#SCI24: 'We're going to attack a new season'
Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are hardly resting on their world championships laurels. And they're in hot pursuit of a gold medal in Halifax.
HALIFAX — Beyonce on blades was a rollicking hit on a Friday night at Scotiabank Place. With the audience, especially, and with the judges, too.
Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps were the class of the field in the pairs short program at Skate Canada International, with the reigning World champions building an 8.41-point lead after a skate that wasn’t perfect, but was a good starting point for their first Grand Prix event of the season (they’re the defending champions at SCI).
“It was fun going out there and being in front of our home crowd for the first time since Worlds. That was great,” the 32-year-old Deschamps afterword. “We did a lot of stuff that we improved since the last competition (Nebelhorn Trophy, where they were the silver medallists) and we’re happy with that.”
The audience in Halifax surely appreciated what they saw, and bathed the home country duo with roaring applause before and after their skates. Stellato-Dudek said she felt their support from the start.
“Yeah, I actually noticed the difference in volume from our (introduction) versus everybody else’s, it was that noticeable,” the 41-year-old said. “It’s always fun to be in front of a Canadian crowd, and we feel the work that we put into the second mark showed in our score. Unfortunately, we had technical mistakes this time (most notably a shaky landing on the throw-triple Lutz), so we couldn’t get the score we were aiming for … high 70s (they scored 77.48 for the short at 2024 Worlds, so that target is eminently reachable for them).”
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps are often asked about what’s it like to carry the weight of a World title into a new season — “I think about it when you guys remind me about it,” Deschamps said with a grin — but they’re working hard to deal with the new pressure, such as it is.
“I definitely feel the pressure, but pressure comes from yourself,” admitted Stellato-Dudek. “So I always put pressure on myself, but I do feel it more this year and I’m trying work on it, actually. It’s very hard.”
They’ve talked previously about compartmentalizing the whole thing. As in, that 2024 World title will always be yours forever. Now move on to the next goal. Which is pretty much how Deschamps summed up their mindset.
“That was last year, this year is a new season and we’re looking forward and we’re going to attack a new season, set a goal at every competition so we can go like we did last year,” he said.
They’ll carry a healthy margin into Saturday’s free skate, which begins at 5:35 p.m. Atlantic time. Annike Hocke and Robert Kunkel of Germany, who had the audience clapping furiously along with them to “I Love Rock ’n Roll” by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, currently stand second, followed by Australia’s Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore.
Canada’s second entry, Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, left the rink puzzled by a score (52.16) that included a zero grade for their death spiral.
“Even though we got the zero on the death spiral, we don’t understand how we’d be getting those (scores). Even with the death spiral points, we would have been 10 points short of what we were aiming for,” said Ethier. “A little disappointed with the little mistakes we made. Overall, we didn’t think we had major mistakes. We had a little stumble on the death spiral but we thought we had sort of saved it, and the same thing for the throw.
“We weren’t expecting a super high score, but I don’t know. I can’t even explain how we got that score.”
Good night for Canadian women (mostly)
There was a whole lot of smiling going on during Maddie Schizas’ short program on Friday night. And not just because of the joyous music from “The Lion King” that accompanied a mighty fine skate.
“It’s definitely part of the character, it’s a joyful program. I was happy with how it was going, but it’s a joyful piece of music. It’s hard not to smile,” said the two-time Canadian champion, who put herself right in the mix for the medals here with a largely flawless skate.
“It was a really good skate for me. Strong performance,” she said in the media mixed zone. “Something about this program just makes me really happy to get out there and happy to compete. I’ve had skates like that. I was happy at Skate Canada last year (when she posted a career-best 132.47 score for the free skate). I was so excited here. It’s just a program that gets me to that place of being excited and happy to be skating.”
Schizas landed all of her jumping elements cleanly, starting with a crisp triple Lutz-triple toe, and was just beaming the rest of the way. While one could quibble about the 65.28 score she was given, she likes where she currently stands. While Japan’s three-time World champion turned in a command performance that produced a 74.67 score, there’s a serious battle going on below her for podium spots. The gap between comebacking American Alysa Liu, who’s second, and Schizas in fifth is a mere 2.40 points. Let’s just say a battle awaits for medals on Saturday night.
