Canadian championships: Some early world team thoughts
Skate Canada decided not to name its team for Montreal 2024 after the conclusion of nationals in Calgary. Results at that event left many questions that still need answers.
We’d all like to think the Canadian championships are also a place for many dreams to come true. As in, the kind of moments that produce opportunities for further greatness at the world and Olympic level. You know, that skater that comes out of nowhere to have the skate of their lives and earns a ticket to the biggest events. The drama that produces, right?
Alas, that’s simply not the case anymore. Not when the idea is to send to best possible team to the biggest events, so you can send even bigger teams the following year. So entire seasons are taken into consideration, along with projections as to who might perform the best on the biggest stage at the biggest moment. All of which leads to some unpopular decisions being made.
With all of that in mind, here’s what we think Skate Canada will decide (or not decide) when it announces its team for the much-coveted 2024 World Championships which, as we all know, are being held in Montreal. That final announcement, from what we’ve been told, is being held off until at least after the Four Continents Championships, which run Jan. 30-Feb. 4 in Shanghai, China. And given what we saw in Calgary, it’s understandable why the waiting game is being played in certain disciplines in particular.
Men
So, so many questions after that men’s event in Calgary. So much so that there’s not a chance that Skate Canada could have said with any certainty that it knew for sure which two skaters to send to Montreal. And so that decision moves on to Four Continents, where new Canadian champion Wesley Chiu, Conrad Orzel and Roman Sadovsky will wear the red maple leaf.
Barring a meltdown in Shanghai, one would think the performances that Chiu delivered at WinSport Arena on the weekend should land him one ticket to Worlds. And if we assume that is true, then Four Continents will essentially be a skate-off for the second berth between Orzel, who delivered the second-best free skate in Calgary and barely missed the podium in placing fourth, and Sadovsky, who wound up sixth in what was also his first competition of the season, for a variety of unusual circumstances.
Both of those skaters have one previous Worlds experience. Sadovsky wound up 12th back in 2022 in Montpellier, France, while Orzel made his Worlds debut a year ago but didn’t qualify for the free skate. But Four Continents offers him a chance for redemption in Montreal. May the best man win in Shanghai, you could say. That’s basically how this will play out.
Women
I’m sure Skate Canada thought this might have been one of its easier decisions. Maddie Schizas came to Calgary as the odds on favourite to win a third straight national title and seemed well on her way to doing that after the short program. But then came Saturday’s complete meltdown in the free skate which, combined with a quality performance by Kaiya Ruiter, produced a new Canadian champion who clearly earned that distinction.
So what to do now? Ruiter can’t be put on the team at the moment because she does not have the technical minimum score for the short program for entry to Worlds. While the possibility is there to find a senior event for her to get that minimum (Challenge Cup in the Netherlands in late February would be the best option), that’s further complicated the by fact that Ruiter is headed to the Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea next week. And the dates for that event happen to conflict with the Four Continents Championships.
What’s likely to happen is this: Skate Canada sends Schizas to Montreal, Ruiter goes to the world junior championships in Taipei City (that has already been announced) to improve on last year’s 10th place finish, and everyone crosses their fingers that Schizas’ coach Nancy Lemaire is right in saying this:
“This could be the fire that sets up the second half of the season to be great, because now she’s going to go home and be ‘I’m not doing that again. That felt terrible,’” Lemaire said after the women’s event ended.
All that being said, let’s just say Skate Canada will be monitoring Schizas verrrry closely at Four Continents, hoping to see evidence that what happened in Calgary was just an extremely bad day that won’t be repeated in Montreal, and that a top 10 finish might still be possible.
Pairs
This is probably the discipline with the least amount of questions for Skate Canada officials, with Four Continents likely just a stamp of approval event.
Surely, the tandem of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who retained their national crown in Calgary, have absolutely zero to prove. They won every event they entered in the fall season until the Grand Prix Final, where they settled for bronze — and even then, missed the gold by 2.13 points despite what they’ll tell you was their worst free skate of the season (on the other hand, their tour de force long program at Skate Canada International remains the world-leading score this season). They will head to Montreal as Canada’s best shot at a gold medal.
It was a breakout season for Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who also made the Grand Prix Final, where they placed sixth, and wound up as the silver medallists in Calgary. They were sixth at the Worlds debut in Saitama in 2023 and have a top five finish as a goal in Montreal. And they will most definitely be there to chase that extra step up the global ladder.
Canada’s third pairs entry at Four Continents is Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, who earned their first national senior medal with a bronze in Calgary and were especially impressive in the free skate. They’re the easy choice for the third spot in Montreal, and will relish the chance to skate at home.
Ice dance
Another discipline that should just be a matter of rubber stamping after Shanghai, but with some potential complications down the road.
