By: Dylan Nazareth

It’s been nearly two decades of partnership for Roman Sadovsky and his coach, two-time Canadian champion Tracey Wainman. She was there for his first national championship, his debut on the world stage, and his Olympic introduction four years ago in Beijing. Now with the Milan 2026 Games on the horizon, she’s excited for the chance to do it again under more normal circumstances.

Tracey in Beijing. Photo credit: Tracey Wainman on Instagram

“That Olympics was strange in all ways,” she said. “We had to really be at our high peak in September to qualify Canada for the second spot, so it looked very different. We had no idea we were going to be doing a team competition, found out as we were travelling there. Everything really was just all new and changing.”

And of course, that’s before mentioning the COVID-19 of it all. So while Wainman expects this season to go a lot smoother than the chaos we saw four years ago, that Olympic season also came with one big lesson: expect the unexpected.

“I think the thing that I took out of it is to, over the next four years, put Roman in situations that are not comfortable to him,” Wainman said. “Because anything can happen. You have to be able to adapt to anything.”

The road back to the Olympics is not without its own challenges for Sadovsky. With just one spot available for Canada in men’s singles, he’ll have to compete with the likes of fellow Ontarian Stephen Gogolev and the recently unretired Keegan Messing for the honour of representing Canada in Italy this February.

“The biggest thing is to always take care of what you do have control with, and know anything else that’s going on, you have no control,” Wainman said. “With Keegan, with anything, all of that is not in our control. … Roman is training very focused right now and it’s competition, you welcome competition. The more competition, the better.”

Heading into another big Olympic year, Sadovsky speaks highly of his coach and how she helps him keep that focus and training plan on track.

“She knows my ups and downs, and what kind of advice to give at what time,” Sadovsky said, speaking at this week’s High Performance camp. “At this point, it’s just really cool that we could develop as a team together. We’re just always thinking on the same page, there’s very little friction. That’s always good knowing that every time you go into training that both of you are thinking the same thing, working hard, and training towards the same goals.”

Roman Sadovsky

With a tough season ahead, Wainman’s role as a coach extends to the mental side of things more than ever. Having had a long and successful career in figure skating herself, Wainman said that one of the most important things she tries to impart to Sadovsky is to hold on to everything he’s achieved so far through his already storied career.

“He’s had a great career with many great moments,” Wainman said. “I want him to focus on celebrating and performing, because he loves performing, and enjoying the moments that he’s had in his career.”