Worlds 2024: 'We want to be world champions'
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are headed to Montreal next week with a lofty goal in mind. And they believe they've got the goods and the mindset to stand on top of the podium at the Bell Centre
It’s gold medal or bust for Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in Montreal.
So says the fetching couple from Canada with an eye toward the World Figure Skating Championships, which begin Wednesday at the Bell Centre in the heart of the country’s most cosmopolitan city. Gilles and Poirier are the reigning bronze medallists at Worlds, but they’ve made it clear their sights are set even higher this time. As in, as high as they can be.
“We have some big goals. We’re looking to win this event. We want to be world champions,” Poirier said earlier this week in a media conference call. “We’re really excited to be able to do this World Championships at home. More than anything, it’s going to be a really strong competition. It’s going to come down to us bringing our best skating, being confident in our skating and not doubting ourselves, and just skating to the ability that we know we can. It’s a big goal, but we feel up to it, we feel confident in our preparation and our training.”
While that is what exists in the present for the three-time Canadian champions, they also engaged in a little bit of a trip down memory lane during the call. As you may well recall, Gilles and Poirier’s second season together ended with an appearance at 2013 Worlds in London, Ontario. It was not only their introduction to the sport’s largest annual global stage, it also gave the duo a first taste of what it can be like to compete at a home Worlds. And it left the kind of impression that’s difficult to forget.
“It was just the overall environment. It was so nice to step into an arena at such a calibre (event) and have familiar faces there. Like people who have been volunteering at Skate Canada events for many, many years. Just having those Canadian volunteers gives a sense of home in the back stage,” said Gilles, who was 21 at the time, in recalling their week at Budweiser Gardens. “And the fans, they’re going to roar for Canadians before they even get their names announced. You can predict that for any Canadian skater. And they’ll support every skater, as well, but for the Canadians, it’ll be on another level. It’s a fun environment and I’m so excited to be a Canadian athlete who gets to experience that. It’s really like nothing else.”
The reception was especially welcoming for Gilles, who was born in the Chicago area and called Colorado home before she crossed the border to join forces with Poirier (her mother and grandmother were Canadian; she became a Canadian citizen herself in December 2013). And it was a noisy welcome at that, something that made her feel right at home.
“Canada has embraced me from the beginning; they’ve never treated me any differently. It was maybe one of those times where it was ‘wow, they believe in me as a Canadian athlete,’” she said of that first huge ovation. “They were waving the flag and cheering for us … I wasn’t even a Canadian yet. I think any athlete will tell you that that’s why Canadian fans are so unique in the sense, and that they’re going to cheer for you no matter what country you represent. For me, that’s what made it special, in that Canada has always embraced me.”
(an aside: can’t remember whether it was in London or at one of their earlier competitions together in Canada, but I distinctly remember Gilles showing up at an event with little red maple leaf flags painted on her fingernails. So that “embracing” definitely went both ways, it might be suggested).
Gilles and Poirier finished 18th at those Worlds in London, less than a point behind Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, the current European champions who will also be among the main challengers for gold in Montreal (also making their Worlds debut in London were Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who placed seventh. They are the reigning World champions, won the Grand Prix Final in December, and have eyes set firmly on gold in Montreal).
The year after London, the Canadian duo made a quantum leap to eighth place at Worlds, and they’ve never been lower since. And here they are, 11 years after that maiden voyage at the event in London, perhaps better than ever. Ask the skaters if they ever imagined being at a second Worlds in Canada all these years later — let alone being among the favourites to win — and they’ll tell you it wasn’t really imaginable at the time.
“Honestly, no,” Gilles said with a laugh. “I thought the last Olympics (in 2022 in Beijing) was going to be our final hurrah … I did not see myself at this World Championships. When we started a little bit into last season, and (had) the idea of what possibly could be and riding a little bit on the success of last season … it was like, it’s one more season and there’s still more we can create, but if we’re going to create something, do it our way and do something that speaks to us.
“I don’t know why I didn’t see ourselves skating this long. What has made our career so special is we said yes to every opportunity and things come our way. If we go with them and we embrace the change … now here we are. We’re still here, we’re still kicking, we’re going into another Canadian Worlds with our eyes on gold. Just being able to say that is pretty cool. The two of us are so grateful we have this opportunity.”
