Students get Olympic surprise

Call it Canada’s best gym class.

Grade three and four students from Twentieth Street Junior School in Toronto got the surprise of a lifetime during a skating class today. Some of our country’s best athletes on ice showed up to lead the lesson.

Their skates may be small – but their ambitions are huge — some, like Janna are striving for greatness.

Before we see any of them on a podium – they need to learn to skate. This was to be their final lesson before graduating from the RBC learn to skate program.

“I just thought there was going to be a big surprise.”

But little did they know, the reward for all that hard work would be a class from some of Canada’s best.

“We’re going to have some of Canada’s Olympians come stake with you guys.”

“Yay!!!”

Double silver medalists in figure skaing Patrick Chan, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, along with Caroline Ouellette — four-time gold medalist in women’s hockey, were among the Olympians to make a surprise stop by the rink.

Chan: “We all start at this level and it’s great to see these kids celebrating. They’ve made an achievement just like we have at the Olympics.”

Curling champ Brad Jacobs brought his gold medal, the athletes shared some of their moves, and all imparted some wisdom like:

“To never stop trying skating.”

Chan says it would have been huge if Olympians came by to see him skate when he was this young. “It would have make my childhood skating experience even better. Imagining Kurt Browning or Elvis Stojko skating with me would have been huge especially at their age.”

Virtue: “I think back to when I was that young and looking up to Shae-Lynn Bourne for example and having the opportunity to meet her and just how I felt. It’s a tough concept to grasp that maybe I’m somebody’s Shae-Lynn Bourne because I just don’t imagine myself to be at that level.”

Moir: “These kids are awesome”

On this ice, inspiration goes both ways. And Moir says being with the kids as well as his peers helps him with Olympic withdrawal. “It does help seeing all the other Olympians. These events are even more special.”

And perhaps one day, we’ll be watching these kids grow into their Olympic-sized dreams.

Grade three teacher David Nobrega says his students had been following the Olympics in class and have learned watching Sochi coverage. It helped them to realize that they started small as well. But he adds it will be difficult to keep them under control for the rest of the week.