A New Beginning

Every time I walked past Amanda Billings at last year's world championships in Calgary, I couldn't help feeling a touch of sadness.
Not that Billings didn't have a blast playing volunteer at such a big event in her home town (she'll tell you she soaked up every minute of it). But you know, somewhere deep down inside, she wished it was her out there on the ice, living the biggest of dreams in the arena first made famous by the 1988 Winter Olympics.
The poor girl just never had a chance.
Billings showed up injured at the Canadian championships two months earlier in Ottawa, having badly sprained an ankle during a freak off-ice accident. The gutsy Albertan gave it a shot anyways, but the pain was too great after she endured the qualifying session. So up went the WD beside her name. Not to suggest Mira Leung wasn't a deserving world team member (with two-time national champ Joannie Rochette), but a healthy Billings certainly would have been a worthy challenger in Ottawa for both the Olympic and world teams.
It's with that backdrop that a smiling Billings talked yesterday about being happy to be back in the game again.
“It's just great to be injury free,” said Billings, 20, who finished fifth in yesterday's women's qualifying session to advance to Thursday's short program. “It was a whole different experience, not to have to be worrying about an injury in the back of your mind.
“Just to get back here was a great experience.”
One final women's qualifying note: Gatineau's Kim Caissy, a former Canadian juvenile and pre-novice champ, snagged the 14th of 15 available spots for the short program.