“The scores fall wherever they fall, right? I hung onto some of the stuff including the step sequence. I got so excited that my feet got away from me. Some of the step sequences were a little bit funny, and the step sequence was a Level 2 just because I was excited that my feet got away from me and I didn’t keep the turns on the ice,” said Schizas. “So it’s something we’re going to have to think about when I get that excited when I skate. Would I like to be higher? Yes, but I understand why I’m not.
“It’s so close here. And I’m right in the mix.”
She’s surely found a comfort zone with the program. While the 21-year-old Schizas admits she hasn’t seen the movie in its entirety — “my mom bought me tickets for the stage production and I don’t want to spoil that moment” — her affection for its soundtrack has rather deep roots.
“I’ve always like the music from it. Funnily enough, I had a teacher in high school who had a thing for African music. So we did a lot of choral African music including a bunch of selections from ‘The Lion King,’ so I was very familiar with the score. I enjoyed it then and I was a little inspired at Worlds. I think it was the boy from Latvia I saw do a Lion King free skate, and I thought that should be my show program (she would use it as such during the Canadian Stars On Ice tour back in the spring). And then it just kind of grew into being my competitive program.”
Adding to that sense of comfort: She’s now done four competitions with it already this season, and had another go at it during Skate Canada’s high-performance camp at the end of the summer.
“I came into this knowing that I had skated it clean and that I’d skated it clean in practice so many times. I also think performing this 15 times over the show season helped,” she said. “So we’re nearing 20 performances of this program, so that helped. I know the music so well, so just all of that gives me confidence.”
While Kaiya Ruiter isn’t likely to win a medal here, the reigning Canadian champion surely had reason to be enthused about a quality skate that raised her season’s best for the short program by nearly five points. The 18-year-old wore a wide grin after her quality skate to Cinematic Pop’s cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” which landed her in seventh place.
“I felt amazing out there. The crowd was amazing … I really enjoyed it,” she said later. “It felt like a great skate. I’m very happy with it. Yes, definitely (this is what I came to do). My experience in Vancouver last year (at Skate Canada) was a great experience. I just wanted to carry that into this season and be more confident in my programs. It felt great.”
Ruiter showed a more mature look on the ice, and that was part of the plan put together by her new coaches, Tracy Wilson and Brian Orser at the Cricket Club in Toronto (where she moved in September).
“I wanted to feel more confident and more organized, skate calm and enjoy myself. We put in all the training, all the hard work, and this is so special to be out there,” said Ruiter, who can’t wait to get back in front of the Scotiabank Place audience one more time on Saturday. “I’m definitely excited going into tomorrow and extra focused and excited. Definitely want to put out (another) performance like that one. Or better.”
While it was a good night for Canada’s top two women’s skaters, the third entry in Halifax was hoping for something a little bit better. That would be Sara-Maude Dupuis, who stands ninth heading into the free skate. But she still managed to see some of the positives about Friday’s effort.
“I’m pretty disappointed in my skate today. I know I can do and score much more than that with this program. But I’m quite happy with the elements that did go well. I think I showed some great quality in those,” said the 19-year-old. “Really, I think I got ahead of myself in that last (triple) Lutz. I had it, I thought I was going to do just like in practice and lacked a bit of focus going into it, and it got away from me, which I’m going to for sure reflect on, so it doesn’t happen again.
“Especially for Tallinn Trophy, which is in two weeks, and hopefully I’m going to show a 60 (points) plus short program there, because that’s about what I can score if you add six points for a Lutz.”
Words from a legend
Asked about the “cool” moments that being the World champions might have brought them, Stellato-Dudek came up with this one.
“Billie-Jean King wrote me,” she said of the American tennis icon. “She posted something really nice on Instagram. She just made a little post about it. It was a celebration of women and success at 40 years old, and breaking a record and things like that. Pretty cool to an accolade like that from her.”
Saturday’s slate
It’s a full day of skating on Saturday. It all gets going with the rhythm dance at 1:15 p.m. Atlantic time. Here’s all the start times:
It was the first time we’d seen Kaiya’s new short program in person, and we loved it.
Maddie has put a lot of fire into her Lion King program since we saw her in Stars on Ice las spring. She was a very happy camper tonight.
And Deanna! What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this woman? Breathtaking!