At the 1980 World Championships in Dortmund, she finished 14th overall, having placed 21st in the compulsory figures, 17th in the short program and 10th in the free skate. Howard Bass of "The Daily Telegraph" wrote, "Tracey steals the show", and predicted she would win the 1984 Olympic title. In a 2006 interview, Wainman stated, "I was so excited to be there, skating with my idols, all these stars I'd seen on TV. I spent the whole week running around with an autograph book." The chatter at her skating club in Toronto, however, was sometimes harsh. Wainman recalled, "Kids said that I was taking drugs to stunt my growth, that I was secretly 27. The best one was that my parents had doctored my birth certificate and locked me in a room to prevent me from growing."