The Joannie Rochette Experience

Joannie Rochette admits she's doesn't know a lot about Jimi Hendrix, but she can tell you this much.
“I know a couple of songs by him,” said the 21-year-old from Ile-Dupas, Que. “Not too much. Oh, I knew he was playing a reverse way on the chords, and the chords were reversed, too. That's about it.”
While the Jimi Hendrix Experience died long before Rochette was born, she knows how to groove to the man's music. Good thing, too. Her sophisticated presentation level to Hendrix' Little Wing (a Sandra Bezic creation) might be the biggest thing that kept Rochette on top in tonight's women's short program, given the technical gaffes she made.
A double on a triple lutz was the obvious mistake. But while her triple flip-double toe combination was clean and technically not an error, it wasn't what Rochette wanted. She badly hoped to turn the back end of the combo into a second triple, giving her the triple-triple she knows she needs to move up on the world stage.
“My goal here was to try that triple-triple combination, whether I landed it on my bum or not,” said the two-time national champ. “I just wanted to try it to get it done, but it didn't happen tonight. I was disappointed ... The landing on the first jump wasn't good enough.”
With a 56.49-point total, Rochette still won the night. But that didn't make her performance any easier to take.
“I don't consider it a consolation at all,” she said. “I don't care about the result, I care about what I do in the program. Yes, I improved it in practice, but tonight showed it only matters if you do it when it counts.”
Rochette's coach, Manon Perron, said the aim now is to take another run at the triple-triple at the Four Continents Championship next month in Colorado Springs.
“She's going to go to Four Continents and try it again, and at worlds she'll will be ready with it,” said Perron. “She has the jump in her pocket, she just has to show it in the program.
“We need it in the short and she knows it. She's able to do it but not tonight. Next time.”