Worlds 2024: Bonjour from the Bell Centre
Four years after a global pandemic kept the planet's best figure skaters away from Montreal, it's finally this great Canadian city's turn to welcome the world.
MONTREAL — Four years later, we’re finally here. It’s about time.
The doors have been opened at the cavernous Bell Centre in the heart of this great Canadian city and the planet’s best figure skaters have eagerly glided onto its pristine ice surface. The building’s primary tenants, the legendary Montreal Canadiens, have headed west for a road trip as skaters of another kind take over the 21,000-plus seat venue for the World Figure Skating Championships, the pinnacle of the 2023-24 season.
You know, the same event that was supposed to be here way back in 2020, until that global emergency known as the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way. Dreams were crushed at the time, in many cases forever. But others are buoyed by the opportunity to get the do-over of a lifetime this week in Montreal. Among that group: Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, along with Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, and pairs skater Trennt Michaud (who was with his previous partner, Evelyn Walsh at the time … he’ll skate with Lia Pereira here this week, aiming to improve on their sixth-place finish in their Worlds debut a year ago in Saitama, Japan).
Having been here for hockey on several occasions in the past — I worked in the NHL in a previous life, if ya don’t know — let’s just say I know a thing or two about just how electrifying this building can get. Yeah, a lot of that is the passion this city has for its beloved Habs in the bleu, blanc et rouge, but the point being is this is an arena built to generate noise. As in, lots of it. And while the Bell Centre won’t be full to the rafters at any point this week, expect the excitement generated by a performance that brings a skating fan out of his or her seat to be greeted by an ovation that’ll give you the chills.
For the first two days here, however, it’ll be quiet time, relatively speaking. Another day of practices set for Tuesday, then we get this show underway for real on Wednesday with the pairs and women’s short programs. It’ll be quite the show and, after all this time, one well worth waiting to see.
Roman’s ‘redemption’
And while we’re on the subject of ‘finally, I’m here’ … consider the case of Canada’s Roman Sadovsky, who thought he’d blown what might have been a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to skate at a home Worlds four years ago. The now 24-year-old from Toronto spoke Monday about what happened in 2020, the year he won his first and only Canadian title — then promptly gave up his Worlds team spot to Nam Nguyen with a sub-par skate at the Four Continents Championships, which ultimately decided who Skate Canada planned to send to Montreal for the ‘home’ Worlds.
Even though that Worlds ended up being cancelled, it didn’t ease the sting of that result for Sadovsky, who placed 16th at that event in South Korea, 10 spots behind Nguyen, who was set to join his good buddy Keegan Messing on that World team (until the world shut down for months, that is).
“I didn’t feel it directly. I was just disappointed in my skate at Four Continents and not qualifying for the team,” he said. “I can’t imagine the team in 2020, how they felt having that cancellation. Some of them are actually on the team this time, but a lot of them are actually retired. They didn’t get that opportunity. In many cases, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
That thought was clearly in mind back in February in Shanghai, where Sadovsky wound up 10th — three spots behind newly minted Canadian champion Wesley Chiu but, most importantly, seven in front of Conrad Orzel.
“Definitely a level of relief, a level of accomplishment, and just huge, huge excitement,” he said of earning a ticket to Montreal. “The biggest thing for me is I wanted to do this World Championships four years ago. But my Four Continents skate wasn’t good. This has been kind of a weird year but also, a long-term redemption in a way.”
“Weird” may not do justice in describing all the things Sadovsky endured during the fall. He was off the ice for multiple months after injuring his ankle during the summer, then had two planned events wiped out by the strangest of circumstances. So he didn’t have any competitions to speak of until the Canadian Championships in Calgary, where he finished sixth overall (including fourth in the free skate).
“It was weird having nationals be my first competition of the season; even stranger doing Four Continents as my second (event) of the season,” he said. “Each competition was kind of like a stepping stone … it’s weird to say, but a primer for this one.”
Needless to say, there was a lot riding on what happened in Shanghai.
“Oh, 100 per cent. Every time I perform, I want to do my best. You know you put pressure on yourself regardless of what you tell yourself. You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can definitely feel the pressure,” he explained. “Especially nationals for me. The official protocol is they base the decision on the entire season and just readiness in general, but when you don’t have a season, you start scratching you head and say ‘okay, I’ve got to show something.’ So yeah, definitely some pressure there and a little bit at Four Continents. Just tried to focus on our plan and doing what we had to do. Four Continents, I didn’t have my entire program content there, but that was just to get as many check marks as possible in the program. Then after Four Continents, if I did make the team, I’d have several more weeks of decent training to put it together.”
The biggest addition here in Montreal will be triple Axels in both his programs (he used doubles at Four Continents). That’s to go along with one quad in the short and two in the long. As for what he hopes to accomplish at the Bell Centre, Sadovsky says “it’s a bit of a cop out answer, but skate the best that I can. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re training for. We training for the best skate that we can do and then the rest is kind of out of our hands. Hopefully, just really enjoying the moment and staying in the moment, and trying to bring every bit of energy that I can to the home crowd.”
And with Canada unlikely to play host to the world again until 2030 or 2031, Sadovsky knows this is surely a moment to savour from start to finish.
“It’s exciting being (in front of) a home crowd at a World Championships. It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “I doubt I’ll get to do another Worlds in Canada. I’m calling it right now — I don’t think it’s happening. I don’t see myself skating for another seven years.”