First indigenous Winter Olympian Harley Windsor’s date with destiny arrives

Harley Windsor will today make history when he becomes the first indigenous Australian to compete at the Winter Olympic Games.

Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya during the ISU Four Continents championships in Taipei

Just after midday, Harley Windsor will make history when he becomes the first indigenous Australian to compete at the Winter Olympic Games.

Figure skater Windsor and his Russian-born partner Katia Alexandrovskaya will glide on to the ice in Gangneung, South Korea, and perform their strikingly dramatic short program to a cover version of the Rolling Stones song Paint it Black.

As the current world junior champions, they are regarded as a hugely promising prospect for the future, but their most recent competition at the Four Continents Championships suggests they can also put some shine on their Olympic debut.

They are aiming for a top-10 finish at the Games and that ­appears to be achievable, based on their recent form.

Windsor, 21, and Alexandrovskaya, 18, performed the best short program of their careers to rank second at the Four Continents last month and some argued that they would have been ranked first if given their due. As newcomers to senior competition, however, they have to work their way through the ranks in a judged sport.

A few errors in their free program saw them drop to a final position of sixth at the Four Continents but Windsor is confident they can make a better showing this week.

“I think it comes down to the preparation,’’ he said.

“We didn’t have a great preparation before Four Continents so after that we went back to Japan and did the preparation we need. Physically, we’re feeling really strong.’’

They have not received the best draw for the competition today, as they will compete in the first group, at the opposite end of the program from the top contenders, where the judges will be more focused.

However, Windsor is not ­letting anything dampen his Olympic debut.

“We would have liked to be on a bit later but it doesn’t really matter, in the end it’s up to us how we skate,’’ he said.

He is also unconcerned about the spotlight that they will be under as the brightest young pair in the world. “I’m not worried about the media or any of that because when I’m on the ice, it’s just the ice and I don’t think about anything else,’’ he said.

“We are just focused now, we want to skate,’’ Alexandrovskaya added, after a week practising in Gangneung.

They will be the first Australian duo to compete in the Olympic pairs competition since siblings Danielle and Stephen Carr 20 years ago.

Windsor, from Rooty Hill in western Sydney, famously discovered figure skating when his mother took a wrong turn in Blacktown and stopped outside the skating rink to get her ­bearings.

He began skating by himself but eventually grew too tall to become a single skater and his Russian coaches Galina and Andrei Pachin scoured first Australia and then the world to find him a suitable partner, eventually discovering Alexandrovskaya in Moscow a little over two years ago.

She had been overlooked by the Russian system and was willing to switch countries to find the right partner.

They formed an immediate connection and won the world junior title together at the end of their first competition season last March.

They will begin their program with a spectacular triple twist in which Windsor throws his partner above his head and catches her after she does the twist.

Their program also includes side-by-side triple toeloops, a thrown triple jump, a lift in which Windsor holds her above his head on one hand, a death spiral so low that Alexandrovskaya’s ponytail skims the ice, and finishes with an intricate pair spin combination.