They’ll also tell you that taking it one season at a time has been beneficial to their skating, rather than having another four-year plan. There is another decision to come after this season and, with an Olympics in 2026 looming ever closer, one would think the thought this time has to be going one more year probably means a second as well. But with Montreal Worlds right in front of them, that’s a decision to be pushed aside for another day.
“It doesn’t feel like something that is actively on our minds right now, honestly. Our minds are on Worlds this season. It’s really exciting, what we’re doing right now. A few tours are lined up for the spring that we’re excited about,” said Poirier. “I think what I’ve constantly found as an athlete is that … you can’t plan for how you’re going to feel and what is going to motivate you or inspire you and what you’re going to be drawn to or want to do in the future. I’ve never felt that any part of our career has gone exactly the way we planned it … it’s led us to places that we’ve really loved and enjoyed. So I don’t feel like I can answer that question with any certainty
“That’s the lesson here, and I think about life in general. Opportunities come up, feelings come up and you follow them and make choices according to them. We can’t brace for those things, we can only focus on the work that we’re doing right now that we’re really enjoying and do it to the best of our ability. It’s so exciting and it’s such a gift.”
As the Bell (Centre) tolls …
We’ve mentioned this previously, but Skate Canada took its team to the Bell Centre last week to give all of its skaters a bit of a test run in the cavernous arena. It was an especially momentous occasion for the team members who call Montreal home, and are well-versed in the glorious history of the building’s primary tenants. That would be the NHL’s Canadiens, the most storied franchise in league history (sorry, Toronto) with its 24 Stanley Cups and countless of Hall of Famers, all of which are commemorated by banners hanging from the building’s rafters (the majority of that history happened further west of the Bell Centre at the famed Montreal Forum, which the Habs vacated in 1996 for their current home).
So perhaps it was no surprise to hear Maxime Deschamps, who is from Montreal, say he had to take a moment before that practice last week, as he stood at centre ice with the famed ‘CH’ Canadiens logo beneath his skates.
“The Montreal Canadiens here in Montreal are so big, so when I was in the middle of the ice, I took a moment to look at the banners near the roof of the Stanley Cup wins, and see all the (greatest) players that they had,” he said. “It’s really special to be there. And I saw all the other athletes, especially the ones from Montreal, have that same feeling, too. It’s special for all of us.”
It was also an occasion that demanded a photo to treasure for a lifetime.
“The Montreal Canadiens logo was still in the centre of the ice, so he made sure to take a selfie of the Canadiens logo and him there on the ice because it won’t be there next week (when Worlds begins),” said his pair partner Deanna Stellato-Dudek. “I was like ‘what are you doing?’ and he said ‘I have to get a selfie.’”
A few weeks back, the duo took in a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre, just to get a sense of what the building will feel like with an audience inside of it. While Deschamps has been there plenty of times, it was a first for Stellato-Dudek and it left her with quite the impression, to say the least.
“The Habs game has a certain kind of energy. I’ve been to some other hockey games in my life and that had a different kind of energy,” she said. “And Max was like ‘there’s going to be this many people here to watch us.’ I don’t even want to think about it … I just want to think about doing my job and what I have to do.’ Of course, it will really be special. We have a lot of friends and family who are coming, so we know we’re going to have a lot of support no matter what happens.”
While the Bell Centre has more than 21,000 seats, putting it among the largest arenas in North America, Stellato-Dudek says she got a more intimate vibe from being on the ice last week.
“The dry run at the Bell Centre, it went really well. We would be thrilled to do that program next Wednesday,” she said. “The ice was really nice, the experience was great. Somehow, that big arena really has a kind of homey feel. It’s weird. I’ve been to a couple of other arenas like that, too, that are so enormous that don’t feel that way when you’re on the ice. That’s kind of the vibe I got when I was skating there.”
All eyes on the Worlds
If you’re not in Montreal, you’ll still be able to watch Worlds on CBC, either via streaming or on the main television network itself. Still working here to find out exactly what the mix is, but haven’t gotten that answer from the public broadcaster yet. But here is the schedule that’s posted on their website:
On the road again …
Hammer That Keyboard is headed to Montreal next week for the World Championships. We’ll have dispatches from the Bell Centre beginning on Monday. Hit the subscribe button below if you want all of our coverage delivered straight to your inbox. Or visit our website right here.