Some Grand news ... and a milestone
The announcement of the Grand Prix Series assignments is a sign that a new season is drawing closer. And all of Canada's biggest stars are back for another round.
First off, an admission: This column isn’t the one we planned a week ago, when the idea was to come up with something simple that could be posted early in the week before some much-deserved (isn’t it always?) time away from the day job. Today’s date also meshed perfectly with that kind of thinking (you’ll now have to wait a little bit to see what I mean).
But then some news dropped on Sunday. And so we’ll put off my original plan for the end of this piece, and instead deal with the International Skating Union’s release of the Grand Prix Series entries for the 2024-25 season. So what follows will be a quick breakdown of what it all means for Canadian skaters. But first off, if you’re wondering why your favourite skater — from Canada or elsewhere in the world — didn’t make the cut, here’s what is behind the ISU’s decision making process (from the ISU’s website).
With that in mind, here’s a discipline-by-discipline look at which Canadian skaters are headed where during the Series of these six events:
Skate America: Oct. 18-20, Allen, Texas
Skate Canada International: Oct. 25-27, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Grand Prix de France: Nov. 1-3, Angers
NHK Trophy: Nov. 8-10, Tokyo, Japan
Finlandia Trophy: Nov. 15-17, Helsinki
Cup of China: Nov. 22-24, Chongqing
Men
Skate America: Wesley Chiu
Skate Canada: Stephen Gogolev, Aleksa Rakic, Roman Sadovsky
NHK Trophy: Stephen Gogolev
Cup of China: Wesley Chiu
Quick Thoughts: We should mention here that countries get three entries at their home Grand Prix, which is why you’ll see a trio of Canadian entries in each discipline at Skate Canada. Reigning national champion Chiu gets two entries, one at each end of the schedule, but not his home event. That allows Rakic and Sadovsky to get their lone assignment in Halifax.
Women
Skate Canada: Kaiya Ruiter, Madeline Schizas, Sara-Maude Dupuis
Cup of China: Madeline Schizas
Quick Thoughts: Safe to say, it’s a statement on the state of Canadian women’s skating that Schizas is the only one from this country to get an assignment beyond our borders. That means four of six Grand Prix events won’t have an entry from Canada. National champion Ruiter gets to put her new programs on display for the home folks in Halifax.
Pairs
Skate Canada: Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps; Kelly Ann Laurin/Loucas Ethier; third entry TBD
Grand Prix de France: Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud
Finlandia Trophy: Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps; Kelly Ann Laurin/Loucas Ethier
Cup of China: Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud
Quick Thoughts: Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps got their drive to a World championship truly started at Skate Canada last season (where they delivered this sensational free skate), and they’ll begin their Grand Prix season there again this fall. Pereira and Michaud are the defending champions in France, with that gold medal securing their ticket to the Grand Prix Final. Coming off their Worlds debut in Montreal, Laurin and Ethier get two well-earned Grand Prix assignments this fall.
Ice Dance
Skate America: Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Soerensen; Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac
Skate Canada: Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier; Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha; Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer
Grand Prix de France: Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac
NHK Trophy: Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Soerensen
Finlandia Trophy: Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier
Cup of China: Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha
Quick Thoughts: The biggest Canadian news out of the assignment release? That would be the return of Gilles and Poirier, who left Montreal undecided about their future after earning an historic silver medal. Wonder no more about that, and you’ll see them in Halifax in October.
They’ll be joined at Scotiabank Centre by rising stars Lajoie and Lagha, who placed fifth at Worlds. Both of those teams get a pair of assignments, as do Fournier Beaudry and Soerensen, who have also chosen to return. Canada’s No. 4 team, Lauriault and Le Gac, will also be seen twice on the Grand Prix circuit — most notably in their birth country of France. It should also be noted that this is the only discipline in which Canada will field an entry in all six events, yet another sign of ice dance’s strength in this country.
Time flies, right?
We’ll conclude with the originally planned purpose of this column … which was to note the milestone that June 11 (Tuesday) represents. It was on this day exactly one year ago that I wrote this as an introduction to my decision to dive into the world of Substack. And I have to say, it may well be the best move I’ve made in “work” terms in quite some time (I put “work” in quotation marks because, quite frankly, posting in this space has felt like the farthest thing from a job for me. It truly is the proverbial labour of love).
Have to say it truly is hard to believe that I’ve been at this for a full year now. I entered it with the lowest of expectations about how many people might find me here and at this point, it must be said that I’ve been overwhelmed by the response. The number of subscribers here continues to grow with each passing week, and so does my gratitude for each and every one of you who have chosen to join me on the crazy little ride. It is beyond gratifying, to say the least.
When I came up with the name for this space, I did it with the thought that I’d leave it open for me to write about any topic (although clearly, it would be sports driven. It’s been my writing career for literally decades, after all). But it became obvious early on that the sport I’ve covered for more than 30 years is the one that people want to read about the most. And so that’s why you’ll see more figure skating columns here than anything else. As the old saying goes, the people have spoken. And what you want most of all, you’ll get here.
That being said, I’m looking forward to diving into some Paris Olympics coverage this summer, so count on a bunch of that right here. And maybe something else will intrigue me along the way. But what is for certain is that Hammer That Keyboard has rekindled my sportswriting chops in a big way over the last year. It truly has been the gift that keeps on giving. And I won’t be going away anytime soon. In all honesty, this has been way too much fun,
I’ll leave you with one final anecdote about this — and it says it all about what this journey has meant to me. Allow me to take you back to the events of March 21, the night Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps put Canada back on top of the World pairs podium. It was an unforgettable (and lengthy) night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, with the post-event press conference not finishing until 11:45 p.m. We’d barely gotten back to the media centre when we were told the building had to be vacated by midnight (house rules). It meant packing up my computer, schlepping 15 minutes down the street to my hotel, and figuring out how to sum up what I’d seen.
One thing I’ve learned in this business, though, is this: the more exhilarating the moment you’ve seen, the easier it can be to describe it. That 15-minute walk back to the hotel gave me time to think about the whole thing, and the words just flowed when I got going. It was the best thing I wrote all week. Near the end of it all, I noticed the clock in the corner of my computer screen was ticking toward 2 a.m. And I had this thought:
“I’m not even getting paid to do this! Why am I still up?”
But then, almost immediately, this thought …
“Now you know you’re doing this for the right reason.”
Like I said, labour of love. And not an ounce of regret.
Until we meet here again …
I was also there that wonderfully exciting evening. What a joy! So good to know that experience and hard work do indeed pay dividends! (Incidentally hope you were able to catch Roger Federer's address to the students at Dartmouth. Applies to all our skaters too.
Keep up the great work - will eagerly await the next edition.