By Sandra Lewrey
In the high-pressure world of competitive sports, there is an unspoken belief that athletes who haven’t “made it” by the time they’re 20 years old won’t make it at all.
Derek Schmidt, 24, hopes to lay that theory to rest.
Schmidt, an Ottawa resident, has been figure skating for 15 years and competing at the senior level for three. In a sport typically reserved for teenagers, it’s rare to find skaters like Schmidt who have not fared well at the amateur level still competing past their 20s.