Canadian Championships: Say hello to a new skating king and queen
Wesley Chiu and Kaiya Ruiter came to Calgary with dreams of a national title dancing in their heads. As it turned out, it was a golden finish for both of them.
CALGARY — It was a question posed in this space way back in August, when building content for a new writing home was still in its early days.
And that query went like this …
“Is it time for Wesley Chiu to take the next big step?”
A bit of a long-winded answer followed (quelle surprise), which you can find here, if you’re interested. But the key takeaway was this line …
“With Keegan Messing now retired, the door is wide open in the men’s event in Canada, and it says here there may be no better time than the present for Chiu to make his move and ascend to the top of the podium for the first time.”
Five months later, Chiu did indeed take that next big step. All the way to the top of podium on Saturday night at WinSport Arena, where Chiu earned his first senior men’s title at the Canadian figure skating championships.
Yes, it was finally his time, after two years of wearing the bronze medal.
(and maybe made a certain Substacker look just a little bit good).
“I came third twice in a row, so I guess third time is the charm,” the 18-year-old from Vancouver said with a smile. “Each nationals have been different but yeah, the goal has always been the same. I was able to follow through pretty well this year.”
Chiu entered the night with a 13-plus point lead, and a lot of time to think about becoming the Canadian champion. It led to some anxious moments during the day, and a shaky start to his free program that included struggles on the landing of a quad toe and triple Axel. But he rallied himself in the back end of the program when the title seemed it might be in danger of slipping away, even throwing in a triple Lutz-triple toe combo near the end “that was definitely not planned,” but racked up valuable bonus points for him.
While Chiu wound up third in the free program, he did enough to produce a 232.15 overall total that was plenty good for gold. The podium was filled out with two first-time senior medal winners: Aleksa Rakic (225.39), another British Columbia skater who won the free program, and crowd favourite Anthony Paradis of Quebec (209.98), who overcame a broken skate lace part way through his program, to narrowly edge pre-event medal favourite Conrad Orzel (209.72). Roman Sadovsky, another medal favourite, finished sixth (204.94).
“I had no idea, to be honest with you,” Chiu said when asked if he thought he had done enough to win the gold. “The stress on my face probably showed that. Even after seeing the long program score, I wasn’t quite sure. When the final results came out, it was a big stress relief.
“Today was hard. The night in between the short and the long, just trying not to think too much about it too much. I thought my approach was pretty good, pretty collected and I was fighting to keep that same mindset. I definitely learned a lot. Still a lot to work on and a lot of experienced gained, for sure.”
It has yet to be confirmed — and might not be until after the Four Continents Championship — but his performance this weekend should put Chiu in line to get one of Canada’s two men’s berths for the World Championships in Montreal. What Skate Canada does with the other berth is anybody’s guess.
A stunner of a women’s final
Kaiya Ruiter’s dream came true on Saturday afternoon. For Maddie Schizas, though, this was a nightmare of epic proportions. Like, maybe beyond description for someone aiming for a third straight title.
But we’ll let Schizas try. Maybe this line summed it up best of all.
“It was a waste of everyone’s time, including mine,” she said bluntly.
A little harsh, perhaps. But Schizas was that stunned by a performance that unravelled completely almost from the beginning, a error-ridden meltdown that she couldn’t even begin to describe or explain.
“I don’t even know (why it happened),” she said. “I am hugely disappointed. I haven’t scored below what I would have needed here all season, let alone domestically. I just walked my way through that program making mistakes, one after another. Very disappointing.”
Ruiter watched it all herself backstage, her face reflecting the sadness she felt for her fellow competitor. Winning a Canadian title, especially her in her hometown of Calgary, was an absolute dream. But maybe not like this.
“I’ve known Madeline for a very long time. She’s such an incredible competitor and we support each other,” said Ruiter, who shared an emotional hug with Schizas afterward. “We’re a team in this and yeah, I really look up to her. We all know how it feels, to feel our best and not feel our best.
“Honestly, I just wanted her to land as many jumps as possible. I wanted her to have her best skate because when she has her best day, when everybody has their best day, it makes the sport better,” she said. “I never like doing better because someone didn’t have their best day. I never like that feeling, I just want everyone to be their best.”
All of that aside, let’s give Ruiter the flowers she deserved. The 17-year-old had the free skate of the day, at the right moment and — as far as she was concerned — in exactly the right place. She landed seven triple jumps in all and pumped her fist with glee at the end to cheers from the hometown crowd.
“Just having that skate out there, that just felt like magic to me. That was one of the most special performances I’ve ever had in my life,” she said, adding the title win hadn’t sunk in just yet. “And to get to share that with family and friends and everyone that I love … it’s just surreal.”
Ruiter started the day five points off the lead, but that free skate won the day with a score of 122.61, with her overall total of 180.86 nearly eight points better than Schizas (172.90). The bronze medal went to 15-year-old Hetty Shi (162.51) of Mississauga, Ontario, who placed second in the free skate.
The stunning result may have created a dilemma for Skate Canada when it comes to the World Championships. Schizas seemed the obvious choice until the disaster on Saturday. She is also the only Canadian woman with the minimum technical score requirements for Worlds. Ruiter still needs to reach the short program minimum, and can only get it at an ISU senior competition. Four Continents is out because she’s being sent to the Winter Youth Olympics in South Korea, and the dates for those two events conflict. So there is plenty to think about for Skate Canada here.
