'It was just time for a change'
Canadian champion Kaiya Ruiter has moved back her Ontario roots, relocating to the Toronto Cricket Club for a new training base she calls 'the right fit' for her right now.
The latest reminder came Sunday after a long, weary day of travel from Kazakhstan, when the plane (finally) landed in Toronto. And Kaiya Ruiter’s journey home didn’t still require another three hours or so.
“It was funny stopping there,” the 18-year Ruiter said of her arrival at Pearson International Airport in the city she now calls home. “I’m so used to the flights to Calgary and it was … oh, right, I’m walking out the door now.”
Life indeed has changed in a big way for the reigning Canadian women’s champion, who has made the venerable Toronto Cricket Club her full-time training base since September. It was an idea that was fermenting her head over the past two summers when she spent some productive training time there. This time, she says, it was the right time to stay.
“I spent the past two summers out there and this summer, especially, is when I realized you know what, this fit is kind of what I need right now,” said Ruiter, who is now being coached by former World champion Brian Orser and former Olympic bronze medallist Tracy Wilson. “The culture, the club, the coaches, the skaters … it just really fits for me right now. I really love it.”
There is also the bonus of being in the same rink where choreographer David Wilson, who crafted her Wonder Woman-themed free program for this season, happens to do much of his work.
“It’s so fun to be close to David Wilson as well,” said Ruiter. “We get to work on the program more often and we have lots of fun with that, so that’s been an amazing perk as well.”
Being in Ontario isn’t exactly unfamiliar territory — she was born in Ottawa and first learned to skate there on the famed Rideau Canal — it’s been a long time in coming back. Ruiter’s family relocated to Alberta in 2016 when her father, Kris, was transferred out west in his federal government job. They spent a year in Edmonton before heading south to Calgary, where Ruiter worked with coach Scott Davis, a former U.S. champion, ever since.
Under his direction, Ruiter won Canadian titles at three levels (novice, junior and senior) and earned a top-10 finish at the 2023 World Junior Championships. She admits parting ways with Davis was bittersweet.
“Obviously, it was very hard because we were so close and we spent so many amazing years together,” she said. “I’m so grateful for every minute, really. It was just time for a change and it was really hard, but I needed it.”
Ruiter admits the move would have been even more difficult if she’d had to do it without her family, with whom she is extremely close. In fact, the decision to head back east was truly a family decision. Her mother, Victoria, and younger sisters Vaunya and Vyan all moved to Toronto with her (older sister Keaghan is back in Ottawa in university; Ruiter and her other sisters all do their schooling online), while her father stayed in Calgary because of his job. There’s a lot of video calling going on between them all, but the hope is he could eventually be transferred back to Ontario for work.
“It’s very possible. We would love that. Possibly, he could end up being transferred here. We don’t know yet,’’ she said. “He has a great job out there. He works with the feds and he works at WinSport as well (where Ruiter used to train). So he has some great jobs out there. We’ll see if he’s able to move back east. We’ll definitely be visiting and he’ll be coming this way. For now, this is how it’s going, but we just make the most of the time we get.”
It might be said that family is indeed the theme of her entire season. In two weeks, she’ll compete at Skate Canada International in Halifax, right near her mother’s hometown of Cole Harbour (the same town where, as any hockey fan will tell you — and yes, Ruiter is one of them — superstars Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon are also from). The Canadian championships in January are in Laval, Quebec, just outside of Montreal and a two-hour drive from Ottawa (Ruiter has plenty of family in both places).
“I can’t imagine a better theme. Honestly, I can’t,” she says of family. “I love being so close to my family. It’s really such a special part of life, really. I love it,” said Ruiter. “It took a lot of the family to pull together to make this happen. I’m so grateful every day I’m in that rink, just to be there. Every stroking class and every lesson and the off ice … I’m so grateful for every second and I love it so much. And I think that’s what makes it worth it.”
Ruiter is someone who is eternally optimistic and oozes positivity about, well, pretty much everything. And she is absolutely over the moon about the opportunity to train under Orser and Wilson’s guidance each and every day now at the Cricket Club (and yes, she is very aware that Orser once coached an Olympic women’s champion in South Korea’s Yuna Kim).
“It has been incredible. I absolutely love it. Their wisdom, their experience in this sport is second to none. And to get to work with them is a dream come true,” she said.
She also takes time to soak in and appreciate the nearly 200-year history of a club that has truly been a home of skating champions (most notably, two-time Olympic men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan).
“I was just talking about that with one of the skaters there. You look up at the walls with all the champions … all the world champions, the Olympians from the past, going back decades. You feel that history in the rink,” she said. “You feel the atmosphere of champions, the blood, sweat and tears that went into it. You feel that and it’s really special. Just skating on the same ice that Yuzu used to skate on … it’s surreal, really.”
Ruiter’s competitive season started last weekend at the Denis Ten Memorial, a Challenger Series event in the Kazakh capital of Astana. She wound up seventh overall, pulling up three spots from her standing after the short program (which this season is skated to Cinematic Pop’s cover of the Tears For Fears hit song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” music that was suggested by her older sister, originally for an exhibition program).
“It was my first big event of the season and it was a really good experience. I learned a lot from it. I think it was a good start in a sense … just to get the programs out there and get a feel for them,” she said. “Definitely looking forward to Skate Canada in two weeks. It’s coming up so fast.”
Ruiter made her Grand Prix Series debut a year ago at Skate Canada in Vancouver, where she placed 10th. It’s an experience she believes she’ll be able to draw on when she gets to Halifax.
