‘It brought us closer:’ Family losses strengthen bond for Regina figure skaters

Years of hard work have helped Regina-based figure skaters Tristan Taylor and Ashlyn Schmitz develop a strong bond on the ice.

But in 2022, it was a couple of tragic losses that made their bond even stronger.

Schmitz’s grandmother passed away in the summer and Taylor lost his dad in the fall.

“It was really, really hard when it first happened, especially me not being able to be with my family when it did happen,” Schmitz said. “It was very hard. Being able to come to the rink and just skate and let things go a little bit really helped me.”

Taylor felt the same way as the two both tried to process their losses.

“It’s tough. Skating was sort of a distraction from everything else for me to come to,” Taylor said. “Two weeks after (my dad) passed, we went to Poland and we had the best skate of our season out in Poland that day. That was a huge experience for us.

“There’s just been a lot of support from my family and everyone from Saskatchewan. People who knew him knew how much he loved skating.”

“It brought us closer for sure. We had to navigate how we act with each other. We’ve taken the time to figure out when you want to (talk). If you’re having a quiet day, when do you want to push it or when do you want to back off and give them space? She has done the same with me, just knowing how to deal with it. It’s a loss for me but it’s a loss for her as well.”

Tristan Taylor and Ashlyn Schmitz. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

Schmitz said it was nice to have someone to talk to about her loss, even though some days all they wanted to do was go out on the ice.

“We both experienced great losses this year but it was nice to have each other. Sometimes we didn’t even talk about it, we just needed to skate just to relax a little bit and get out of our own heads,” Schmitz said.

As the two prepare for the upcoming world junior championships in Calgary, they’re keeping their loved ones on their minds.

“(We’re) very excited, especially considering it is within Canada and we get to represent our home country, it will be amazing,” Schmitz said. “Even just having my family getting to come and watch will mean a lot because they don’t get to watch me a lot.”

While the skaters will soon find themselves competing against some of the best figure skaters the world has to offer, it wasn’t always easy for them.

The two first came together about five years ago when Taylor expressed an interest in doing pairs skating to his coach.

After some searching across the province, Schmitz was selected for the role.

“We had to work at it. Our first season, we had to skate in the pre-novice division and we weren’t very good. It was a process – we were both young and inexperienced in this,” said Taylor, who’s now 20. “It just took time for us to get to the place we are at now.

“In our second season together, we were second in Canada among the novice division. Success did come quick but it has been a long road.”

For Schmitz, that involved moving from Shellbrook to Regina when she was around 11 years old to live with her other grandmother.

“My parents are still in Shellbrook with my two siblings. I travel back and forth to visit them on school breaks and on weekends,” said Schmitz, 16. “It was really, really tough at the beginning. Now that I’m a little bit older, I’ve gotten used to it and it’s not as bad. I still miss my parents all the time but I’ve gotten used to it.”

On the ice, the two had to deal with some growing pains as well as they had never skated together prior to becoming a team.

“It has been great. At first, our age gap was noticeable. It took us a while to get used to each other and comfortable with each other but once we did, now we’re friends and talking about stuff, not even about skating all the time,” Schmitz said.

All that hard work has seen the two go to places like Latvia and Poland on the circuit over the years.

The world junior championships in Calgary run from Feb. 27 to March 5.

“It’s a pretty big deal for us. This is our first season on this big junior international circuit and to have worlds in Canada and to be able to represent Canada is a huge huge deal for us,” Taylor said.