On Sunday, March 2, Rudi Swiegers, who grew up mostly in Kipling, and Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, attended the Kennedy Skating Club's ice show where they were the honoured guests and hometown heroes after competing at the Olympic games in Sochi, Russia last month.
The pairs figure skaters shared some of their favourite experiences at the Olympics, while Paige took the time to reminisce and thank those in Kennedy for helping her along in her early years of figure skating while continuing to support them throughout their careers.
Prior to the ice show's intermission Rudi and Paige were welcomed onto the ice by applause, whoops, hollers, and loud whistling as the audience displayed their love and commitment to their homegrown athletes.
A large screen was set up and before Rudi and Paige spoke, they were able to show a video of their Free Skate from Sochi as a way to share a piece of their Olympic experience with the crowd.
The pair took 14th place overall in the Olympics, but despite a few stumbles were touted in media as being one of the happiest 14th place finishers the Olympics has ever seen.
As the video played, Rudi and Paige stood on the ice watching with the crowd, smiles creasing their faces as the audience erupted in thunderous applause after each completed element.
Following the video the pair stood in front of the amassed crowd to speak a little about their favourite parts of the Olympics, picking out a few moments as they explained they could nearly speak about the Olympics forever.
"We wanted to come out to talk a little about our Olympic experience," Paige said. "It's hard to talk about it I guess because it's such a large experience..."
Though the entire experience was thrilling and unique, Paige and Rudi agreed that being on the ice performing was exhilarating.
"For me my favourite part was obviously... on the ice skating," Paige smiled widely. "I've always really, really loved to skate and those two programs that we did, I was just so in the moment and so happy being able to do both programs."
"For me that was one of the greatest things to be able to go there and to not be all nervous... but to just really relish in how awesome it was to be a part of something that big..."
Rudi went on to explain that a moment which sticks out in his mind was after the pair finished their Free Skate, Paige was intent on staying on the ice as long as she could.
"Like Paige said the Olympics was a humongous experience for us," Rudi told the crowd. "We were there for three weeks and of those three weeks we skated competitively for two days."
"But one of my favourite moments... Paige didn't want to get off the ice so just continuously kept bowing and that really sums it up. You really didn't want to be done because it was just such a fantastic moment for us and a fantastic experience for us that even now as we're standing in front of you we still have that Olympic moment, Olympic experience inside ourselves and it will never be done for us; but, we're really happy that you guys have come here and can share even just a little bit of that moment with you guys. So, thank you guys very much for that, we really appreciate it.
It was more than just skating at the Olympics though that had Paige and Rudi excited about being in Sochi, it was being a part of Team Canada and everything that went with this honour.
"Another really cool thing about the Olympics was that it was so much more than just figure skating and we were really, really lucky we got to go enjoy a lot more..." Paige stated.
"We felt like we were part of Team Canada and not just Team Canada, figure skating. We had the opportunity to go to the ladies hockey final and cheer them on for gold... but when the women won a swarm of Canadian athletes went over to the sidelines, we stood there and we sang the anthem while they were getting their medals, and afterwards the girls would come up by us and wave, and say, 'Thank you.' And you could just tell that they were so grateful for our cheering sections that we had there and so that was cool because I really felt a part of their medal, even as a bystander, but they made us part of it..."
In the end Rudi and Paige were grateful to be in Kennedy; but, as it is Paige's hometown she had a few extra words for the crowd which contained family, friends, and neighbours, a community which helped her get started in a sport which would become her passion and propel her towards greatness.
After thanking the crowd for attending the evening and for their support, Paige went on to say: "I also wanted to say thank you for being a part of our journey throughout all of these years. That's been really big for me because this rink holds a really special place for me in my heart because this is where I got my start back when I was four-years-old..."
"I have many amazing memories from here: school trips in Phys. Ed., or coming here after school to learn, and I can remember Mom sitting up there and me doing tricks for her down here going, 'Look at me, I'm so good!'" Paige said smiling widely as the crowd laughed.
"It's just really special for me to stand here now having achieved my biggest dream because even though I've moved away to train, I've never really lost my roots from here and coming back every year to the ice show it's just such an honour for me and I'm so thankful to be able to see the younger skaters grow throughout the years..."
The rink and the community which helped her grow were actually with her in Sochi. Remembering her roots and where she first started, Paige recalled stepping onto the Olympic ice where a nervous figure skater soon became a little calmer after thinking about the young girl she once was in the Kennedy Rink.
"A really cool thing for me, when I took the ice at the Olympics I was nervous; I'm not going to lie to you," Paige stated. "But when I took the ice for the first time I thought back to the little girl who started skating here and I became a lot less nervous because I realized that I still love to skate as much as I did back then, back when I started, and that, that's what this has really always been about for me and how much I love to do this and I'd just like to say thank you to this rink and the people in this town for giving me my start..."
