Emily Bausback

Bausback at the 2020 Canadian Championships

Commencing her fourth season on the Junior Grand Prix, Bausback placed sixth at JGP United States in Lake Placid.[3] Selected afterward to make her senior international debut on the Challenger series, she was sixth at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup.[4] Bausback's result in Poland initially earned her the season's required technical minimum scores necessary to attend ISU championship events; however, a subsequent midseason amendment by the ISU meant that she lacked the short program minimum.[5]

Competing as a senior domestically, Bausback ranked fourth in the short program at the 2020 Canadian Championships.[6] She then won the free skate to take the gold medal, scoring ahead of silver medalist Alison Schumacher by 6.60 points. Speaking afterward, she called it "the best feeling I have ever had."[7] Bausback was the first national ladies' champion from British Columbia since Karen Magnussen's fifth victory in 1973.[8]

Due to Bausback lacking the senior international technical minimum in the short program, she could not be immediately assigned to one of Canada's two ladies' berths at the 2020 World Championships. She was instead assigned, along with Schumacher and fourth-place Alicia Pineault, to compete at the 2020 Four Continents Championships in Seoul.[5] Bausback placed fifteenth at Four Continents, and came up short of the short program minimum.[9] Skate Canada gave Bausback a second chance at the International Challenge Cup in The Hague, where she succeeded in gaining the minimum score.[10] Correspondingly, she was named to the World Championship team on February 22.[11] However, the World Championships were subsequently cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[12]

After returning to training after the pandemic lockdowns, Bausback was off the ice for four weeks in the summer after breaking the second metatarsal bone in her right foot in training.[13] Bausback was assigned to make her Grand Prix debut at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but the event was also cancelled as a result of the pandemic.[14]

With the pandemic making hosting in-person events difficult, the 2021 Skate Canada Challenge, the main qualifying competition for the national championships, was held virtually. Bausback placed fifth in the short program, but dropped to tenth place in the free skate, finishing eighth overall.[15][16] The 2021 Canadian Championships were subsequently cancelled.[17]