By: Dylan Nazareth

Katherine Medland Spence is no stranger to adversity.

After a career plagued with injuries, she finally found her breakthrough last season at 24 years old, winning gold at the Warsaw Cup and standing on the podium at Canadian Nationals for the first time, earning a bronze medal. Following that memorable year, she’s entering this season as a member of the Skate Canada National Team for the first time.

Medland Spence’s love of skating became her driving force last season, as she put up the best results of her career under new coaches Ken and Danielle Rose. Almost 10 months out from that Golden performance in Poland, the 25-year-old shares that it’s still unbelievable in some ways.

“It’s still surreal,” said Medland Spence. “I still watch those videos and I go, oh right, that happened. Yeah, it’s still crazy.”

Unfortunately, coming into this year she’s also dealing with injury troubles once again. But bearing in mind her love for the sport, she’s stepping back to the process that gave her so much success last year, sharing her simple goals for the season.

“Get healthy, stay healthy, trust my training, and always remember why I do this,” said Medland Spence, speaking at August’s Skate Canada High Performance Camp. “It doesn’t matter that it’s an Olympic year, I do this because I love skating. I want to go out there and enjoy performing, and also when I’m in training every single day. Just seeing that progress is what really fuels me to keep going.”

Two years ago, dealing with four separate injuries, she nearly left the sport altogether. Trusting the process of her training, she made her way back to full strength, and she’s ready to show that resilience again this season.

“She’s kind of been through it all in her career and she’s always come back,” said Ken Rose. “She’s come back fighting, come back stronger, and this year’s no different. It’s been a tough offseason with injury, but through it all she shows up at the rink and does what she can. Her resiliency is always something that we admire.”

Still waiting to put her programs out on the ice this year, Medland Spence shares that performing them altogether is what she’s most looking forward to with her short and long this season.

“I think just going out there and being able to perform them,” said Medland Spence. “We’ve been working a lot now on the performance side and the skating skills side of things. So just being able to go out and kind of show what I’ve been working on and get feedback on that, and just see the progress that I’ve been able to make on that side of things.”

Her long program is the same as last season’s, but she’s especially excited for her new short program, skating to With One Look from Sunset Boulevard, saying it both highlights her strengths as a skater and challenges her in new ways. Her coaches echo that sentiment, speaking to how it shows off her talents on the ice.

“The new short program really showcases her skating skills, speed, power, ice coverage,” said Ken Rose.

“The way that she can fill out an ice rink, it’s really lovely to watch,” added Danielle Rose.

It’s only a matter of time before Medland Spence gets to dazzle on the ice once again. Until then, she’ll just keep putting in the work and trusting her process the way she always has.