Skate Canada Challenge

Becoming a competitive figure skater takes a lot of hard work and dedication and Kelly Webb, 16, of Dartmouth fits that criteria. The local high school student has been figure skating since she was six years old and her passion for the sport has led her to the national arena where she will be competing at the 2016 Skate Canada Challenge in Edmonton next week.

“I’ve loved everything about figure skating since the first time I stepped on the ice in the Canskate Program,” says Kelly Webb, 16, of Dartmouth. “ I love the feel of my blade on a clean sheet of ice. I love the challenge of executing and perfecting new skills. I love interpreting the music and competing to achieve a personal best score.”

More than 500 skaters have qualified for the event through winning sectionals in their regions and they will all glide into Edmonton to compete from Dec. 3 to 7.

This will be Webb’s first national competition and she is excited about meeting other skaters from across the country. She’s been focused on this goal for some time now and has been spending a lot of hours preparing for the event. She says recently she’d been spending about fourteen hours per week in training: twelve hours on the ice, and two hours off the ice.

Her coach, Kyla McNeil Upton, is the program manager at the Dartmouth Skating Club where Webb trains. She will be travelling with Webb to the Skate Canada Challenge.

“Kelly has worked very hard on and off the ice, lots of early morning ice, skating sometimes twice a day,” says McNeil Upton. “This has been Kelly’s goal for a few years and she has now accomplished it.”

For novice, junior, and senior skaters, this is the only chance they will have to qualify for the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships which will be held in Halifax at the Scotiabank Centre in January. Qualifying for the Canadian championships is Webb’s ultimate dream.

McNeil Upton says the Skate Canada Challenge is a big opportunity for Webb.

“It takes Kelly’s training and passion for the sport to a new level,” she says. “She has a new personal best score and she’s working hard now to try and beat that score when we go to Challenge.”

Webb will be joining the elite ranks of other Dartmouth Skating Club members who have made it to the Challenge in past years. She will also be joining Dartmouth Skating Club member Stephie Walmsley who will be competing this year in the senior women’s event and is currently training in Ontario where she is attending university.

Webb is excited about competing on a national level.

“This will be the biggest challenge that I have faced, and is the highest level that I have competed in so far,” she says.

Results, as well as live streaming coverage of the Challenge, will be available on the Skate Canada Challenge event’s website at www.skatecanada.ca from Dec. 3 to Dec. 7.