#SCNats25: 'That feels a lot better this year'
Twelve months after she arrived at nationals in a rather broken state, Katherine Medland Spence is seriously challenging for the podium in Laval. And sticking fervently to the plan that lifted her up.
LAVAL, Quebec — It was just 12 months ago during a bitterly cold week in Calgary that Katherine Medland Spence arrived at the Canadian Championships as a broken skater after enduring an injury riddled season.
The pain came to the fore at WinSport Event Centre when she face-planted during her short program, a jolt that reminded her of all her biggest aches and pains. The 24-year-old from Ottawa briefly reminded herself of that moment as a rebuilt and confident Medland Spence glided through another short program with the same music — but with dramatically different results.
“I know it’s physically possible for me to do this, but to put it out there in competition is definitely satisfying,” she said after posting a 61.99-point score that was the second-best of the day. “I made it through the section where I face-planted last year and I went, ‘yeah, that feels a lot better this year.’”
Indeed it does. A year ago, her short program score was 41.71 in Calgary. It’s been an astonishing leap in a year, with Medland Spence now in prime position to earn her first-ever medal at nationals. Not that she’ll allow herself to think about that.
“I wanted to come here and have good skates because that’s what I can control. I can’t control how other people skate and I don’t control what the judges reward,” she said afterward. “All I can do is go out there and do my best and be happy when I finish that program. It doesn’t matter what happens outcome wise or points wise, I’m happy no matter what.”
She also knows what she has to do in Sunday’s free skate final.
“I said coming here it doesn’t matter how the short goes, I still have to do a long program,” said Medland Spence. “Whether I’m first or last or anywhere in between, I still have to do another program tomorrow, and I still want to go into that with the same attack, no matter what happens with the short or where I end up.”
All of this, as we wrote here in the fall after her victory at Warsaw Cup in her international debut, is part of a plan that she sticks to resolutely. It’s all about the process, as the saying goes, and the work that is involved in getting to the end result. It is a plan that has worked consistently all season.
“I have to give her full credit, because she bought in completely to it,” said Ken Rose, who coaches Medland Spence at the Richmond Training Centre north of Toronto along with his wife, Danielle. “We sat down together (in March), formulated a plan together. She was on board with it from the beginning and her commitment to it all year has been incredible.
“Our thought process was be trained, be ready, and the result will just follow the work.”
Medland Spence never hesitates to credit the Roses the most for rebuilding her both physically and mentally. It is why she is where is today.
“Basically just support. Support as I needed it and support as I physically got healthy and took the time to recover,” she explained in detailing their contributions. “Reminding me that human Katherine is the priority and human Katherine needs to be healthy. There’s human Katherine that exists for longer than skating, and I need to be healthy if skater Katherine wants to do well but I need to be healthy if human Katherine wants to be happy.”
There is another significant redemption story building just above her in the standings. That would involve two-time Canadian champion Maddie Schizas, who put herself on top of the heap on Saturday with a rather flawless skate to music from “The Lion King” soundtrack. With a strong score of 70.00, the 21-year-old from Oakville, Ontario, holds a 8.01-point lead over Medland Spence. A trio of Quebec skaters — Sara-Maude Dupuis (59.81), Julianne Lussier (59.33) and Fee-Ann Landry (58.49) — fill out the top five.
Schizas couldn’t contain her excitement after her score popped up Saturday.
“Yeah, I was happy with that. It was a strong skate,” she said afterward. “I’ve skated a few clean programs (this season), but today I had a lot of energy because of the crowd getting into it behind me, so that was exciting.”
It’s a program that started out as a show routine during Stars On Ice back in the spring of 2024, but encouraged by fellow cast member Deanna Stellato-Dudek (“Deanna was hard on the ‘keep The Lion King’ train”), Schizas and her coaches decided to go along for the ride. It’s a joyous program that Schizas loves to skate and it’s so noticeable to anyone who watches.
“I’m really glad people like it so much and I’ve had such great feedback on it, because I show how much I like skating when I skate this program,” she said. “To skate it cleanly at Canadians in front of family and friends was super fun.”
Schizas has built herself quite the cushion at the top, something that’s mindful of 2022 in Ottawa, when she won her first Canadian title in front of a building that was empty due to pandemic restrictions. While what happened a year ago in Calgary — her free skate collapse that opened the door for Kaiya Ruiter to become a national champion — might still be back of mind for some people, one gets the sense Schizas isn’t going to let that happen here.
“I’ve been skating clean programs consistently for two or three weeks,” she said. “Every program I’ve skated this week has been clean in practice.”
And now there’s a new free program she can’t wait to show for the first time in front of a loud, enthusiastic audience that has been the talk of this event.
“I’m excited to show everyone tomorrow,” said Schizas. “It’s a big surprise …no one’s seen it (yet).”
