Samara Thew is the epitome of the Olympic motto - faster, higher, stronger.
Her need for speed put her on the radar as a potential Canada Winter Games speed skater in long track and short track and her training for those two disciplines has made her stronger than ever on her blades, taking her to new heights in her last season as a competitive figure skater.
"When I have time off from speed skating stuff I notice a big difference in my jumps. It's impacted my strength a lot," said Thew, 17, among a group of nine skaters entered in the B.C/Yukon section figure skating championships at Kin 1.
On the same ice surface last weekend, Thew finished 12th at the short track speed skating B.C. team selection meet, a 2015 Canada Winter Games qualifier. Rather than return to her new home in Calgary, Thew switched to figure skating mode to prepare for her last competition on home soil.
This weekend's section competition is the figure skating qualifier for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, but Thew is too old to be eligible. The Games are open to pre-novice and novice figure skaters only and they must be under age 17 as of July 1, 2014.
Now a member of the Calalta Figure Skating Club in Calgary, Thew is among nine skaters entered in the junior women's event. It's a Herculean task trying to build up her fitness level and skating skills to compete in two different sports on successive weekends but she says she's up to the challenge.
"It's difficult, you just have to judge it right," said Thew. "Figure skating is going really well, I'm peaking at the right point and I'm getting my jumps landed nine out of 10 times, so I'm really happy. I got a new short program this year and I've been working mostly on getting things consistent because I'm so on and off. Right now I'm on, which is really nice going into sections."
Thew has incorporated a double-Lutz into her routine and her combinations include a double-flip/double-loop, double-flip/double-toe, and double-Salchow/double loop. Jennifer Auston, her PGFSC coach the past three years, says there's no doubt Thew's dedication to speed skating has made her a better figure skater.
"Her legs are a lot stronger, so her jumps are bigger and she's spinning faster," said Auston. "She's been looking forward to this for a long time, skating on home ice, and she's feeling really confident. She's not having any doubts, she's just ready. She has the best lineup of jumps and spins she's ever had."
As the only PGFSC skater entered in the four-day competition which started Thursday, Thew feels right at home, knowing her family and friends will be watching. But the fact she hasn't been training with her home club since June is a strange feeling for her after 15 years with the club.
"I'll have the hometown crowd but I haven't been training at home, I'm kind of like a foreigner," she said.
Born and raised in Prince George where she became a fixture with the Prince George Figure Skating Club, Thew made the move this summer to Calgary to join the regional training centre for speed skating.
She's finishing off her Grade 12 studies at the National Sport School in Calgary at Canada Olympic Park on the western outskirts of the city. Her new school caters to young athletes whose training and competition schedules often do not conform with traditional Monday to Friday school schedules. Students work at their own speed on class subjects. Her home rink for figure skating is a short walk from the school and she has nearby access to sports psychologists, weight trainers and physiotherapists. Her school is a 10-minute drive from the Olympic Oval,where national team speed skaters train and Thew loves the atmosphere created by world-class athletes.
"It is so cool, so positive and reinforcing and it's such a different environment you don't realize it until you get there," she said. "It's the best decision I've ever made. I'm still a baby in the sport, it's not like I've been training my whole life for this."
Thew, a former hockey player, trains 11 hours per week on the ice for figure skating and her speed skating schedule keeps her on her long blades 12.5 hours each week. She's also taking her Level 1 course to be a figure skating instructor.
Thew started figure skating when she just was three years old and started speed skating three years ago when she joined the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club.
"My parents [Kim and Robert] wanted me to try speed skating because figure skating wasn't going as well as it should have for me," she said. "I didn't want to try it but once they stopped asking me I decided to try it and it just went from there."
Thew will find out Nov. 28-30 at the B.C. long track speed skating selection team meet how she stacks up against the best in the province. Only the top four females and top four males at the trials make the Canada Games team.
Two weekends ago at the Oval Invitational long track meet in Calgary she set personal best times in her 500-metre, 1,000m and 1,500m events. The previous weekend at the Octoberfest short track meet she took time off her PBs in the 500m and 1,000m events.
Thew is dedicating her performances in Saturday's short program (1:05 p.m) and Sunday's free skate (11:20 a.m.) to her 19-year-old brother. Brendan Thew was an accomplished figure skater with the PGFSC until age 15 when he was forced to retire from the sport due to a back injury suffered in practice while trying to land a triple jump. He's now living in Kelowna, where he's studying engineering at UBC Okanagan.
