Timing seems to be everything.
The only times in history that the world figure skating championships have previously been held in beautiful, historic Prague, Canadian pairs and men’s skaters have excelled.
Make that four world gold medals at two events, separated by 31 years: 1962 and 1993.
It’s now another 33 years since the most recent world championships were held in Prague, so perhaps the numbers and the place suggest a path for the success of Stephen Gogolev, fifth at the Milan Olympics and Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, eighth after being third in the pair short program.
(Even so, ice dance bumps into this algorithm quite impishly. In 1993, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz finished 14th at the beginning of their rise up the ladder. In Prague next week, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier should win a medal.)
In 1962, Canadian men’s skater Donald Jackson took the world title while becoming the first skater to land a triple Lutz in competition. And Maria and Otto Jelinek won the pairs event with double jumps, better spins and innovative pair moves – like an overhead lift in which the man turned while holding the partner aloft. The turning was new.
In 1993, when Czechia and Slovakia were still Czechoslovakia, Kurt Browning won the men’s event, while Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler took the pairs.
Now the world championships are back in Prague and the astronomical clock, installed in 1410 – is still ticking. In fact, it’s the only astronomical clock still running. And perhaps it’s signalling that it may be time for the Canadians to get their elbows up again.
Strangely enough, men and pair skaters Gogolev and Pereira and Michaud seem to be sort of a package deal. Gogolev and Michaud were roommates in Milan and have roomed together a couple of times before that at skating events.
“Stephen and I are very chill and relaxed with each other,” Michaud said on a conference call this week. ‘It was nice to have that aspect at the Games. Easiest way of having a bro with you. To not talk about skating or whatever we wanted to do, and go and have dinner or lunch.”
A time or two, Michaud would get the barb: “Oh Trennt, you must have been feeding him protein,” referring to Gogolev, who was torching the ice with his skills.
”It was really nice to have Stephen there,” Michaud said. “And It also made my experience better. Hopefully it did for him, too.” (Gogolev confirmed so)
Pereira gives credit to Gogolev for introducing them to the boot dryers at the Games. “It makes both of our lives more clean smelling,” she said. These things are important.
Pereira and Michaud have been affectionately called the Golden Retrievers of the team, cheerful, ready to help, very sociable people. Back at home in Brantford, On, out to pick up something at a mall, Michaud encountered a group of about seven teenaged boys who spotted his Olympic jacket. “Are you an Olympian?” Well, yes. In one of the stores, Michaud met four more teens, who all wanted photos with him. Michaud was happy to oblige.
At the Olympics, they had quite a task. With the withdrawal of 2024 world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps from the team event because of injury, Pereira and Michaud had to take the entire load of that event, as well as muster up high energy for the individual event that followed. Just as Gogolev did.
They had already been told they were to do the free skate in the team event. But their work load increased with Stellato-Dudek injury.
And it was their first Olympics, too. Pereira, 21 and Michaud, 29, have been together only 3 ½ years. Their progress has been remarkable.
In the team event, Pereira and Michaud held their own, finishing fourth in the short program which helped the team finish in the top five and qualify for the free. With strong lifts and a season’s best of 134.42, they finished fifth in the free program.
They had a little time to recover: ice dancers had it tougher, having to start their individual event right after the team event. The pairs did not begin until after the ice dance and men’s event had finished, a week after the team vent. In a deep field, Pereira and Michaud finished third in the short program
Their performance was tip-top, never better, like they had taken wings: a level-4 triple twist, in fact level 4 everything: reverse lasso lift, combo spin, step sequence, death spiral. Their throw triple loop sang. Their triple toe loops did too. It was a dream skate – at an Olympics.
Others had difficulties: world champs Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara aborted a lift, which sunk them to fifth place, Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps, who arrived in Milan a few days before without having done run-throughs, had bobbles, Deschamps stepped out of a triple toe loop, and then shock of all shocks, Stellato-Dudek fell out of a reverse lasso lift. They were 14th.And it became impossible for them to get a medal.
