You'd think Josée Chouinard's phone would be ringing off the wall after her stunning defeat of three-time world champion Michelle Kwan at the Sears Open figure skating event two weeks ago. But for Chouinard, it's never been that easy.
Winning helped, but most pro events have already been booked for the season. Chouinard is on standby, first on many alternate lists as she waits wistfully for withdrawals.
Because of her win, Chouinard has found herself on the road a little bit more. She skated in shows in Nebraska and Colorado over the past few days and she is waiting to hear if she has a shot at the Japan Open in early January.
For a skater without a world or Olympic title, it's often this way -- start the season with an empty slate and learn at the last minute that you've been called up from the waiting list. It's not easy for such a skater to get motivated.
"Year after year I have to prove myself," said Chouinard, a three-time Canadian champion. "That's why I can't let my skating go down. I just can't. If I had some titles to back me up, it would be different. But I don't.
"Every time I don't really skate well, I have to skate twice as well the next time."
Now there are new faces on the pro scene, with more decorations than Chouinard, including 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski and even Nicole Bobek, who won a bronze medal at the 1995 world championships.
And there are some who have no decorations at all. Lucinda Ruh of Switzerland is a first-year pro who never had a top 10 world championship finish, (Chouinard's best was a fifth at the 1992 competition), but she is a fresh face with an amazing talent for spins. She got a chance to compete at the world professional championships earlier this month and earned a rack of perfect 10s.
Now Chouinard finds herself on the outside looking in, and facing the possibility of the end of her skating career. She's looking in other directions, possibly a career in French-speaking television, possibly in fashion design.
She enjoys giving seminars to young skaters across the country and hauls a pair of Gam skates with her. She's had a long association with Gam, the only Canadian company left that makes handmade boots for elite skaters. Chouinard has had her own line of Gam skating boots for beginners for about six years.
Many top Canadians wear Gams: Annie Bellemare, Kristy and Kris Wirtz, Elizabeth Manley, Sebastien Britten. Chouinard has been wearing them for at least 10 years and was one of their earliest customers.
Her husband, Jean-Michel Bombardier, a former Canadian pairs champion, now works for a marketing and advertising company in downtown Toronto. "I used to see him leave the house in the morning in a track suit," Chouinard said. "Now he's in a suit."
But Chouinard isn't close to quitting yet. She's never skated better. She went through a tough spell trying to motivate herself to train last year, but during her quest managed to land a triple Axel. She did it as an amateur skater in 1992, but was unable to repeat the feat.
Now, at 31, Chouinard can land one when she wants to. Her technique is more certain.
What's amazing is that Chouinard even attempted to master such a difficult jump at age 30. The secret to her success was in going to Doug Leigh, who coached Brian Orser, Elvis Stojko and a host of others into doing difficult triples and quads. He had never coached a woman who landed a triple Axel. Chouinard became the first. "He's an inspiration," she said. "He could make me do anything."
It took Chouinard a full season to master the triple Axel. Leigh had her do singles, then doubles. Chouinard didn't rush into things. "I think because I'm old, I didn't want to just close my eyes and throw myself," she said. "You get a little wiser and smarter as you get older. Once I felt ready, I just mentally prepared myself and did it. You have to believe it.
"I knew in my feet I could do it. It didn't take me very long. As soon as I felt ready, it took me two weeks." She landed her first one with Leigh just before the Sears Open last season. Last week, she did a triple Axel-double toe loop in practice.
To do a triple Axel, a woman has to be fit and strong to avoid injury. Chouinard was.
This season, she will skate in 11 stops of a Canadian Stars on Ice tour, and she will also take part in a revived Skate the Nation tour at small Canadian centres from March 29 to April 7. She will keep skating as long as she can master difficult techniques. If she can't, she will retire.
"I want people to remember me skating as I always did," she said. These days, it's inspiring.