Dominating performances throughout 2016 have earned figure skater Daria Carr the title of December’s Active Care Athlete of the Month.

Most recently, Carr was crowned national champion of the Pre-Novice division at the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge in Pierrefonds, Quebec just this past month -- only the fifth skater in Kelowna Skating Club history to do so since the organization’s founding in 1950.

The win was especially sweet for Carr, 13, who missed qualifying for the event by only one position last season, instead only being named an alternate.

“It was really satisfying to finish off the season well,” Carr said. “It was a big accomplishment to win, considering I didn’t even get to go last year. Last season was a good motivational tool to get me to where I got this season – being so close before made me want to go to Challenge even more this time. I really wanted to go this year.”

Carr’s coach, Jason Mongrain, was very impressed with his pupil, who was competing in a division that allows girls up to three years older than her.

“Winning a national title is as good as it gets at her level of skating,” said Mongrain, who has coached Carr for the past seven years alongside his wife, Karen. “It’s a huge accomplishment. It wasn’t really a surprise, but it’s always a pleasant surprise to be able to win at the ultimate event of the year.”

After an injury riddled last season, Carr coupled a healthy body and more training time with a fresh program and some new skills this year – a recipe that seemed to make all the difference to her competition results.

“I grew about five inches in a year, so all my bones grew really fast but my muscles and ligaments couldn’t catch up,” recalled Carr. “My knees, ankles, hips, and pretty much every other joint in my body was really, really painful because my muscles were so stretched out and not strong enough. I was injured a lot during the summer and couldn’t practice as much as I wanted to.

“This season I had more practice and training time, and I got to refine the movements in my jumps and make them more solid so I wasn’t second guessing myself so much.”

As an added bonus, her top performances this year – six wins at events held across the country, including Skate Canada’s Summer Series, the BC provincial title, and the Canadian title – earned her the right to have her name added to the KSC Wall of Fame at the Capital News Centre, joining other club members who have medaled at premier events. It also automatically bumps her up to the Novice level next season.

“The first thing my coach said to me after we found out that I won was, ‘you get your name on the wall!’” Carr said. “I’m really happy with my results and to get my name up there along with everyone else.”

"Two years ago, I was vibrating in my starting pose because I was so nervous,” said Carr. “My nerves came from moving up from a level that only had one short program to one that has two programs, a lot more people, the opportunity to go to nationals – I thought there was a lot of pressure at first, but I realized later that there wasn’t. People care how you do, but no one’s pressuring you to win, you just have to try to do your best. I’m more relaxed now, and I don’t get nervous when I compete anymore. I’ve learned how to stay calm and control my nerves.”

“She definitely handled her nerves really well,” Mongrain recalled. “There’s no question she was nervous leading in, but as soon as she arrived in Montreal, she looked like she was really organized. She didn’t have any practices that didn’t go well, her warmups went well, and her performances went well. She was really stable all through that week.”

She may also have gleaned a few hints on how to stay composed while under pressure from watching some of the skaters she looks up to perform on the international stage – in particular, Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond, Satoko Miyahara from Japan, and Evgenia Medvédeva from Russia. With her graduation from Pre-Novice and upcoming entry into the Novice level next season, Carr is aiming to add two more triple jumps to her program repertoire, in hopes of boosting her scores even higher than the 103.86 she scored in Quebec – jumps she has already done in practice, but is still working at refining before performing them in competitions. She hasn’t set any long term goals in the sport for herself just yet, but her coach only sees good things on her horizon if she continues at her current pace.

“She certainly has the potential to acquire all the jumps she needs to have in order to be competitive at the top level of the sport,” Mongrain said. “She has a lot of mental grit and the physical talent necessary to learn all the skills she needs to be very competitive. She’s very young to be able to do triple jumps. You have to have a lot of courage to be able to get those jumps, because you take a lot of hard falls trying to learn the ropes. She definitely has the ability to take risks, and now she’s being rewarded for taking those risks. The future definitely looks bright for her and she should be excited about her prospects.”