MONTREAL
Pair skating came to life on Wednesday at the world figure skating championships.
It started with a breath. You could hear it right at the beginning of the short program – skated to the Montreal song “Oxygene” – of Canadian champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps.
They delivered. The improbable Canadians – she 40 years old, he an ADHD veteran of eight partners who never gave up – won the short program over a cascade of improving skaters from a host of countries that had never been known for skating in twos while throwing, twisting and death spiraling.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps won with a new personal best score (by four points) of 77.48 points after earning the highest levels of difficulty (four) on a triple twist, a hip lift, a combination spin, a step sequence, (so hard to get) and a forward inside death spiral, which is like rolling over on the couch for them. (They try a much harder one in the free.)
They finished four points ahead of the fast and floaty Japanese team, Riku Muira and Ryuichi Kihara, who won the world title a year ago, but have been hampered by his back injury early in the season.
The Japanese team, which trains in Oakville, Ont. felt warmed by the reception from the large noisy crowd (which defied all expectations of an empty rink) – even though they are not from Canada. They got a level three for a triple twist, was just short of rotation on their triple toe loop jumps, and she landed a throw triple Lutz very slightly on two feet. But level fours abounded for other elements.
They said they did what they could, and finished with 73.53 points, well below their personal best of 80.72 that they earned at the world championships last year at home in Japan.
Sitting in third is Italian team Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, with 72.88.
Canadian teams finished first, ninth (Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud with 64.83) and 14th (Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, who earned a standing ovation for an impeccable routine worth a season’s best of 60.18 )
Laurin was in tears at the thought of her ill grandmother watching from the stands alongside her parents. And there was an emotional release after skating at a home worlds in front of family and friends. “I was very proud of us, what we did,” Laurin said.
“It was a very very special feeling [to skate at a home worlds],” Ethier said. “People were telling us how special it was going to be, but there is no way we could prepare for that.
“They gave us wings.”
The leaders’ task was not to lose control in an emotionally charged venue. “I am in no way more nervous at this event than I have been for others because it is a home worlds and I know a lot of people in the audience, including some people who never watch me skate and they are here,” Stellato-Dudek said.
“So I want them to think I am cool.”
She knew she needed to release all of that emotion and let it go. Still, she felt very nervous. She tried to turn things down and remain calm and remember all her key words for the performance.
They received a huge ovation when they stepped onto the ice. “It was really special,” Deschamps said. “[We knew] it was going to be really loud.”
Their starting position is so difficult, Stellato-Dudek was forced to focus. She bends over backward, so far she could see the Bell Centre logo on the ceiling. She had to balance her body to do it. She had to hit many musical highlights. “They are immediate, so you get right back into the program,” she said.
When it ended, she was glad this short program was over. She had to fight for her throw triple loop. Still, they got excellent GOE for it: an extra 1.86 points.
Stellato-Dudek said she will not think about the four -point lead they have over the Japanese. “”Tomorrow is a new day. A lot can happen in the long. We have twice the number of elements.”
Pereira and Michaud hit the all of noise early on, “We knew having a home worlds would be a different, once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Pereira said. “I think we felt that today. To skate a program like that and to feel the energy and the atmosphere of the crowd was so amazing.”
The performance was a triumph considering that Michaud injured his back on the first training day after the Canadian championships.
Michaud said he could not skate for one day.
“It was a week of modified training,” Pereira said. “Very modified. Just choreography.”
The injury “came out of nowhere,” Michaud said. They had only one normal day of training before the Four Continents championships.
The top 10 teams in the short program Wednesday came from Canada, Japan, Italy, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, and the United States. “One of the best pairs short program competitions I’ve seen in a long, long time,” said two-time world pair champion Meagan Duhamel in a tweet.
Even the effort turned in by Ukrainian pair skaters Sofia Holichenko and Artem Darenskyi raised a loud cheer from the crowd. They were greeted warmly before they skated. And then despite uncertain training conditions in their home city of Dnipro, they fired off a triple twist, perfectly synchronized triple Salchows, a throw triple loop.
They wore soft cream outfits that they used two years ago for another routine. It is not easy to find seamstresses in Dnipro. Darenskyi’s coach Ihor Marchenko did not accompany them to Montreal because he couldn’t get a visa. The Ukrainian team also had difficulties getting visas, but managed to snare them before the trip.
Darenskyi says he dislikes both of his routines here. They skated Wednesday to ‘Hit the Road Jack,” because it was strongly suggested. Darenskyi prefers rock.
They do what they can. Darenskyi said they endure war, bombs falling, sirens blowing. Dnipro is in the eastern part of Ukraine, on the Dnipro River. Russians see it as a vital strike point to perhaps prevent Ukrainian troops getting to the Donbas area.
For a week, they are in a safe place. And celebrated by a crowd.
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