Thirty skaters competed in the short program on Feb. 20 in PyeongChang, vying for 24 spots in the free skate that will give them a shot at a medal. Larkyn Austman, a first-time Olympian with a Sunshine Coast connection, was among them.
“It was so great to see her skate so well, and the unfortunate thing is that she wasn’t completely rewarded for how she did,” said Daryl Austman, a coach with the Sunshine Coast Skating Club (SCSC) who is also Larkyn’s second cousin.
Larkyn, who performed to “Mein Herr” from the musical Cabaret, scored 51.42 in the short program, putting her in 25th place, missing out on the long program by one position.
“I would think she’s probably a little disappointed on not making the cut, but very happy with the overall outcome and just being there at the Olympics. How many people have a chance to do that?” Daryl said.
In recent history, he said, only two female single figure skaters from B.C. have made it to the Olympics.
Larkyn will also be performing at the SCSC Performance Night on March 10 thanks to that Sunshine Coast connection. It will be the third time she performs on the Coast, having skated at SCSC events in 2015 and 2016.
Larkyn trains at the Coquitlam Figure Skating Club, but her connection to the Coast begins in Saskatchewan. That’s where her father and Daryl Austman grew up as cousins on neighbouring farms, before moving to B.C. in the late ’80s. “We were like brothers, practically.” That closeness continues with Larkyn, who Daryl considers more of a niece than a second cousin. “The whole skating thing is in our blood.”
Team Canada has 17 skaters in PyeongChang, with two other women, Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabrielle Daleman, competing in the singles event. The other Canadian women have “a lot of notches on their belts and she’s the Bambi, she’s the new kid on the block,” Daryl said.
Larkyn, who has been on the senior Canadian skate team for two years, has extensive experience in contemporary dance, which Daryl said gives her a “beautiful feel for music.” He said she also has a solid technical foundation, and has made major strides with her triple jumps over the last year and a half. The goal is to make it past the short event and to the longer program, where skaters have a shot at a medal.
Earning a spot on the Olympic team has been a distant goal for the last 18 months. “They always had that in the back of their heads,” Daryl said. Two years ago Larkyn moved to Colorado Springs to train at Broadmoor Skating Club with Christine H. Krall. The pressure of living alone at the age of 17 while training and studying accumulated. “It was overwhelming for her, things were starting to fall apart,” Daryl said. She walked away from the sport, but after six months, returned.
Larkyn brought home bronze at the Canadian National Skating Championships in January, outcompeting four other women who were vying for the medal, which guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team and the World Figure Skating Championships in March. “It was a dogfight to try to get there. She’s had lots of ups and downs over the past year and rose to the occasion.”
Now that she has performed at the Olympics, Daryl expects the experience will give her a boost at the world championships. “I can almost guarantee the outcome is going to be substantially different and she’s going to have an even better skate and make the top 24 easily,” Daryl said.
