Nineteen Candles

There are those teenage girls who always seem to find a way to come up with some rather elaborate birthday plans.
And then there is Cynthia Phaneuf, whose 19th birthday wish was a rather simple one.
“That was my gift to me,” the former national champion from Contrecoeur, Que., said after celebrating her big day by laying down the best skate of women's qualifying yesterday at the Canadian figure skating championships.
The crowd was sparse at the Metro Centre, but it didn't matter to Phaneuf, who hadn't skated in a major competition since the 2005 world championships in Moscow. First a stress fracture in her ankle wiped out her 2005-06 season, then a wonky right knee made this season start to seem iffy (she didn't start full training until late August) until she finally hit the competition ice in November for Quebec sectionals in Gatineau.
The road back has been long and hard for Phaneuf, who seemed like the next big thing in Canadian women's skating when she won the Canadian title at age 15 in Edmonton in 2004 (she turned 16 the following week). But it's literally been just like starting over for the ex-champ, who's had to deal with the normal body changes of a teenage girl and a three-inch growth spurt (she's now 5-foot-6) while trying to get past the injuries.
“I cried a lot,” she said of literally having to regain all her triple jumps. “When I started back, nothing was working. And I definitely didn't want my career to stop. I worked a lot, a lot, a lot. Sometimes it was very hard, but my goal was to get back here.”
Phaneuf still isn't confident enough in her triple loop or triple flip to put them in her programs (coach Annie Barabe said her skater is probably “six months away” from being in top form again). She only landed three triples cleanly yesterday, and put a hand down on a triple lutz. But given everything she's been through, no wonder Phaneuf could smile afterward and say “I'm very proud of what I did.”
Her goal this week is a modest one — top five, which would put her back on the national team, and into the international mix again next fall.
Let's just say this birthday gift was a great way for her to start.