Evelyn Walsh


Evelyn Walsh is a Canadian pair skater. With her skating partner, Trennt Michaud, 2019 Canadian national silver medalist and 2017 Canadian national junior champion. Walsh and Michaud competed at two World Junior Championships, their highest placement being fifth in 2017.

Personal life

Evelyn Walsh was born on July 8, 2001, in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. She grew up in Seaforth, Ontario and attended St. James Catholic Elementary School before moving to London. She is the daughter of Jayne, a secondary school teacher, and Brad Walsh, a retired elementary school teacher. As of January 2016, she attends St. Andre Bessette Catholic Secondary School in London, Ontario.

Career

Walsh started learning to skate in 2003. Alison Purkiss became her coach 2010. She placed tenth in the novice women's event at the 2016 Canadian Championships.

Partnership with Michaud

2016–17 season

In 2016, Walsh teamed up with Trennt Michaud. The two are coached by Alison Purkiss and Margaret Purdy in London, Ontario. Making their international debut, they placed eleventh at a Junior Grand Prix competition held in late September in Tallinn, Estonia, and fifth the following month at a JGP event in Dresden, Germany. In January 2017, they won the junior pairs' title at the Canadian Championships and were named in Canada's team to the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei. Competing in Taiwan, they placed sixth in the short program, fifth in the free skate, and fifth overall.

2017–18 season

In the 2017-2018 season Walsh and Michaud participated in two events on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, winning the bronze medal at JGP Riga Cup and placing fourth at JGP Croatia Cup.
Competing as a senior pair at the 2018 Canadian Championships they placed fifth overall. At the 2018 World Junior Championships the pair placed fifth in the short program, sixth the free skate, and sixth overall.

2018–19 season

Competing as seniors internationally in the 2018-19 season, Walsh/Michaud made their debut on the Challenger series at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where they placed seventh. For the Grand Prix series, Walsh and Michaud were initially assigned to 2018 Skate Canada International, and subsequently added to the 2018 Skate America event following the withdrawal of the Chinese team of Li Xiangning / Xie Zhong. They placed eighth at Skate America, following rough programs where Walsh fell five times, but fared better at Skate Canada International, finishing in fifth place.
At the 2019 Canadian Championships, Walsh/Michaud placed second in both programs, winning the silver medal behind Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro. Walsh, commenting on their struggles at their first two competitions that season, said "we do truly believe everything happens for a reason." Michaud remarked that their expectations had changed considerably from the previous season, when they were happy to finish fifth. They were assigned, alongside Moore-Towers/Marinaro, to compete at the Four Continents and World Championships.
Competing at Four Continents, they were in sixth place after the short program, but fell to seventh overall after finishing eighth in the free skate with a performance that included an aborted lift. At the World Championships they placed twelfth.

2019–20 season

For their free program, Walsh/Michaud worked with retired Canadian pairs champion Eric Radford as choreographer. Walsh/Michaud made their debut at the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy, where they placed sixth. At the 2019 Skate Canada International, their first Grand Prix assignment, they were eighth. At the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, they were fifth in the short program with a new personal best. Seventh in the free skate, they were sixth overall.
Following the conclusion of the Grand Prix series, Walsh and Michaud consulted with 2014 Olympic pairs champion Maxim Trankov to improve pair elements, in particular their triple twist lift. Skating at the 2020 Canadian Championships, they placed third in the short program, less than a point behind second-place Ilyushechkina/Bilodeau. Second in the free skate despite some underrotations on their jumps, they won their second consecutive national silver medal. Walsh called it "the peak, I think, of our season so far and this is exactly where we wanted to be at this point."
Walsh/Michaud placed sixth at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, again ahead of Ilyushechkina/Bilodeau. Consequently, they were afterward assigned to Canada's second pairs berth at the 2020 World Championships in Montreal.

In media

Walsh and Michaud worked on the Netflix series Spinning Out, serving as skating doubles for leads Kaya Scodelario and Evan Roderick.

Programs

With Michaud

Ladies' singles

Competitive highlights

JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Pairs with Michaud

Ladies' singles