The highly regarded Italians on home ice – Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii – had troubles, too. Conti, who had a heavily wrapped knee after a practice incident before the Games, stepped out of a triple Salchow. They ended up 8th. It was that kind of day. Pairs is a high-risk event. Anything can happen.
But not for Pereira and Michaud. Mind you, this lofty finish could have put extra pressure on them. But apparently not. They took it in stride.
“I guess you could look at it that way,” Pereira said. “But I think we trained very hard and Trennt and I did a version of a clean short every day in training and all this year, the short program has been a good vehicle for us.”
They did not feel out of place with that third-place finish. They had competed with the same group all season, including short program leaders Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany. I
“To be in the top group at the Olympics I think on paper sounded a little bit crazy, but not necessarily where we had expected, we had always hoped to be within the top two groups after the short program.
@We were just happy to have made the last two groups after the flood. “Okay, perfect, this is where we want to be,” Pereira said. “We just kept seeing ourselves stay at the top.”
Periera said they tried to remove the noise of being in third place after the short. And they had gained confidence from the team event. “We just treated it as if it were a random draw, and let’s just perform like we know we can and not get too caught up in the news headline of making the last group.”
As for Michaud, he said: “We do believe that when we skate well, that’s where we can be. And it was nice to actually have that happen. ..It was another good reminder of how we want to feel when we skate, how we want to feel after we date”
They had skated to “Say You Love Me,” by Jessie Ware and the routine had been choreographed by ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Adrian Diaz, as well as by their coach Allison Purkiss.
Their great skate just confirmed to them that their training and mental preparation had been on the right track.
They put it all in perspective; although that was their first Olympics, they had already competed at three world championships Same but different. “You can’t really wait to say: ‘Hey it’s our first one, let’s see what happens’,” Pereria said,. “We have a lot of experience in competitions, even if it’s just local ones. Every time you go out, it’s a different experience….We always try to learn from each experience and take that with us to the next one.”
With every event, they have “more tools in the toolbox,” as Michaud says.
A little hype around their performances excites them, actually. “It’s motivating for sure,” Pereira said.
Michaud said they also brought with them confidence from the national championships in Gatineau, Que. They weren’t expected to win that: Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were. But more miscues from the 2024 world champions plunged them into second place. Pereira and Michaud went into the Olympics – and now the world championships in Prague – as the Canadian champions.
They will be facing a depleted field. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps have withdrawn as have the Olympic champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, as well as Conti and Macii.Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (9th) will be replaced by Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe.(7th)
And just today, Australians Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore have pulled out too.They had finished only 18th at the Olympics and did not qualify for the free. They had been battling long-term injuries.
Chinese stars Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (5th) did not enter, and neither did a second Italian pair Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini (12th).
In fact there will be only 21 pairs at the world championships in Prague. After the short program, only one team will not continue to the free.
Some men have pulled out too. Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov has not entered and Junhwan Cha will be replaced by YoungHyun Cha. Junhwan Cha was the skater who finished in fourth, his total mark only.14 ahead of Gogolev.
Italian Matteo Rizzo, the hero of the team event, is out, replaced by Gabriele Frangipani, who has not had a stellar season.
Although Periera and Michaud had some slip-ups in the Olympic free skate, they are taking a great deal of confidence from their experience. “There’s a little excitement as we get to go out one more time, to perform in front of the world,” Michaud said.
They had to leave the Olympic village three days after their event, which prevented them from taking part in the closing ceremonies. But it has given them more days off at home. And their season-ending club show helped maintain energy levels, choreographing a show number was a fun distraction , and kept them from burning out from their next task.
The time has gone by very fast, Periera said. One week out, the excitement put new freshness into their training. They are so ready to go to Prague.
Michaud isn’t joking when he said he and Pereira say: “There’s no place else we’d rather be.”
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