Give Her A High Five

Everything in her bones suggested just about anything was possible.
But if Joannie Rochette had even the slightest inkling she was on the verge of unleashing such staggering and utter brilliance, it didn't strike her until the first strains of music began to play.
"Even 10 minutes before I went on the ice, I was nervous," the sensitive 23-year-old from Ile Dupas, Que., would muse later. "But I got out there on the ice and the music started and I felt much better. I could just get immersed in the music and forget about the short."
So deep was her funk after a mistake-riddled short program on Friday that even on the morning after, Rochette still couldn't shake her disappointment. But oh, did she find a way to shake up Saskatoon's Credit Union Centre on Saturday afternoon, delivering a free skate they'll no doubt talk about for years.
Seven triple jumps and an absolutely riveting 4-1/2 minutes later, they hung a whopping 131.77 points on the board — a record total for a Canadian woman in a free skate. Even Rochette was overwhelmed by what she had wrought, clasping her face in her hands in a rare display of emotion as the crowd bathed her in a standing ovation.
"I’m not an emotional skater so much and I’m not someone who usually expresses so much at the end of my performance," she said later. "But tonight, I was really, really proud of myself to pull this off. I think that’s why I was more emotional."
Rochette found herself in an unfamiliar spot after the short program — at least since her national championship reign began in 2005 — sitting second behind Cynthia Phaneuf in the standings and barely ahead of third-place Amelie Lacoste. While she had only 1.58 points to make up to retain her crown and knew she had the arsenal in her free program to make it happen, Rochette couldn't stop fretting about the sub-par short.
"After yesterday, I was sad and disappointed so it was very hard. I put myself in the toughest position I ever had to skate in," said Rochette, who would call today "the hardest test."
No wonder, then, that she could say "tonight, I’m so, so happy. You saw me at the end. I was relieved that I could focus on a day that I was feeling really bad. I was shaking and I didn’t have so much energy. I’m glad that I still did it."
Four years ago in London, Ont., Rochette had her breakout moment in snaring the first of what has now become a five-year run of Canadian titles. The free skate she laid down at the John Labatt Centre was something veteran skating observers were calling the best they'd ever seen from a Canadian woman.
Rochette raised the bar even higher today, with a 185.35-point overall total that surpassed the record she set in London. It was an almost absurd 33.93 points better than the runner-up Phaneuf, who will join Rochette at the world championships in Los Angeles in March.
Oh, yeah, did we mention title No. 5 puts Rochette in an elite group of four that includes only Constance Wilson (9), Jennifer Robinson (6) and Karen Magnussen (5)?
"I’m really proud of that achievement," said Rochette.
Not as proud as she is of the little fighter from Quebec who showed when the going gets toughest, she won't back down.
Anything really is possible, you see, when you do that.