Ruiter (57.17) currently sits eighth but, as someone who typically skates strong long programs at nationals, is certainly still in the hunt for a medal. The disappointment in her face, though, was rather palpable.
“The performance, I really enjoyed. Some things weren’t what I wanted, but some things I’m really proud of, so I’m going to stick with that and use the things I didn’t like to motivate me tomorrow,” she said. “I didn’t do everything I could have, and that’s disappointing. Motivation for tomorrow.”
Let the dance drama begin
There’s no dispute who’s going to finish on top of the senior ice dance event here in Laval. Three-time national champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are well on their way to making it four crowns after Saturday’s rhythm dance, with their “Barbie and Ken go to the beach” program scoring 91.84 points (a new Canadian record) and producing a healthy lead over those fab Austin Powers kids, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha (86.42).
Carve those two spots on the podium firmly in stone.
But Canada has three ice entries at the upcoming World Championships in Boston, and there’s a real battle brewing for that final coveted spot. For the moment, it’s hometown girl Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer narrowly in front, with their rousing Elvis Presley-themed program earning a 78.53 score, to the delight of Fabbri’s family members in particular, who caused quite the raucous commotion in one corner of the rink throughout their performance.
But right behind Fabbri and Ayer are their training mates at the Ice Academy of Montreal, Marie-Jadie Lauriault and Romain Le Gac, who are a mere 0.44 points in arrears (78.09) after a crowd-pleasing skate of their own. It’s a tricky situation for the four skaters, who want nothing but the best for each other.
“They’re such good teammates and competitors as well, so it’s going to be a really tight event. But I’m glad that we all get along,” said Fabbri. “There’s something about beating someone when they’re at their best instead of winning because someone else makes a mistake. Especially when it’s your teammate. You want everybody to do so well.”
Fabbri and Ayer have been the biggest risers in Canadian ice dance this season. Coming off a bronze medal at nationals in Ayer’s hometown of Calgary, the duo embarked on a busy fall season that has set them up to contend for the biggest of prizes in Laval.
Now they’ll see what happens in Sunday’s free dance.
“It’ll be important to close this day and move on. Tomorrow’s going to be a completely new day … (0.44 points) is not a lot. A smile and an extension more and it’s gone,” said Fabbri. “Forgetting that, whatever the results are going to be, we can be really proud of ourselves. We took a big step this year. It was more than anyone expected, I think even us … it’s fun to see that we took such a big step this year and we know we can do that again in the next year. We know that we’re not at our best now that we can be.”
Lauriault and Le Gac also see the opportunity at hand. And with a country and western themed free dance to perform on Sunday, they are up for the challenge of pulling past their teammates at I.AM.
“For sure, you always want to get closer to the top. That’s the goal of everyone here. So we want to reach further into the 70s and go for 80, so we’re close to that,” said Lauriault. “We’re going to focus on that. Definitely, it’s fun that the competition (for the third spot) is open. The opportunity is there for tomorrow … so we’ll see tomorrow.”
Gilles and Poirier, meanwhile, have a fourth Canadian title in sight (which, funnily enough, would be their first in an odd-numbered year). If you think that likelihood, or even this event itself, is getting tired for them or doesn’t still cause the duo some pre-competitions jitters … well, guess again.
“Until you’re into your mid to late teens, nationals is your marquee event. It’s the big event of the year and you’re trained almost from your childhood that nationals is the big deal. it’s the biggest event you have to do,” said Poirier. “It feels like a big event still. It feels important, it feels special.
“There’s this magic around nationals that is always there and it never really goes away. In some ways, we’re almost on the other side of that. We’re the veterans of this event and we’ve done it so many times, but the magic is still there. We know what it represents.”
Added Gilles: “This is a home crowd for us and we love skating for Canada, and just having the opportunity since we don’t really get the chance to do it that often. It’s fun, it’s enjoyable. Yes, we get nervous because we want to put on a show. Yes, the nerves are there, but overall we just enjoy skating for a Canadian crowd. They love skating, they love us, they love all the athletes. We can feel that, so it feels special.”
Saturday’s skate also marked Gilles and Poirier’s first time back on the ice since the Grand Prix Final in France, when his fall by the boards in the rhythm dance scuttled any chance they had to win a medal — even after they produced the second-best free dance of the competition the following day.
They’re clearly back on track after a strong performance on Sunday.
“It always feels good to have another good skate behind you. But we have enough experience coming back from setbacks and poor skates to put it behind us,” said Poirier. “We didn’t go into the free dance at the Grand Prix Final feeling doubt within ourselves and we didn’t go into this one feeling doubt within ourselves. Of course, it is always nice to skate strong and it helps, but we’ve been able to prove over the course of our careers that we can skate under any circumstances and we know how to believe in ourselves in order to do that.”