'She has what it takes to make it'
With the experienced hand of Gabriel Farand by her side, Fiona Bombardier is putting the family name back in the Canadian pairs scene again. And loving every minute of it.
Fiona Bombardier always had the right genes to be a figure skater. You could almost say she was born to do this, although she explored other sports as well. You would see it in the musicality she showed on the ice, the very thing that her mother, three-time Canadian champion and two-time Olympian Josee Chouinard, was so well known for during her competitive days.
But there was always another side to the skating past of her parents, the one that exists in her last name. That would belong to Fiona’s father, Jean-Michel Bombardier, a two-time Canadian champion himself with three top 10 finishes at the World Championships to his name in the pairs discipline. She knew all of this about her dad, she’ll tell you, and now she’s decided to take a look at how the other half lives, so to speak. And so it was that Bombardier showed up at the Canadian championships in Calgary not only for the senior women’s event, but the pairs competition as well.
“My dad did pairs and he really liked it, so I wanted to try it as well. I struggled a lot with the triple toe combo, and I know that’s a big element for international in senior ladies. So I decided, why not try pairs?” said the 19-year-old skater, who shares the same bright personality with her mom.
And she has found the right place to do that trying at Skate Oakville, where coach veteran coach Bruno Marcotte has built a fertile pairs program that most notably produced the 2023 World champions, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan. As luck would have it, Marcotte happened to have an experienced pairs skater, Gabriel Farand, whose partnership with Tilda Alderyd had just broken up (they had finished eighth in senior pairs at the 2023 Canadian championships) and was looking for a new partner.
Marcotte saw some potential right away, believing that Bombardier has the “it factor” to be the right match for the 22-year-old Farand.
“Their personalities are good for each other. I think Fiona is a leader, a little spitfire, and I feel like Gab needs somebody with that kind of drive,” said Marcotte. “And Gab is good for her because he is good to calm her down and help her relax. Gab is such a good (partner) and he’s got quite a bit of experience, and the height matches.”
But here’s the thing. Bombardier was a bronze medallist in the senior women’s event at 2023 nationals in Oshawa, Ontario. She’s got talent in that area, too. And when she first came to Oakville, it was with the expectation that she’d continue on the singles side of the sport as well. So she spent this season doing both, and splitting her training time between the two disciplines. It was a balancing act she saw Lia Pereira try last season with some success, finishing fifth among the senior women in Oshawa while earning a bronze medal in her senior pairs debut with Trennt Michaud.
“To do both this year … that kind of helped me with the whole situation. Knowing that she did both and was pretty successful at it, that did help me,” said Bombardier.
But it didn't quite go nearly as well for her at nationals in Calgary earlier this month. While Bombardier and Farand placed fifth among a field of nine teams in their Canadians debut, she slipped all the way to 16th in the women’s event. And she already knows a decision has to be made before next season about which direction she’s going. Pereira chose to stick with pairs and she and Michaud were among the rising stars in the discipline this season, making it all the way to the Grand Prix Final and placing second at nationals.
“She is going to have to make a choice, for sure. At the end of the day, to be a World contender doing both … no, it’s not sustainable,” admitted Marcotte. “But at the same time, I think she’s at the phase in her career that it is a good time to try. And if singles is for her, yeah, she will have to focus entirely on singles. In 2023, with the (current) system, and the spins and the levels, the triple-triples … what it requires is quite difficult. In pairs, what it requires, she did learn the elements but she needs mileage.
“Can you be good at both? Definitely. But if you’re looking to make the Olympic team in two years, I do believe she is going to have to decide on one or the other.”
While Marcotte also acknowledges the pair scene in Canada is quite crowded these days, he also points this out: the country’s strength at the top means three entries for Canada at the upcoming World Championships in Montreal, a wealth of opportunity that is likely to continue in future seasons. Meanwhile, Canada has been stuck on one women’s berth for Worlds for a few seasons now (a top 10 finish in Montreal by whoever goes to Worlds would be required to upgrade that for next season).
It is very clear already, though, that Bombardier is quickly developing a passion for pairs. Right from their first tryout, both skaters and Marcotte could see there might before something there. As Farand put it, “I think we had good chemistry, so why not continue?” It’s something at least one very interested observer could see as well.
“We started skating together and (Marcotte) thought there was a lot of potential. And then my dad came in to watch, he was very curious, and he also said the same thing. That kind of clinched it,” said Bombardier.
“I really like the lifts. I like being up high. You can see everything up there. And I like that the programs aren’t just focused on jump, jump, jump. There’s a lot of variation and different things to work on in practice.”
And Bombardier has been a quick learner when it comes to pair elements.
“She was really good. She catches up pretty quickly,” said Farand, who had three previous partners. “Especially the throws, but she is so good with jumps.”
Given that Bombardier was splitting her time between two disciplines, Marcotte has been more than pleased with how quickly she has picked up pair elements in her first go round with a skating partner.
