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Six-time Canadian champion and 2010 Olympic Winter Games bronze medallist Joannie Rochette will serve as the official Athlete Ambassador during\u00a02018 Skate Canada International, which will take place in Laval, Quebec, October 25-28, 2018.<\/p>\n
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Rochette, 32, is currently\u00a0attending medical school at McGill University.<\/p>\n
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Figure Skaters Online caught up with Joannie briefly during a pre-Skate Canada media event Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
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Figure Skaters Online (FSO):\u00a0<\/strong>Have you been skating at all in the last few years?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joannie Rochette(JR):<\/strong> I haven\u2019t skated in over a year! I skated once this summer for a cancer foundation, otherwise no.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FSO:<\/strong><\/span>How\u2019s your off-ice life going?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n JR<\/strong>: It\u2019s good. I am in school [McGill University in Montreal, Quebec] full time. I really love it, I don\u2019t have time to miss skating so much. But when I\u2019m here [at the rink] of course I miss it, time doesn\u2019t change anything. It\u2019s a place where I feel home. Even today, I stepped on the ice and hugged everyone. I still know many of the skaters. Eight years have gone by without changing anything, it\u2019s a big family, such a nice feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FSO:<\/strong> What\u2019s your role as\u00a0<\/span>the Athlete Ambassador for Skate Canada International?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n JR:<\/strong> It\u2019s a promotional role–talking about the event, telling people to get their tickets and watch skating live. We are so lucky to have all these great skaters from all around the world, but a lot of people hear \u201cSkate Canada\u201d and think it\u2019s a national competition. Instead, there\u2019s going to be skaters from Russia, Japan… it\u2019s a big thing having it in Laval, close to Montr\u00e9al. At the event, I\u2019m going to be involved with the media, press releases. There\u2019s also a school program, so I\u2019ll talk with the kids\u2026 and then if athletes want to speak to me, I\u2019ll be available. I\u2019ll be a fan sitting in the crowd cheering. I can celebrate with the skaters after the medals. I can chat with the audience too during the Zamboni breaks, I\u2019ll be doing lots of French\/English announcements for the audience. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FSO:\u00a0<\/strong>Have you been following Team Canada last year?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n JR:<\/strong> More during the Olympics, but not much during the season. Now there\u2019s a lot of new names that I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m hoping to be surprised, I\u2019ll be discovering all these new skaters with everyone. I\u2019ll be sitting with no pressure just enjoying and hoping for the best performances. And it\u2019s going to be great to see Evgenia [Medvedeva] and Elizaveta [Tuktamysheva] against Gabby Daleman* in the ladies competition.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted Oct. 9, prior to Skate Canada’s announcement Oct. 12 that Gabrielle Daleman had withdrawn from the 2018 Skate Canada International and is taking a break from training to focus on her mental health.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FSO: <\/strong>Are you going to be involved in Worlds in Montr\u00e9al?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n JR:<\/strong> I would like to. I have to see how things go. It\u2019s going to be close to my final exam and I\u2019ll finish medical school in May 2020. I\u2019m going to go watch for sure and I\u2019m excited for the skaters to have that opportunity. The Bell Center in Montr\u00e9al is an iconic place. We did Stars on Ice a few times, but I\u2019m kind of jealous as I didn\u2019t have this opportunity in my competing career. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FSO: <\/strong>Are you going to be involved in The Thank you Canada Tour?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n JR:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes! For Quebec City[Nov.10], I\u2019m going to be doing some translations in French, and maybe I\u2019ll skate in the finale or in some group numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Skate Canada is October 26-28 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Figure Skaters Online\u2019s writer and photographer, Francesca S. will be in Laval providing live coverage! Make sure you follow Figure Skaters Online on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and check www.figureskatersonline.com for updates.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Francesca S. Six-time Canadian champion and 2010 Olympic Winter Games bronze medallist Joannie Rochette will serve as the official Athlete Ambassador during\u00a02018 Skate Canada International, which will take place in Laval, Quebec, October 25-28, 2018. Rochette, 32, is currently\u00a0attending medical school at McGill University. Figure Skaters Online caught up with Joannie…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12916"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12934,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916\/revisions\/12934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}