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Figure Skating Star Kaetlyn Osmond Is A Hometown Hero

Her whole small Newfoundland town stayed up to watch her skate.
Kaetlyn Osmond celebrates after the women's free skating competition final at the 2018 Olympics.
Phil Noble/Reuters
Kaetlyn Osmond celebrates after the women's free skating competition final at the 2018 Olympics.

Figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond made history on Friday.

Osmond's bronze medal win not only boosted Canada's figure skating team to its best-ever Olympic medal count (four medals — our previous best was three at the 1988 Calgary Games and the Sochi Olympics four years ago), but it bumped Canada's total medal count to an all-time high of 27.

And she did it after fighting her way back from what could have been a career-ending series of injuries after pulling her hamstring and then breaking her leg in two places in 2014. Osmond, 22, also did it with her characteristic style.

Damn, girl!

If, like us, you're dying to know more about Canada's newest skating star, read on.

Here are five cool facts about Kaetlyn Osmond:

1. A small town in Newfoundland is adorably proud of her

Osmond is from Marystown, N.L., a community of about 5,500 people. After she won the 2013 Canadian title, Marystown erected signs at the three entrances to the town recognizing it as her home, Olympic.ca reports. The local arena also bears her name.

Marystown Mayor Sam Synard said the whole community stayed up to watch her skate in PyeongChang, and a crowd gathered at the arena to cheer her on.

"When I drove here tonight (at) about quarter to 12, I noticed everyone's living room lights were on. I think the whole community was up watching what happened ..." Synard told The Telegram.

"Kaetlyn is a great ambassador for the country now, and for the province, but she is the perfect ambassador for Marystown, N.L.," he said. "She's so humble and she's so levelheaded, we really love her in Marystown, and we want the best for her with whatever she chooses to do in life from here on end as well."

2. She loves her pets

Osmond has a cockapoo named Rasquette and a ragdoll cat called Annie, according to Nulo.com.

And, like any good fur mama, her Instagram is full of adorable photos of the two.

I can sometimes get this chubby cat to play:)

A post shared by Kaetlyn Osmond (@kaetkiss) on

The furry friends help her relax at home and are expert cuddlers, according to Nulo.com.

Being a cute puppy or trying to eat my dinner ?

A post shared by Kaetlyn Osmond (@kaetkiss) on

SO CUTE WE CAN'T.

3. She followed in her older sister's footsteps

#sisters #unintentionalmatching ❤️❤️

A post shared by Kaetlyn Osmond (@kaetkiss) on

Osmond's older sister Natasha was nervously watching her skate from her home in Edmonton this week, but it used to be Kaetlyn that was watching Natasha.

Natasha was a figure skater at the national level, and is the reason Kaetlyn started skating at the age of two, according to Olympic.ca. In fact, it was when the family moved from Newfoundland to Montreal so Natasha could train that Kaetlyn's potential was discovered.

"Long before I can remember, I watched my sister and she pushed herself on the ice, learning to be a figure skater," Kaetlyn wrote in an article for the Woman's Almanac, CBC News reports. "I wanted to be just like her."

"I really didn't realize until she did that how much she actually looked up to me, and still does," Natasha told CBC. "So I'm pretty proud of her."

4. Her skating nickname used to be "Bambi"

Kaetlyn Osmond competes during the Ladies Single Skating Free Program at the 2018 Olympics.
Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
Kaetlyn Osmond competes during the Ladies Single Skating Free Program at the 2018 Olympics.

Osmond may have nailed her program in PyeongChang, but there was definitely a learning curve.

She was less co-ordinated as a child, which earned her the nickname "Bambi," Osmond's older sister Natasha told CBC News.

"When she was just learning how to jump, she was so tall and so skinny and lanky and just unproportionate for a figure skater," she said.

But Osmond was always determined to keep trying, Gerard Baker, who worked at the Marystown arena for 40 years, told CBC.

"She was always pretty determined to do well," he said. "Whenever she was on the ice, and when she fell down she'd cry, and come off, and get up in her mom or dad's arm, go to the bathroom and get her tears dried up and before you knew it, back on the ice again, spinning around again."

5. She's studying communications

When she's not skating, Osmond is a self-professed book lover, enjoys binge-watching Netflix, and is also studying Communication Studies at Athabasca University, according to Olympic.ca.

Athabasca is an online university popular with Canada's athletes. At least 40 members of the student community (past and present) are currently representing Team Canada at the 2018 Olympics, the university said in a news release. Pairs skaters (and bronze medallists) Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford are past students, the university noted, and hockey players Laura Fortino, Renata Fast, and Maxim Noreau are current students.

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