“For her to be able to do the triple twist the first season, two throw triples, she had to learn a forward inside death spiral, a back outside death spiral, three lifts Level 4 … it’s amazing to learn everything from scratch in so little time and with so little hours,” he said. “I think this year the biggest challenge was to learn the elements, which she has, and next it’s to learn how to create a real couple. The skating skills, the connection.
“Right now, because it’s so new, everything requires a lot of mental and physical energy for every element. So I think for her, it’s only going to get easier as time goes on. But I really believe she has what it takes. She’s fearless and she just loves to be thrown … I think if (pairs) is what she wants to do, if that’s what she likes to do, I think she has what it takes to make it.”
Marcotte has no doubts about Farand’s talent and desire. They go way back together, all the way to both their skating roots in Quebec. “Gab is family,” says Marcotte. “He is from my old club (in the Montreal area), and he followed me to Oakville. I’ve taught him since he was nine years old.”
At one time, Farand was one of Canada’s bright up-and-coming talents in men’s skating, winning a national title in pre-novice and earning a silver medal at the novice level. But then a broken tibia and other issues with his knees changed the direction of his career. That, and a growth spurt that pushed him from 5-foot-2 to his current 6-foot stature.
“There was a year he could not skate and when that happened, he was maybe 5-foot-2. And despite not being able to skate, he would come to the rink every day.” said Marcotte. “He would go to school, come to the rink, do some work and his mother would come and pick him up from the rink. A year later, when he started skating again, he was almost over 6-foot. So had to pretty much relearn how to skate and jump. When you’re 5-foot-2, you take a year off, and then you’re 6-foot, you’re a different person.”
So it was four years ago that Farand became a pairs skater. But he believes all those years of singles skating gave him a base that’s helpful in pairs.
“I think to be a good pairs skater, you have to have good skating skills in general,” he said. “Being good at singles helps that. Most really good pair skaters used to be really good at singles.”
It’s been a decent start for the new team so far. They competed four times together this season, winning Ontario Sectionals and placing second at the Skate Canada Challenge, where they also won the free skate. Most importantly, Farand said, he noticed “a progression” in terms of their development as a pairs team with each event. Marcotte certainly liked we he saw for a first-year team.
“Being able, with so little time and so little hours, to produce what they are producing … to me, it’s incredible,” he said.
So, it would appear, everyone seems happy with the direction this is going and where it might end up. Well, maybe not everyone. Let’s just say Bombardier’s mother has taken some time to warm up to her daughter’s latest skating fascination. It wasn’t the easiest of sells at first.
“She was not for it. She was not happy,” Bombardier said in describing Chouinard’s reaction to her decision to try pairs. “She’s just scared. She did not want me to hurt myself. But she knew my dad did it, and she wasn’t going to stop me from doing something that I wanted to do. She knew I really liked it, and each competition she sees that more, that I’m really enjoying it. So she’s opening her mind to it.”
Said Farand: “That’s totally normal, for a parent to be scared about that.”
I dug up some quotes I got from Chouinard a year ago at nationals in Oshawa, and you can hear some of that sentiment in her voice back then.
“What do I think? That’s my daughter, I just don’t her to hurt herself basically. You’re beautiful, as long as you enjoy it and work hard, that’s all that matters … Of course, I am nervous (watching). I have no control. No control. You just want them happy, you know?” she said at the time, later adding this about her hopes for Fiona. “It really is (about) her. I wanted this for her, to draw her path and not be following my footsteps.”
Guess we can say she’s certainly found her own path in skating now, right?
Let the Games begin
Kaiya Ruiter didn’t have long to bask in the glow of her first Canadian senior women’s title. Eight days later, she and coach Scott Davis were on their way to the Winter Youth Olympic Games, which began earlier this week in Gangwon, South Korea. Figure skating competition there starts on Saturday and is being held in Gangneung Ice Arena — the same venue used for the Winter Olympics in 2018.
For Ruiter, that rink is especially meaningful, as it’s where her idol Kaetlyn Osmond won a pair of medals — bronze individually and gold in the Team Event. The 17-year-old from Calgary has Olympic dreams of her own, of course, and Davis believes this event in Korea can help put that picture into a little clearer focus for her.
“For us and for her, it’s always about trying to make each performance a little bit stronger. Just learn and make it better, and have that experience of being part of the Olympic movement,” he said of their goals in Gangwon. “They do everything (at Youth Olympics) pretty much the same as the big Olympics. It’s a really good stepping stone for her.”
Canada’s team in Gangwon also includes David Li, of Richmond, British Columbia, the junior men’s silver medallist at the Canadian championships in Calgary; Alberta’s Annika Behnke and Kole Sauve in pairs, and two dance teams: Audra Gans and Michael Boutsan of Prevost, Quebec, and Caroline Kravets and Jacob Stark of Kitchener, Ontario.
The figure skating competition begins Saturday with the men’s and pairs short programs, followed by the women’s short program and rhythm dance on Sunday. The free programs for all disciplines follow over the next two days, with the Team Event rounding out the Games on Feb. 1.
Coverage of the Youth Olympic Games is being streamed at cbcsports.ca.