How it started ... and how it's going (Part 2)
For this writer, there might not be a Worlds 2024 if it wasn't for the very loud magic of Edmonton in 1996. A trip down memory lane to a very different time for the sport in Canada.
To this day, it remains one of the most, well, honest quotes I’ve ever heard at a figure skating competition. And it pretty much encapsulated the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, which also provided my introduction to the sport’s most important annual event. And what a baptism it was for moi.
Anyways, let’s set the scene. This was back in the days with the compulsory dance was still part of the ice dance competition (and, if we’re being honest here, largely set the stage for how the medals were going to be handed out at the end). At Worlds, it meant watching 33 teams perform to the exact same piece of music. Then they did it a second time, to another melody. And if that sounds little tedious, well … give a listen to Russian ice dancer Evgeny Platov, who marvelled that Edmonton Coliseum was packed to the rafters for a portion of the competition that, I used to say, wasn’t ‘compulsory’ for me to watch (yes, it was a joke).
“Why are all these people here?” he asked. “This is very boring.”
You can’t think back to those World Championship without thinking of the thousands of fans who attended, and all the noise they created. The building long known as Northlands Coliseum was completely sold out for every event, making for an absolutely electric atmosphere. The media centre was jammed with hundreds of reporters from across the globe, including a Russian scribe I shared a cab ride with one night who thought it was amusing I was covering the event (apparently, only women reported on figure skating in that country; male journalists stuck to hockey).
This, mind you, was during the golden age of figure skating (as in, before the judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics), when the television networks couldn’t get enough of it. Both Edmonton newspapers treated the event with the bigness it deserved, each producing special sections every day (12 pages in the tabloid Sun, eight pages in the broadsheet Journal). You know, the kind of thing you rarely if ever see anymore. As a relative neophyte covering this sport at the time, I marvelled at the day to day work produced by the Sun’s Terry Jones and the Journal’s Cam Cole (both now retired), with whom I’d go on to spend a lot of hours at rinks (and other ice-producing ‘venues,’ shall we say) across the country over the years. And two guys I learned a hell of a lot about this business from as well. Good times with a great crew. Indeed, those were the days. But I digress …
As for the competition itself, this was supposed to be another coronation for Canadian skate god Elvis Stojko, who came into the event as a two-time reigning World champion. But in sports, as you very well know, things don’t exactly play out the way they’re supposed to (and let’s face it, things would be a whole lot less fun if they always did). There was an audible gasp in the building when Stojko fell on a combination in the short program, which dumped him into seventh place and all but assured he’d finish off the podium (remember, this was back in the old 6.0 judging system days). And despite a brilliant free skate to “1492: Conquest of Paradise” (music that always gives me the chills), Stojko could only climb up to fourth spot in the final standings. American Todd Eldredge would seize the gold medal.
(an aside: the day after the short program, the Edmonton Sun front page blared with the headline “Elvis Is Dead.” Needless to say, a lot of folks on and around the Canadian team lost their collective shit over that one. And poor old Terry Jones took a shit ton of heat over it. News flash, folks: Reporters/columnists don’t write headlines. That’s an editor’s job).
The other Canadian medal hope that week was the mesmerizing ice dance duo of Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, who would indeed produce the lone podium finish for the home team at this competition. It was the first of six World medals for Bourne and Kraatz, and the first by a Canadian ice dance couple since the great Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall in 1988 in Budapest, Hungary (the same Worlds at which Kurt Browning landed the first-ever quad in competition, which would springboard him to three straight World titles). Bourne and Kraatz, meanwhile, would go on to become world champions in 2003 in Washington, D.C. — the first-ever gold medal won by a Canadian team in that discipline (it wouldn’t happen again for Canada until Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the first of their three World championships in 2010).
