Attending the Winter Skate competition in Maple Ridge, B.C. has only made local figure skater Rachel Pettitt of the Arctic Edge Skating Club want to someday make it to the Olympics all that much more.

Pettitt, who placed first in the interpretive pre-juvenile category and then seventh in the juvenile competitive category at the Winter Skate competition, spent part of the weekend taking in a practice of Russian figure skaters who are in B.C. for the Olympics which begin Friday in Vancouver.

"It's fun,” the 10-year-old said of watching the Olympians, noting that she hopes to someday skate at the Olympic level.

Placing in the top three means that Pettitt will attended the Pacific Skate event to be held in Kamloops in March where she will compete in Interpretive.

Already the skater has her routine to Coldplay's Fix You planned and is working on perfecting that.

Though Pettitt had a lower placing in the juvenile category at Winter Skate, coaches sent her up a level from pre-juvenile to challenge her and give her an opportunity to find out what will be expected of her next year when she will be in the juvenile category for all her competitions.

"It was more of a learning experience,” she said as she took a break from practice at the Canada Games Centre Monday afternoon.

In Maple Ridge, she was up against stiff competition with many of the others performing numerous double-double jumps in their routines. Pettitt said she wasn't expecting her competition to perform so many jumps, but she focused on her own routine.

"I think you just have to push through it,” she said.

Pettitt is now continuing to work on her jumps, which have started getting higher.

While Pettitt was the lone Arctic Edge skater to attend Winter Skate, she noted she's made friends with a number of her competitors from other regions and was happy to spend some time with them.