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. […]
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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, […]
COVID Clouds Canadian Championships
Vanessa James and Eric Radford are not at all certain they will compete at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships after testing positive – and recovering – from COVID. The pairs short program is on Friday, Jan. 7 while the long is on Saturday, Jan. 8. The pair, who got together this season, will […]
A Star is Born
Those hot pink gloves of Kamila Valieva: You couldn’t miss them in her Bolero free skate. They were the commas to every move. To the throbbing sounds of “Bolero,” the gloves skimmed the air, in and out and away as her hands moved, too. When she did a jump – any jump – the gloves […]