It's a grand finale for Canadian skaters
The red maple leaf flew over a trio of podiums in Beijing, which capped off a strong fall season for ice dance and pairs competitors in particular from this country.
Canadian skaters are bringing a raft of shiny souvenirs home from Beijing this weekend, and what a way it was for a certain group of them to polish off the first half of their figure skating seasons.
The Grand Prix Final was indeed a grand affair for eight skaters who wear the red maple leaf on their backs. All of it coming in ice dance and pairs events, which were the areas of concentrated strength for Skate Canada athletes throughout the Grand Prix season since it launched way back at the end of October at Skate America in Texas. It’s been quite a ride since then.
Let’s start in the senior ice dance event, where Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Gilles — who had led the qualifiers for the Final — landed on the podium in this event for the second straight season. A year ago in Italy, the colour was gold (their first medal at the Final), but this time the veteran skaters from Ice Dance Elite in Toronto finished in the bronze medal position. Their overall total of 213.58 was a slim 1.93 points behind the silver medal winning Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy.
World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates set the tone early in the rhythm dance, building a lead of about four points that they widened to 8.03 points by the end of the free dance. The Americans totalled 221.61 to take the gold. It’s worth noting that the world leading score of 219.01, established by Gilles and Poirier at Skate Canada International, wouldn’t have held up for the gold in Beijing. The level of competition at the top was that high.
While the repeat title didn’t happen for them, Gilles and Poirier headed home with plenty of good thoughts in their heads and spoke positively about their “Wuthering Heights” free dance.
“We’re very happy. We really lost ourselves in the program and over time this program is really starting to grow with us, and we’re learning how to push it out at certain points,” Gilles said afterward, per a Skate Canada release. “It’s taken some time to really figure out where to go with it, and the more we perform it, the easier it’s gotten, and the easier it’s become to reflect our stories and everything we’re trying to emote on the ice.”
“By the time Worlds comes, we’re going to be so confident in this program. It was a great start and we got another Grand Prix Final medal here in China. There’s going to be more from us in the future.”
Added Poirier: “We're really proud of what we accomplished through this Grand Prix season. We're really looking forward to working on all the things we want to improve upon as we head into the second half of the season.”
Canada had three of the six entries in the event for the first time, and the other two occupied the final two spots in the standings. Reigning Canadian champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen, who placed sixth in this event a year ago, moved up one spot to fifth this time. Their overall total of 195.57 was about 10 points shy of their season’s best.
“Sometimes it’s just a little harder than others. I had a really hard time adjusting to the schedule here in China, I’ve slept pretty bad every night, so I think fatigue got to me a little bit,” Soerensen said in a Skate Canada release.
The weekend was also not ideal for Majorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, who were making their GP Final debut. They totalled 193.63, about 13 points shy of their season’s best. But they will be better for the experience.
In the pairs event, Canada’s Deanna Stellato Dudek and Maxime Deschamps came to Beijing as the top qualifier, but the colour of the medals they’re carting home is also bronze. The competition was tight from start to finish, with the gap between gold and bronze a mere 2.13 points. Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (206.43) held off Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy (205.88), who won the free skate, for the gold. Stellato Dudek and Deschamps scored 204.30.
“We were the top team by, like, 10 points so we know this is way below expectations,” Stellato-Dudek told reporters afterward. “But we are still scoring really competitively with mistakes on almost all the big elements, so if we can just clean it up, we’re know going to get higher than what we got at Skate Canada (214.64).”
Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (185.16) placed sixth in their Final debut.
“We’re proud of what we did today,” Pereira said after the free skate. “Coming from a not-so-good short – we haven’t had to do that yet, we’ve been fortunate to skate good shorts in most of our competitions so far, so that was a setback mentally and I think we did a really good job recovering from that, and wanting to continue to push ourselves and have new experiences.”
Junior achievement
Canadian skaters filled half the spots in the pairs event at the Junior Grand Prix Final, and they ended up with two-thirds of the medals when all was said and done.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia dominated the event from start to finish, posting a 202.11 total that was more than 33 points better than the rest of the field. Canadians took over from there, with Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov solidly in the silver medal spot with a 168.83 total after finishing second in both the rhythm dance and free dance. It was another season’s best score for the young Canadian team, who were silver medallists at last season’s national championships.
“Every competition we’ve been getting season’s bests and that’s really what you want,” said Elizarov. It doesn’t really matter for placement as long as you’re improving yourselves.”
Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher (156.33), who have been a team for less than a year, moved up to the bronze medal step on the podium. They slipped past Canadian teammates Martina Ariano Kent and Charly Laliberté-Laurent (150.70), who wound up fourth.
“Our goal, other than the points, was just to show everyone that we can do a good free program because in the past on the international stage, we haven’t shown people that, so that was another goal we’ve accomplished at this competition,” Thrasher said in a Skate Canada release.
The next stop for all of them will be the Canadian championships in January in Calgary, where it figures to be quite the battle for a national title among these teams. As we’ve said previously, the future for pairs skating in Canada is suddenly very bright these days.
Igniting the flame
Earlier this week, Skate Canada named its team for the upcoming 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, to be held from Jan. 19-Feb. 1 in Gangwon, South Korea. The Canadian team includes: David Li (men), Kaiya Ruiter (women), Annika Behnke and Kole Sauve (pairs), and Audra Gans-Michael Boutsan and Caroline Kravets-Jacob Stark (ice dance).
The figure skating competition, which begins Jan. 27, is being held at Gangneung Ice Arena, the same venue used for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The building was also home to a Canadian medal rush put together by perhaps the greatest Canadian figure skating team ever. Ruiter, for one, has those memories front and centre.
“My dream, and what drives my training, is to represent Canada on the grandest stages in figure skating,” she said in a Skate Canada release. “With this opportunity, I get to compete on the same ice where my idol, Kaetlyn Osmond, won two Olympic medals (women’s bronze, gold in team).”
About 1,900 athletes aged 15-18 will compete in the Youth Olympics, the largest multi-sport event of its kind for that age group.