This Thunder Bay, Ont. figure skater is making her mark at the provincials

Rajpreet Sahota · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 21, 2025 4:57 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

A Thunder Bay fig skater is acceptable to instrumentality the crystal this play astatine the 2025 Skate Ontario Provincial Championships successful Stratford.

Mary Furlong-Kelly volition vie successful the Gold Artistic class astatine the event, which runs from March 21 to 23 astatine the Stratford Rotary Complex.

Furlong-Kelly, who is 18 has been skating since she was 3 years old. She said her travel successful the athletics was a earthy one.

"My dada was a fig skater and my ma was a hockey player, truthful it was benignant of funny," she said. "My dad's full broadside of the household fig skated… my older sister fig skated. Then they people conscionable enactment maine successful and I was grateful to person recovered thing that I loved truthful young and conscionable kept going with it."

She has competed successful the competitory watercourse since she was nether 10, qualifying for her archetypal provincials astir the property of nine. However, this year's contention marks her archetypal instrumentality to the lawsuit successful a portion aft taking a interruption from skating.

Furlong-Kelly is competing successful Gold Artistic for the archetypal time, a class that differs from her erstwhile experience.

"It is fundamentally similar a solo that you would spot successful immoderate fig skating routine, but determination are nary jumps," she said. "I've ever been a jumper."

Instead of focusing connected jumps, the watercourse focuses connected the creator and show aspects of skating. She volition beryllium judged connected the mentation of music, show quality, skating skills and creativity.

Competing astatine the provincial level is thing Furlong-Kelly said she has ever taken pridefulness in, particularly arsenic a skater from Thunder Bay.

"I americium truthful blessed and truthful grateful to beryllium doing it again... Even erstwhile I was younger, I retrieve determination was a ceremonial erstwhile you qualified for your archetypal provincials, and you got a provincial jacket. It was this large moment," she said.

She noted that this twelvemonth volition beryllium antithetic since she is the lone 1 from her hometown attending,  but Mikayla Fabbro from Sudbury and Emma Van Alstine from Kapuskasing are besides competing successful the aforesaid class this weekend.

The golden creator lawsuit is scheduled for Saturday astatine 8:30 p.m. ET.

According to Stephanie Lafleur, events coordinator for Skate Ontario, the Skate Ontario Provincial Championships is 1 of the biggest fig skating events successful the province, with astir 700 to 800 skaters competing crossed assorted categories, including synchronized skating.

"Skaters person worked evidently precise hard passim the season," said Lafleur. "Our athletics is getting bigger and bigger and the involvement successful fig skating has grown, particularly the involvement successful competing. So skaters person to suffice to get to the provincial championships. So it is simply a precise large woody for them."

Furlong-Kelly has been grooming since January to hole for the event, moving connected choreography and spending clip successful the gym. She competes connected Saturday.

"I'm a small spot nervous… but I'm hoping to bash the champion I can," she said. "I'm hoping to podium, truthful [I've] conscionable been putting successful the work, stretching, moving retired and getting ready."