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 […]
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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 […]
Nathan Chen Finds his Feet
Nathan Chen crushed them. Just crushed them. If ever there was a wobble in your thinking about Chen’s prowess on the men’s figure skating scene after Skate America, then straighten yourself in your seat, find a crutch, get a new pair of Birkenstocks, anything, and get ready to marvel again. After he finished third at […]
The Long and Winding Road
The long and winding road isn’t quite finished yet for world bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. But this year they are celebrating it. And skating to it. Using the Beatles music to it, they won a gold medal at Skate Canada on Saturday. It’s an important gold medal: it’s their first Grand Prix […]
The Newest Face of Russian Women
Before any talk of triple Axels or quads or such, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva stepped out onto the ice at the start of her short program at Skate Canada and did something seemingly quite simple. But astonishing nonetheless. Dressed in rose froth, the 15-year-old Russian stretched out a leg far, far up and behind her, up […]
Canadian Pair Rivalry
Okay. It’s the elephant in the room. The comeback of Olympic bronze medalist and world pair champion Eric Radford could sit heavily on two-time Canadian pair champions Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. And yes it has. They would like to go into the Beijing Olympics in February as the national champions, but now there is […]
Gilles and Poirier: Another Breakthrough
What do you do for an encore, after you’ve won a bronze medal at the world figure skating championships after years of toiling in the shadows? When you’re Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, you go out and nail the highest score of the season for the rhythm dance at Skate Canada in Vancouver, in front […]
Nathan Chen Finds Redemption
So Nathan Chen had a couple of bad days at Skate America last week. He wasn’t about to hit the panic button, he said. His long winning streak, back to the 2018 Olympics, was bound to end sometime, he said. However, the three-time world champion got back into the saddle at Skate Canada on Friday, […]