsh and Michaud during summer training in 2021. (Photo: Danielle Earl Photography).
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These days, Walsh can be found with her nose in a book nearly as often as she finds herself on the ice. The London native is a student at Wilfrid Laurier University (Brantford campus), where she’s studying psychology and trying to live a ‘normal’ 20-year-old life (to that effect, she doesn’t even tell her school friends about her skating life).
She moved to Brantford pre-pandemic. It’s where she and Michaud have been training since 2018, with their coach, Alison Purkiss, who hails from the city. In the early days, she commuted. She was a high schooler back then, and she didn’t have her driver’s license at the time, which meant either mom or dad driving her at seven o’clock in the morning.
She’d arrive at 8:15, take a math class – and a health class – at North Park Collegiate, to fulfill her graduate requirements, and then head over to the rink at the Wayne Gretzky Centre and train from 12:30 to 4. She’d be back home in London by 5:30 p.m.
“My parents were both retired that year, which gave us a little more flexibility,” said Walsh. “It just kind of depended on the day who would take me.”
Her parents’ sacrifices are certainly not lost on Walsh. They helped get her to where she is today – on the cusp of representing Canada at the Olympics. And those sacrifices started early – as they usually do for parents with kids in elite sports programs.
At 12, the Walsh family moved from Seaforth to London when Evelyn and her sister, Kristen, were admitted into St. Mary Choir & Orchestra Catholic School. It meant more music and acting experiences for Kristen, and easier access for Evelyn to the Strathroy rink where she trained (and then to Komoka for a couple of years). For high school, she attended St. Andre Bessette Catholic School. The move meant a commute the other way for Walsh’s parents, who were both teachers.
Walsh and Michaud compete at the NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Shuji Kajiyama).
“I think maybe we were a little selfish at that age,” the skater said. “They prioritized us.”
By Grade 11, Walsh was traveling internationally for skating events so often that she essentially moved to full-time online learning. In Grade 12, she did a hybrid of online and in-person classes. That pesky math class was an in-person one, as she found it challenging to learn online. Otherwise, she had all her other mandatory courses needed to get into university.
“School is something that is really important to me. I don’t know if that was maybe nurtured from a young age with my parents being teachers, but it’s always been a top priority for me,” said Walsh. “Skating doesn’t hinder how important school is for me because I know there’s life after sport. Sport is a very age-sensitive thing, but there’s a lot of life after that and I want to have options whenever that comes.”
Unfortunately, Walsh’s university experience hasn’t exactly been a normal one so far. For much of it, she’s been doing online learning – this time for different reasons (see: a global pandemic). She’s been living in Brantford since just prior to the pandemic (she returns to London nearly every weekend). She’s been enjoying her studies and making friends when she can, and she’s looking forward to a return to more extensive in-person learning. The psychology she finds fascinating.
“I maybe wasn’t aware of how powerful the mind is, and through this course I’ve learned how to better understand myself and others. I kind of took it as maybe a selfish degree because I want to better understand my own mental state, especially around the pandemic and everything happening – and to better understand the people around me. I’m not quite sure going forward what I want to do, but I think I’ll do something in a graduate degree.
“When I’m done skating, I think I want to do something still involved with sport but not directly skating. So much of my life has been concentrated around skating, and I’m grateful for that, but I also want to experience other avenues. Maybe sports psychology or helping other athletes in a different aspect.”
Perhaps her own recent experiences in the figure skating world would serve her well in that capacity?
“I hope so,” she said with a laugh. “It gives me a little perspective, yeah.”
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What has Walsh learned from the last year? How much time do you have …
What she knows for sure is she’s proud of what she and Michaud accomplished overall. It was a difficult season in many ways. She says the pair struggled with confidence early in the season. They didn’t place well in a handful of events, which put huge pressure on them to have a good performance at nationals.
But they did. They nailed it. When they needed to, they put down two outstanding skates.
“That’s something we have to take away, knowing that we can bounce back,” said Walsh. “There’s an element of resilience there.”
She also learned just how much support she has in the skating world.
“I think I can vouch for Trennt as well to say that the support we received [after nationals] was so heartwarming. We had so many nice people reach out to us, and that was a big blessing. We never felt alone. We still feel the fan support, and we’re truly so grateful for that. You know, (skating) is a long process … training every day, it’s a long journey. But when you know you have the support of people behind you and the love … it’s really unmatched.
“We met some of those great fans in Estonia. We took photos with them and got to talk to them. And that’s really what it’s all about to us … connecting with fans and connecting with people. At the end of the day, that’s why we’re doing this. We’re trying to impress a story on people and hopefully make someone feel something, or even just allow them to kind of escape from their reality for a second.”
As for the competition side? The goal is clear: Representing Canada at the 2026 Olympics in Italy.
“There’s a new fire lit inside us because we don’t want to be left off the team ever again,” she said. “We want to be the very obvious choice. We want it so badly now, and we don’t want it to even be a question in 2026.”
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