For the first time in years, athletes at the national team training camp in Mississauga this week, are bunking up with roommates in the hotels, like in the old days. And having buffets. It seems, well, rather normal. COVID-19 hit Canadian skaters harder than many, as dominos of competitions were cancelled domestically. They hit […]
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Alone
I did not realize, until I watched the NBC broadcast in the evening of Feb. 17, just how deeply ran the emotions of an Olympic women’s figure skating event gone wrong. I had not seen all of Kamila Valieva’s tears when she finished. I had not seen how, when she came off the ice, her […]
Tough Decisions
The tough part: Canada has only two Olympic pair skating spots. The even more tough part: Canada had three teams that wanted those two spots. This decision was the most difficult to make for Skate Canada about the 13 skaters that would make up the Olympic team, and also the most controversial. Dance, singles: easy. […]
Moore-Towers and Marinaro: Sweet Victory
The beleaguered Canadian pair skaters talked of “noise.” There was “noise” they had to overcome to do their best. And their best hadn’t been at hand all season. Of course, there is plenty of noise every day about the dangers of COVID and how easy it is to catch. And who has it? And who […]
Madeline Schizas: Queen of Smarts
Madeline Schizas is a smart cookie. After she won her first Canadian title, and is poised to become an Olympian, her biggest goal has less to do with putting a blade to ice than self-preservation. “My biggest goal is to avoid catching COVID,” she said Saturday after decidedly winning by 27.59 points. “That’s my biggest […]
Gilles and Poirier Dance to the Olympics
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier aren’t on autopilot yet. That will be their next step on the Olympic journey. The ice dancing duo won their third national title on Saturday, testing out their “Long and Winding Road” free dance for judges and virtuals. (They would have won a fourth, had the event not been cancelled […]
Keegan Messing: Canadian Champion.
Keegan Messing finally did it. After nine seasons skating for Canada, Keegs won his first national title, doing it the hardest way possible: in a pandemic, with skates that didn’t arrive (at first), with his best friend suffering from COVID, with a trip from hell to get to the national skating championships in Ottawa. Somehow, […]
Wanted: Standing Ovations
Standing ovations were needed in the pairs short program at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. They were not there, of course. Nobody was there, but skaters and officials and coaches. The yawning rink seats echoed in their burgundy stillness. After a season of miscues and slips and lifts aborted, and jumps gone awry, Kirsten […]
Keegan Messing: Keeping the Butterflies in Check
In the annals of Canadian figure skating, there never has been such a buffalo-checked, adventure-seeking, resourceful, colourful, candid patineur of the north as Keegan Messing. The 29-year-old skater proved it this week after a 33-hour trip to the Canadian skating championships from Alaska with his wife and child, only to find that his skates didn’t […]
Keegan Messing’s Odyssey
It was ever thus: Keegan Messing, taking to the airwaves from Alaska to anywhere in the world, always faced the prospect of a long and winding road. But his latest odyssey – to compete at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Ottawa this week – takes the cake. With weather delays and COVID-related cancellations, […]