Joannie Rochette A True Olympic Hero

It's tough to be an Olympic athlete, it's even tougher when you're on home soil and the pressure of a whole nation is heaped upon your shoulders, and it's especially tough when you lose the one person that was always there to help you deal with that pressure and the daily ups and downs of life as an Olympic athlete.

No person in the world could have prepared Joannie Rochette for having the moment she'd waited for all her life arrive amid the terrible grief of her mother's death two days earlier. The standing room only crowd at Pacific Coliseum would have gladly rushed the ice and carried the 24-year-old through the two minutes and 50 seconds of her short program. But a figure skater must literally face the music alone, in the middle of a vast and hard white surface, and try to carve something beautiful out of the ice in just under 3 minutes.

It would have been quite easy and justified to pull out of the games and many thought that she should have. Many thought that now it would be too hard to focus on skating and that she would easily falter on a spin or a jump or even in the intricate step work required of an Olympic figure skater. However, Joannie Rochette stood there, letting the fans' warmth and applause wash over her, knowing that when it grew quiet, she would have to skate the hardest 3 minutes of her life, all by herself. And she did it all pretty flawlessly, every jump, every spin, every step to the tango of "La Cumparsita", whose lyrics begin: “The little parade of endless miseries ...”

Only when it was over would she let the grief take over, and she crumpled into the arms of her coach, Manon Perron, and wept uncontrollably and understandably while her marks came up.

On a night when Japan's Mao Asada and Korean world champion Yu-Na Kim had pretty much brought the house down with back-to-back works of art (Asada with the Olympics' first-ever triple Axel combination by a woman and Kim answering back with her matchless combination of technique and show-stopping artistry) there was little chance of Rochette matching their firepower.

But she is right there for a medal, sitting third heading into Thursday's long program, and with everything that must have been going through her mind, it was one of the most remarkable and memorable performances any Canadian, let alone any Canadian skater, has ever laid down (and I'm sure her mom was watching over her and was proud of her performance).

She's distantly in third, but also comfortably ahead of fourth-place Miki Ando of Japan. I will be cheering with all my heart for her to medal and even if she doesn't, I don't think I will ever forget her beauty, grace, poise, strength and most of all her courage to do what she did under the circumstances she faced. She has earned a higher medal than gold in the hearts of many Canadians.

Peace and Much Love to Ya

*Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rochette family

**Update Feb 25, 2010 --> Joannie Rochette has won the Bronze medal; Korea's Kim Yu-Na (coached by Canadian and 2-time silver medalist Brian Orser) wins the Gold and Mao Asada of Japan wins the Silver medal**