‘We skated like champions’
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier came to Calgary with goals in mind, with work they wanted to do to set themselves up for a run at a world championship in March in Montreal. They talked earlier in the week about seeing Canadians as a “stepping stone” toward the big event at the end of this season.
But as they stood in the media mixed zone on Saturday, with shiny gold medals hanging around their necks, they admitted that yeah, it also felt damn good to be Canadian champions for a third time after a mesmerizing performance of their “Wuthering Heights” free dance at WinSport Arena.
“Paul and I really skated like champions today,” said Gilles. “We stepped out on the ice and remembered who we were and why we’re here. Using this as a stepping stone for Worlds, we want to be on the top of that podium. So we’ve gotta start acting like those champions and we did that today and really enjoyed the performance. It feels great to be three-time Canadian champions, and we’re thrilled about it.”
Gilles and Poirier held an 8.78-point lead after the rhythm dance but expanded that to more than 22 points today. They finished with a 222.95 overall total, with the silver medals going to Montreal-based Marie-Jade Laurialt and Romain Le Gac (200.50), who were elated — as were their coaches — to break the 200-point barrier for the first time.
As we alluded to in Friday’s dispatch, the withdrawals of the top two teams from 2023 Canadians opened the door for some new faces on the podium. And Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer were more than happy to take the bronze-medal spot on the podium with a crowd-pleasing performance that was judged third best on the day. It was their second personal best score of the week, leading to an overall total of 195.61.
The result was especially pleasing given the fact that Fabbri and Ayer missed most of the 2022-23 season due to injury issues. They weren’t even at 2023 nationals in Oshawa, Ontario, as Ayer was still recovering from shoulder surgery. But skating in front of Ayer’s family and friends, the Calgary lad and his partner turned in a performance they’ll likely remember for a while yet.
“Unreal. This time last year, I was in a sling two weeks post op from shoulder surgery and Ali was training alone,” said Ayer, who moved to Montreal six years ago to skate with Fabbri. “So within one year to make it on the podium … it’s huge. It’s exactly what we think we’re capable of and to come out here and show that to ourselves and everyone, it’s a very good feeling.”
Added Fabbri: “I was thinking about that coming here. It’s crazy how one year ago, we were both watching nationals at home. I was training with my teammates going to nationals; it was so heartbreaking. And we got on the ice in May and we worked so hard. We’ve had an amazing season, honestly, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done this season.”
‘I feel like Michael Jordan’
Deanna Stellato-Dudek knew she and partner Maxime Deschamps came to Calgary with a chance to repeat as Canadian senior pairs champions. When they saw the final scores go up on the scoreboard, it confirmed that very fact. But it wasn’t until she heard the actual words that it truly sunk in.
“We were just informed we are back-to-back champions and, not that I didn’t know that, but when someone says it to your face … I said ‘I feel like Michael Jordan’ (he of back-to-back-to back NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls),” she said afterward. “We’re very happy about that, but mostly we’re happy that we were able to come back from that really bad performance (in the short program) yesterday and show the work we’ve been doing on those throws. Those were two very smoothly landed throws. I was not going to back down on those after what happened yesterday (a rather scary fall).”
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps certainly weren’t about to back down from the challenge from rising pairs team Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who were less than a point behind after the short program. But the Montreal-based defending champions delivered in the free skate after some early troubles on side-by-side jumps, finishing with a 205.79-point overall total that gave the duo a comfortable final margin. Pereira and Michaud, who train in Brantford and Milton, Ontario, totalled 193.14, while the bronze medal went to the Quebec duo of Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier (187.40).
“I’m very mathematical. We have the highest score of the season by a large margin. So we are our own biggest competitors,” said Stellato-Dudek of dealing with tight margin heading into the free program. “All we have to do is our own job and I know what the outcome is going to be. Coming in here, yes, we’re close. Is that fun? No. You want to have a (bigger) lead when you’re going into the free program. But that being said, we just have to do what we can do and we know that will be enough.”
Pereira and Michaud also didn’t have the cleanest skate — she was especially bothered by a fall on a throw-triple Salchow — but their free program still held up well enough for the silver medal. That was an encouraging thought for a duo that still believes it’s got much more climbing to do in the years ahead, and is motivated by that potential.
“First time for ourselves being in attacking position for (a Canadian title). Last year, we were just happy to be at nationals; it was a whirlwind to get there. So this was different in that sense,” said Michaud. “We want to keep getting better and pushing ourselves because we know we can. With our score today, with missing some things, we still have a lot more potential and still more time to put in to make all those things better … there’s a big ceiling for us and we want to keep pushing.”
And as Pereira pointed out: “We got (silver) today with mistakes, so the potential we can see of hitting the 200 mark, getting 70 in the short, 130 in the long … these are all goals we have.”
The result also added to the sense of belonging with the best that Pereira and Michaud felt after their first appearance at the Grand Prix Final in December. They’re also in this for the long haul. As Pereira put it: “We’re here to stay, guys. We’re not new anymore, we’re here.”