OTTAWA — World champion Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada is skipping this year’s ISU Grand Prix events.
Osmond won the world title in March, a month after taking individual bronze in the women’s competition at the Pyeongchang Olympics. She also was part of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the games.
The 22-year-old Osmond became the first Canadian woman with a singles world title since Karen Magnussen in 1973.
Osmond’s layoff comes after other Canadian figure skating stars have left the sport: two-time Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir; three-time men’s world champion Patrick Chan; and Pyeongchang pairs bronze winners Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.
“For the past years, my focus has been on the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and I worked really hard to achieve my goals,” Osmond said in a statement. “The 2017-18 season went far beyond any of my own expectations and now I need time to refocus and evaluate the next steps in my career.”