“Everyone has good and bad skating days. What’s important is how you handle them. Forget about what happened the day or week before and focus on today.  What matters is trusting yourself and all of your hard work that got you to where you are!”

Program: Singles
Level: Novice
Skating club and town: Glen Cairn Skating Club, Ottawa

“I learned how to skate through the CanSkate program,” says Victoria Gardner. “I would often stay to watch the older girls practice on the ice after me. I was so amazed by their jumps and spins that all I could think was, ‘I want to do that too!’

“Figure skating is my passion. It allows me to express myself both athletically and artistically. It requires lots of determination and perseverance, but it is so much fun – and accomplishing my goals is incredible.”

Victoria skates at the Glen Cairn Skating Club in Ottawa, and says her club is very supportive and has a focused environment. We asked her about her favourite experience and she immediately responded with when she skated her short program at the 2018 Skate Canada National Championships. “I had been trying so hard to get to that point in my season and being in Vancouver was so exciting! It was the best feeling in the world to have all my hard work pay off at a competition like Nationals.”

Victoria’s skating career has been expanding; she’s been to seminars with skater Jeffery Buttle. This year she had the opportunity to be on the Novice Team for the Ontario Winter Games and work with several Skate Ontario coaches. She’ll be structuring her plan with her coach, Marie Palladini Hamelin, soon for the 2018-2019 season.