Two years ago, Kennedy Lavertu made the decision to leave Port Alberni, including her family, school and friends, for the opportunity to train at Champs International Skating Centre in Burnaby.
Her journey hasn’t been easy, but she knew that to pursue competitive figure skating she had to be with the top skaters in B.C. and Canada.
At the 2017 Skate Canada BC/YK Sectional Championships in Kelowna in November, Lavertu placed sixth among junior women with a personal best program score of 106.87, landing two triple jumps to grab her a spot on the B.C. team.
She went on to the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge in Montreal from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, where 500 of the top skaters in Canada competed. Lavertu is only the second woman from Port Alberni to represent B.C. at the Challenge.
“It went really well,” said Lavertu of the event. “I scored a personal best, so I was really happy with that.”
Kennedy scored 108 points in the competition.
It was a new experience for Lavertu, who hadn’t competed at the Challenge before or with most of the other skaters. “The competition is really strong,” she said. “It was all the top athletes in Canada.”
Lavertu’s season has ended now, and she has no more competitions coming up, but she continues to practice regularly.
“My season has just ended,” said Lavertu. “The next season starts around May.”
Lavertu said that she will start practicing for her next season fairly soon, and remains excited for new opportunities coming up.
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