12-year-old skater Lia Cho breaks own Canadian junior women's record at nationals

Lia Cho skating in her free program Friday at Place Bell in Laval, Que. on Friday Jan. 17, 2025. The 12-year-old from Calgary captured junior gold Friday at the Canadian figure skating championships. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Skate Canada-Danielle Earl *MANDATORY CREDIT *

LAVAL, Que. — Lia Cho took a deep breath to calm her nerves before skating out to the biggest crowd of her young life.

A flawless performance followed for the 12-year-old figure skating phenom from Calgary.

“When there’s more people … it just makes me feel more confident,” she said, beaming. “It makes me feel so happy like, ‘Oh my God, this many people came to watch me,’ it’s just so amazing.”

Cho broke her own Canadian junior women’s record on Friday, effortlessly landing seven triples to score 188.79 points and capture gold at the national figure skating championships at Place Bell.

The total eclipsed the 186.50 she set at the Skate Canada Challenge on Dec. 1 in Winnipeg. Fellow Calgarian Kaiya Ruiter held the previous record of 179.92 in 2021.

Cho, who was an ice patcher at nationals last year, was neary 30 points ahead of silver medallist Ksenia Krouzkevitch of Oakville, Ont., (160.97). Sandrine Blais of Sherbrooke, Que., took bronze (151.68).

The four-foot-five youngster appeared to float like a feather through the air en route to the top of the podium. She said her goal wasn’t tied to results.

“It felt amazing, but it’s not about beating anything, it’s just about showing what you did or how much you love the sport,” said Cho, who added she might celebrate with her usual restaurant order of cheese pizza and french fries.

Legendary skater Barbara Ann Scott, the 1948 Olympic gold medallist, was 11 when she won the Canadian junior women’s title in 1939.

Cho said she learned to skate at the age of three, beginning at the Red Deer Skating Club in Red Deer, Alta.

“I wasn’t that good at all,” she said. “But I kept practising every single day like, ‘I can do it. I can do it.’”

When Cho’s family moved to Calgary when she was eight or nine, she began training with coach Scott Davis, a former U.S. champion.

Davis said he’s never seen a 12-year-old skater like her.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “Not only the daily training that she does, but when she gets in a situation like this, you can see that she really enjoys it, loves it, and turns on the performance aspect, which is quite amazing.”

If she’s already that good at 12, what’s next? Davis said Cho is working on a triple axel, “which is pretty close,” and believes a quad jump or two could be in the cards.

“But we want to make it fun for her and keep her healthy, most importantly, because yeah, she’s pretty young,” he said.

Cho won’t be able to test herself internationally for quite some time because she’s only eligible for the world junior championships in 2027.

Davis said she’s staying motivated by measuring herself up against her future competition.

“She’s pretty special in that she knows what the other girls in the world are doing, and she watches lots of YouTube videos and sees others doing triple axels and quads,” he said.

“So she’s pushing herself technically, because she knows what the other kids are doing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2025.