Eric Radford thought he needed a Plan B. So did Vanessa James. So they hitched their plans together, rather organically. It just sort of happened. But they didn’t expect that the announcement of their new pair partnership with 10 months to go before the Beijing Olympics would be met with such snarling reaction. Hurt feelings […]
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Gilles and Poirier: At Last
Sweet dreams are made of these. In ice dancing on Saturday, it was everything that led up to the bronze medal – only .36 points away from a silver – won by Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at the world figure skating championships. Although they won the bronze medal, they finished second in the free […]
Nathan Chen’s Epic Adventure
Nathan Chen is ever thus: calmer than a pool. And focused like a laser beam, although he doesn’t look it. He won his third consecutive world title with explosive point totals on Saturday. He had come to Stockholm, grateful to be there. He had shaken off his woolly lockdown curls, shrugged off a hiccup in […]
Pairs Short Program: Getting the Rust Out
Hold a world championship for the first time in two years, during a pandemic (with rising numbers in many places), with all sorts of training interruptions and stay-at-home orders and what could go wrong? It all came to roost in the pairs short program Wednesday at the world figure skating championships in Stockholm. Is […]
Gilles and Poirier: on a Quest for the Sun
“Now they only block the sun. They rain and snow on everyone. So many things I would have done, But clouds got in my way.” Indeed. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier will skate to these Joni Mitchell words next week at the world figure skating championships in Stockholm, Sweden. No doubt, for them […]
Keegan Messing: Of Chainsaws and Car Batteries
It’s true, these are different times, but nobody on the planet prepares for a world figure skating championship the way Keegan Messing does. Nobody. The rope-climbing, ladder-ascending, pole-clinging, Lazy Boy-toting, Husky-loving, old car-tinkerer and iceberg paddler of a mountain man from Alaska had to resort to new tricks during a pandemic. The gym was […]
Moore-Towers, Marinaro Head into the Unknown
Canadian pair champions Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro did not believe there would be a world figure skating championship this season, so hunkered down were they because of a pandemic that doesn’t quit. They thought their virtual performances earlier this year at Skate Canada Challenge were going to be it this season, and everybody […]
Circelli takes the high road
In the grey of winter, and the stillness of days, Corey Circelli was on watch: for his costumes. They didn’t come in time for the videotaping of his routines for the Skate Canada Challenge. They were to be the icing on the cake of all he had done during a pandemic. In fact, they […]
A Challenge to the Finish
“Show me a garden that’s bursting into life,” go the words to the song “Chasing Cars,” a hypnotic tune done by the Irish/Scottish rock band Snow Patrol. And so goes Roman Sadovsky, who won the senior men’s event at the Skate Canada Challenge event on Sunday. After winning his first national title last year – […]
Madeline Schizas Aiming High
Perhaps we can’t technically call Madeline Schizas a Canadian champion. The national championships were cancelled. But effectively, she is, after her decisive win Saturday in the Skate Canada Challenge. The Challenge is all we’ve got to figure out who is tops in the country right now. Schizas, 17, won the women’s event at Challenge with […]