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Squamish鈥檚 Raye Ryan returned from Germany last month with a little extra weight in her luggage.
Ryan grabbed a silver in the adult free skate Class 4 competition at the ISU Adult Figure Skating Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany in May and also picked up a fourth-place finish in the Class 4 artistic competition.
She said she knew almost immediately that it was a special run on the ice.听
鈥淎s I was taking my bows and getting off the ice, I was thinking that even if I came in last, I was still satisfied with that skate,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 put it all out there and it all came together amazingly.鈥�
Ryan鈥檚 free skate lasted one minute, 40 secons and was performed to a piece from the movie Stardust. Her final score was a personal best and was only a fraction of a point behind the gold medal winner, who hails from Finland.
This year marked a decade of competition in Germany for the event and more than 300 skaters from 25 countries competed. The year 2014 also marked the 10th year that Ryan has skated competitively.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something I鈥檇 always wanted to do and when my granddaughter wanted to take skating lessons in kindergarten, I signed up. Why not?鈥� she said.
She represents the 麻豆社国产Skating Club (SSC) and now skates three to four days a week. Ryan works with SSC coach Kari-Ann MacDonald, as well as coaches in Burnaby, and she trains on a synchro figure skating team once a week in Surrey.听
鈥淎n axel is still in my future,鈥� she said, laughing.听
Next up for Ryan, a 麻豆社国产resident of 31 years, is the 2015 Pacific Coast Sectional Championships in Las Vegas next March.听