“Just having the experience of the first time under my belt, I definitely feel more confident going into it this time,” she said. “Just excited to get another opportunity at it, too. It’s a big event and just to get to be a part of it again this year is going to be so cool. I’m looking forward to that so much.”
One thing will be different, however — this time Ruiter goes into the event carrying the title of Canadian champion, which she earned back in January in Calgary. But it’s not something she’ll feel the weight of when she’s on the ice.
“It honestly just motivates me to live up to it. It’s something so cool. It’s still something that’s so surreal … when I say it out loud, it’s like, oh, wow, that is true,” she explained. “And it just makes me want to live up to it and be as great as I can be. I find it motivating and exciting and I dream of earning another one. I just want to put everything out there and see what I can do.”
Now she does it in an entirely new city, with a new vibe. But some things from Alberta will stick with her, particularly her allegiance to a certain hockey team she needed only a year to fall in love with. That’s not changing anytime soon.
“It is a big change. Definitely a different culture, but I’m really enjoying being in Ontario right now and being close to family,” she explained. “Definitely some things about being out west that were so amazing … just the mountains, oh my gosh. Loved being close to the mountains and I’m still an Oilers fan. Don’t even try to change me … Oilers forever! I love being the lost fan here. It happens almost every day.”
(mind you, she went through this every day she lived in Calgary, an Oilers fan in the heart of Flames country. “I was maybe not the lost fan but the hated fan.” Now she’ll proudly wear her Connor McDavid sweater in Toronto).
Ruiter calls hockey “probably my favourite thing outside of skating” and admits the fandom she adopted in Edmonton helped make the transition from life in Ottawa somewhat easier (she was 10 years old at the time).
“It was the 2016-17 season that we were there. It was the first season that McDavid was captain and the city was electric. It was the first time they were in the playoffs in a while and it was just crazy,” she said. “Every car had an (Oilers) flag … Really, what more could you ask for in a culture. It was so much fun. I missed home, I missed things and I really loved being part of that. It made Edmonton feel like home for the one year I was there.”
Now it’s time to get used to a new home, but this move is all business. It’s the next step in the evolution of Ruiter as a skater, and she’s confident it’s the right place to be. The right place to keep on growing on the ice.
“It felt like a good time for a bit of change, and I just love the challenge of it,” she says. “I love being challenged so much by the coaches, and the skaters … I mean, just skating next to Jason Brown, that’s crazy. His speed and (with) so many of them, the speed and the energy. I love being pushed and challenged with so many amazing skaters.”
Grand Prix Series kicks off at Skate America
While we’re on the subject of Skate Canada International … the Grand Prix Series launches next week in Allen, Texas, with Skate America. The six-event circuit also has stops in France, Japan, Finland and China leading up to the Grand Prix Final, set for Dec. 5-8 in Grenoble, France.
While Canada is allowed a full contingent of three entries per discipline at its home event in Halifax, the pickings are rather slim next week. Only two entries will wear the red maple leaf in Texas: Canadian champion Wesley Chiu in men, and Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac in ice dance (Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen had also been entered in the event, but were withdrawn by the International Skating Union when Soerensen’s six-year ban was announced last week by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. Details can be found here).
(UPDATE: Due to a withdrawal, Canadian ice dancers Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer have been added to the field at Skate America. They will also compete at Skate Canada International).
In Canada, Skate America will air on the ISU’s YouTube channel.
Bumping up scores in Budapest
Canada’s Maddie Schizas made her second Challenger Series stop of the season this weekend in Hungary this weekend, with the two-time Canadian champion placing fifth in a field of 20.
The 21-year-old from Oakville, Ontario, posted a season’s best overall score of 175.71, finishing just 3.99 points off the podium. Her short program score (65.21) was also a season’s best. Schizas next heads to Skate Canada International in Halifax, the same event at which she produced this dazzling free skate a year ago.
Schizas was the lone Canadian entry at the event, after the withdrawal of ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha.
Junior Grand Prix hits finish line
The final stop of the Junior Grand Prix Series is on this weekend in Wuxi, China, with Canada fielding entries in all three disciplines being contested there. It was a medal-winning weekend for Chloe Nguyen and Brendan Giang of Burnaby, British Columbia, finished in third spot after turning in a personal best score of 90.42 in the free dance. They had earlier placed second in the rhythm dance with a season’s best score of 60.55. The young duo, who are coached by Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, placed fourth in the Bangkok stop of the JGP earlier in the fall. The second Canadian entry, Montreal-based Victoria and Andrei Carandiuc, wound up 12th overall.
The men’s event wrapped up Friday, with Canada’s David Bondar rising up from seventh after the short program to finish fifth in the final standings. The Toronto-based skater, who is coached by Lee Barkell, Jeffrey Buttle and Jessica Wyant at the Granite Club, earned a personal best score of 132.88 to place third in the free skating (his overall total of 196.86 was also a PB). Bondar earlier placed seventh at Czech Skate in Ostrava. Another Toronto-area competitor, John Kim, finished ninth in Wuxi.
Among the women, Kara Yun of Vancouver finished 14th.
The Junior Grand Prix Final is set for Dec. 5-8 and, for the second straight season, Canada has only qualified entries in the pairs event. There are two of them: Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher, who were the No. 2 qualifiers, and Julia Quattrocchi and Simon Desmarais, who ranked fifth.
As part of Kaiya’s extended family, we are so proud of her. We go to every competition that we can, and even my family and friends go when they can. She had a personal best in Waterloo in August with her new programs, and my sister and brother-in-law were there to cheer her on.
We’re looking forward to Halifax in a couple of weeks and Laval for Nationals.
Thanks for a great article!