Skip to content

Team Saskatchewan figure skater up for a challenge

A local figure skater has been selected to represent Team Saskatchewan at a major Skate Canada Western Ontario competition in Ontario next month.
Emily Hanson
Emily Hanson has been invited to participate in the Isabelle Henderson Memorial Competition in Paris, Ontario, this September as a representative of Team Saskatchewan.

A local figure skater has been selected to represent Team Saskatchewan at a major Skate Canada Western Ontario competition in Ontario next month.

Emily Hanson, 14, will participate in the Isabelle Henderson Memorial Invitational at Paris, Ontario’s Brant Sports Complex from Sept. 16-18 as a representative of Team Saskatchewan. Emily has been invited as one of six pre-novice ladies from this province who will compete in the event.

The Saskatchewan Competitive Team member qualified for the Isabelle Henderson Memorial based on her skill level and, in part, on the results she achieved at the Wild Rose Invitational Competition in Leduc, Alberta, from July 28-31. As a member of the provincial Competitive Team, Emily has also received an opportunity to improve her skills as she tries to earn a spot in the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge in Pierrefonds, Quebec, this winter.

“There are two camps every year,” said Emily about the group sessions involved with the Competitive Team that teaches the athletes different approaches to proper nutrition and fitness training among other strategies. “There is a fall camp and a spring camp and you go there and they invite people to help us at seminars.”

Emily said in addition to the Wild Rose Invitational she has been practising on the ice for five weeks already this summer in order to prepare for what she hopes will be her most successful year in figure skating. She said to skate over the summer months she has had to go to Saskatoon for three weeks and Melville for another two weeks with this extra practise culminating in a fourth-place finish and a personal-best score at a Sask Skate Competition at Regina’s Cooperators Centre from Aug. 12-14.

At these competitions, Emily completes a short program, which involves three jumps, two spins and footwork like edges and turns, and a long program that has six jumps and three spins. The Estevan Skating Club regular noted she has been perfecting this program with a practise schedule over the winter season that usually involves five days a week of on-ice training with each session running an hour and 15 minutes.

“I really like it and it’s a fun sport,” said Emily, who has been involved in figure skating since she was five years old. “I like to compete and keep pushing myself to get better.”

The Isabelle Henderson Memorial will give Emily an opportunity to measure herself against skaters she wouldn’t normally see in a competition on the prairies. She said the experience gained should help her reach a coveted top-three finish at Saskatchewan Sectionals in Humboldt from Nov. 10-13, which would qualify her for the Skate Canada Challenge.

“My goal is to go to Challenge,” said Emily. “Years ahead I want to go to nationals and maybe eventually go to the Canada Games.”