There should be no doubting that status of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the reigning World bronze medallists, who impressively danced their way to a third Canadian title in Calgary. Book their ticket to Montreal. It’s a total lock.
We should be saying the same thing about the other two Canadian berths for ice dance in Montreal. But … complications. Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha missed the Canadian championships because she was in Skate Canada’s concussion protocol, and were originally among the Four Continents entries. However, they have since been replaced by Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac, who performed strongly in Calgary in earning the silver medal. It’s still two months to Worlds, but the situation with Lajoie will surely be monitored with high interest in the days ahead.
The issues surrounding Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen, who were fifth at year ago at Worlds in Saitama, are entirely different. As is widely known by now, they withdrew from nationals in the wake of a USA Today report that Soerensen is under investigation by Canada’s Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) in regard to allegations of sexual assault by an American skater. Their withdrawal from nationals stemmed from a desire not to be a “distraction” in Calgary, but the microscope figures to be event stronger at Worlds when figure skating media from around the globe — particularly the United States — descends on Montreal. Plus, there’s also the matter of if the OSIC investigation is completed by then and if so, what verdict it produces. It’s a very delicate situation, to be sure.
This is where Skate Canada’s depth in ice dancing could very well come into play. In addition to Lauriault and Le Gac, also consider Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer — who were fabulous in Calgary — to be at the ready, at least as alternates for Worlds. But let’s not forget that Canada’s top three teams all represented the country at the Grand Prix Final. They are that good.
About those Canadian Championships …
So you’ve probably heard all of the chatter, fallout … whatever you want to call it … since the curtain rang down on nationals in Calgary. You know, the talk about the attendance, ticket prices, no television coverage and yes, the weather. It’s been quite the rousing debate in certain areas, to be sure.
The latter item, I covered on the first day I landed in Calgary.
Let’s go through some of the others, with my thoughts about each.
The empty seats: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe WinSport Arena is a 2,500-3,000 seat facility at best. Rather small by the current standards for this event (by comparison, Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa, Ontario, the site of 2023 Canadians, is a 5,180-seat building). And remember, a bunch of those seats get cleared out for the judges’ stand and any obstructed views that might create. For the senior events in Calgary, I’d guess the building was never more than half full. Not great, right? But if you’re someone in that city who may not have purchased tickets in advance and was considering going, and you hear it feels like minus-40 or worse outside, I’m thinking you’re not exactly in the mood to venture out to the west side of the city. That’s extremely fair. Which leads me to the second point …
Ticket prices: By a number of accounts, they were overpriced (like in the $95-100 range, from what I’ve read). A couple of points here. First, I understand wanting to put a certain value on your product. That, I get completely. And with the smaller venue, you have less tickets to sell in the first place. However … this appears to be a misread of the market on Skate Canada’s part (you have to count on the city where the event is to generate the majority of your sales). And Calgary clearly wasn’t buying that established value of the product as it currently stands. Also heard there were no all-event packages (which generally lower the per-session prices), possibly because of the size of the venue. All of this also contributed to the low attendance.
No television coverage: For starters, let’s lay off blaming Skate Canada for this one. No TV network in Canada had any interest in showing the event. CTV/TSN walked away from figure skating a few years back after decades of being the standard bearer in Canada (they were showing NFL playoff games on Saturday. Huge audience and revenue driver). CBC carried it the last few seasons, but dropped the sport entirely this season (if you’re wondering why, take a look at what CBC showed on Saturday, the day of all the free skates: a doubleheader of Professional Women’s Hockey League games. The PWHL is a hot property right now, and rightfully so. They’re filling buildings and earning boffo TV ratings. And CBC, TSN and Sportsnet have all thrown major support behind its launch. Admirably so, I might add. But I digress). Enter Skate Canada Productions which, as I detailed back in October, has been streaming events all season. Sure, there have been some rough patches technically, but folks like Ted Barton and his commentary team (Kaetlyn Osmond, Kirsten-Moore Towers and Kaitlyn Weaver at nationals) know their stuff and take their jobs very seriously. They do their homework. They know fans expect a certain level of expertise and do their best to provide it. As someone who has studied the TV industry for many years, I can tell you streaming is the absolutely the way of the future — not just for figure skating, but all sports. Entities such as Amazon, Apple and, to a smaller extent, Netflix are getting more and more interested in live sports. It draws eyeballs. Lots of them. Someday down the road, it’s where and how you’ll watch most if not all of your live sports. So get used to it. That’s not going away. Alas, that also means that the good ol’ days of wall-to-wall TV coverage of events such as Canadians are long in the past. Maybe for good.
Lajoie/Lagha are now officially out of Four Continents, replaced by Lauriault/Le Gac.