All in all, it was a magical (and yes, exhausting) week. I’ve been to four more World Championships since then, and Montreal will be No. 6 in less than three weeks’ time. Much as I think there’s some more magic on ice awaiting us all at the Bell Centre, 1996 was a different time in the sport. That Worlds was so huge, and so was Vancouver five years later (when Jamie Sale and David Pelletier electrified the building known then as General Motors Place in winning a World title). But Edmonton was the first one for me — the Ottawa Sun decided I’d earned the trip because they liked the coverage I’d done at the Canadian championships that year in the nation’s capital — and for that reason, it’ll always hold a special fondness for me. It was electric, I lost track of all the hours I spent in the arena for nine days or so, but damn, it was so much fun. Here’s hoping, 28 years later, I can say the same thing after I return home from another of Canada’s great cities later on this month.
TV or not TV?
One of the biggest questions heading into Montreal Worlds, at least among folks who live in the Great White North, is this one …
How the heck can I watch this thing?
Well, good question. And much as I’d like to tell you right now I’ve got the answer for you … um, not quite. But here’s what I’ve managed to dig up at this point. And it may not exactly be entirely satisfying to those who have been used to watching this event on TV for decades and decades.
First off, yes, CBC will be airing some of the World Championships on television. Note that I used the word “some.” I’ve been told “portions” of the competition will be on the CBC network and, if I had to guess, most of that will probably be on Saturday, when the public broadcaster normally airs a large chunk of amateur sports content during the afternoon (not a chance it’s bumping aside Hockey Night in Canada, by the way).
Beyond that … we’ll have to wait and see.
The entire event will be streaming on CBC platforms (cbcsports.ca, CBC Gem), most likely by taking the ISU’s feed (which usually features the excellent Mark Hanretty). Keep an eye on the CBC’s website for the exact times and schedule for the broadcasts, yet to be finalized by the ISU.
Junior achievement
As mentioned here last week, the World Junior Championships are currently underway in Taipei City, with Canadian skaters making a solid early impression in two events.
Start with the pairs competition, where two Canadian duos found themselves in the top six at the end of the event. Martina Ariano Kent of Mount Royal, Quebec, and Charly Laliberté-Laurent of Boucherville, Quebec, were sitting in a medal position after the short program, in which they finished third. But the national silver medallists couldn’t hold that spot, sliding to fifth in the final standings with an overall score of 141.26.
Meanwhile, Canadian champions Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov of Winnipeg finished less than a point behind their compatriots (140.67) and wound up sixth overall in the final standings.
In the men’s short program, Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, British Columbia, put himself squarely in the medal hunt with a terrific short program that produced a huge personal best score of 77.74 to place fourth, just 0.28 points out of a podium position and a mere 2.84 points behind leader Minkyu Seo of South Korea. Only 5.15 points separates first and eighth place, so we’re in for a dandy battle for the medals in the free skate.
Earlier this morning, Canadian junior champion Lulu Lin made an impressive statement with a 10th place finish in her debut at the competition (she had been 15th after the short program). The 14-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario, turned in a personal best score of 116.59 in the free skate, which was sixth best in that portion of the event, and wound up with another PB of 173.71 for her overall total, which was 3.65 points back of the seventh-place finisher. That’s pretty heady stuff, indeed.
Clearly, the future is bright for this young phenom. “I’m really excited for next season and what’s to come,” she said, per Skate Canada. So are we, Lulu. So are we.
Meanwhile, Canadian senior champion Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary slipped to 21st in the final standings. She had been 10th a year ago when junior worlds were held in her hometown, where she also won the national crown in January.
In the rhythm dance, Canadian junior silver medallists Chloe Nguyen of Vancouver and Brendan Giang of Burnaby stand seventh, four places higher than national junior champions Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys of London, Ontario. A third Canadian team, Alisa Korneva and Kieran MacDonald of Waterloo, Ontario, sits 18th.
The competition concludes Saturday with the free dance and men’s free skate. All the action is available to stream on the ISU’s YouTube channel.