Just An Ordinary Day

Practice, it's often been said, makes perfect.
But while Joannie Rochette was pretty close to that in front of a lot of eyes at HomeSense Skate Canada International on Saturday night, the little charmer from Ile-Dupas, Que., would be the first to say her pre-game skate, so to speak, had almost nothing to do with it.
In the minutes after crushing the field at Scotiabank Place for her second Skate Canada gold in three years, Rochette admitted practice earlier in the day went so poorly, she cut it short and headed back to her hotel room.
Then she fell back into the most familiar of routines.
"I just called my boyfriend (short-track speed skater Francois-Louis Tremblay) and talked about some things," said Rochette, 22. "I just did everything I do on a normal day. If I had a so-so practice at home (in Montreal), I'd go home and put it behind me and not think about it or talk about it. That's exactly what I did. I just moved on, had a quiet dinner and talked with my roommate (pairs skater Mylene Brodeur). We had a fun time together."
All of it seemed to work. By the time Rochette walked by the media room listening to Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses, she'd laid to bed all the bad feelings from earlier in the day. Then she went on and shot the lights out on the ice, landing seven triple jumps in a dazzling display that turned the competition into a rout.
After Rochette was done, she'd racked up an astonishing overall score of 188.89 points, more than 25 better than silver-medal winner Fumie Suguri of Japan. Alissa Czisny of the U.S. (157.92) held off reigning world silver medallist Carolina Kostner of Italy (152.76) for the bronze.
All of this on the backs of a free program Rochette admitted she wanted to dump shortly after she started working with it. Now that thought has done a complete 180.
" I think it really paid off tonight," she said. "I'm telling you, this program this summer, I couldn't get through it. I was dead at the third jump because I didn't have much crosscuts and I didn't see how it was going to work. The first week, I said 'I think we have to change.' It was real different for me to say you only have some round crosscuts and connecting steps, and then you have to jump.
"You have to gain speed with it and just that for me was harder. The work we did on the components really paid off."
While Rochette's performance drew raves all around — not to mention a standing ovation — she wasn't ready to declare it her best performance yet. But clearly, the message has been sent: The is a young woman primed and ready to win her first world championships medal in Los Angeles in March.
"I think this is a goal this season," said Rochette, who finished a career-best fifth at the 2008 worlds in Sweden. "But we don't think of podium specifically. We just talk about building my confidence and improving my components. I want to have the two same performances I had this week. Same thing, same calmness with all my elements and skating it perfectly it worlds.
"That's all I'm asking from myself and then the results will take care of themselves. If it comes, it comes, and I will do everything I can to get on that podium."
That quest, it must be said, is officially off to a rather rousing start.