U.S. Olympian Vincent Zhou has been moved to speak out against the handling of the Russian doping practices that led to a hearing regarding Kamila Valieva, who tested positive for a substance at her nationals – but we didn’t find out about it until after the Olympics. Almost two years has passed before the international […]
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Keegan Messing, Climbing Every Mountain
KITCHENER, Ont. Keegan Messing hasn’t plopped himself down on a rinkside seat for two minutes before he pulls out the cell phone and up pops a photo of his three-month old daughter, Mia. She has so much hair. Dark, of course, like his. And then another one of son Wyatt in a snowsuit, with […]
Patrick Chan Reborn
For the past couple of years, Patrick Chan has done no skating. None. None at all. Nada. It’s hard to believe that a skater so highly revered by others, with unmatchable edges and speed and flow and power and glide, has put those skates on in recent years only to do a bit of coaching […]
Kurt Browning Farewell
KITCHENER, Ont. The rain fell in torrents on Kitchener, Ont., and two hours away in Orillia, Ont., too, on May 7. A soggy Sunday for the ages. It was a time for final curtain calls, all on the same day: one a visitation for songbird Gordon Lightfoot, who died May 1 at age 84, and […]
Indiana Jones has Nothing on Keegan Messing
The story of Keegan Messing reads like a book. A best-selling book. He’s the Indiana Jones of the skating set, pushing his way through temples of doom in his quest for the holy Sankara Stones, except that Messing’s high adventures are hair-raising in other ways: skates that don’t arrive, flights that are cancelled, a pandemic […]
Virus hobbles pair team
Early in the season, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps seemed to have the world in their grip. After finishing second at Skate America and winning their first Grand Prix gold, in France, and thus qualifying for the Grand Prix Final for the first time, they appeared a lock to win their first national title […]
Don’t Cry for Gilles and Poirier: “Evita”
Finally, after 11 years, it was time to do “Evita.” It just happened. The stars were aligned. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier wanted to do “Evita” 11 years ago when they first teamed up, but the time was never right. It’s so right, they used it to win the Skate Canada International on Saturday with […]
They Never Walk Alone
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara seemed atop the world last season, as they rumbled to a silver medal at the world championships and a seventh at the Olympics, the first Japanese skaters in 10 years to win world and Grand Prix medals. Over the summer, they lost their mojo. Miura suffered a shoulder injury that […]
Too Sexy for Their Shirts
It was a new look: Paul Poirier stepping onto the ice with a muscle shirt, no sleeves, showing his deltoids, sparking the spark. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the 2021 world bronze medalists in ice dancing, do quirky and iconic. Now they’re bringing sexy to the mix. Coach Carol Lane found the music in a […]
The Men’s Short Program: A Slippery Slope
Okay, it’s early in the season. We get that. The Olympics took the starch out of a lot of athletes last season and it’s so hard to pull up the bootstraps after that. But the men’s short program at Skate Canada International Grand Prix was….a learning experience for most. It was hard. Really hard. For […]