Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier surfed their way to a second-place finish in the rhythm dance at the world figure skating championships in Boston on Friday.
Music from The Beach Boys and a casual band of 15-year-olds called the Surfaris led Gilles and Poirier to a score of 86.44, which was 1.93 short of their personal best. But good enough to back up two-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who are far out in front with 90.18. a mark short of their personal and season’s best, too.
The judges were tough, as they should be at a world championship. NOBODY got a level four for the pattern dance steps, nor for a step sequence in Boston.
Only a handful of teams got a level three for the exacting pattern dance paso doble dance steps: Chock and Bates (first): Marjorie Lajoie and Zach Lagha (fifth); Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (sixth); Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan GER (12th); Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez GBR (17th) and, incredibly enough, world junior silver medalists Elizabeth Tkachenko and Alexei Kiliakov ISR, who did not advance to the free skate with their 26th place finish.
And only a handful of teams managed level threes (for both skaters) in step sequences: Chock and Bates; Lajoie and Lagha, Carreira and Ponomarenko: Diana Davis and Gleb Smolken GEO (14th) and the Japanese champs Utana Yoshida and Masava Morita who are 22nd and do not advance to the free skate.
There was much reviewing and adding or subtracting levels throughout the event.
Gilles and Poirier? They did okay, wearing gold stripes and pink garb to earn a standing ovation for their peppy routine to “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” and the one-hit wonder “Wipe Out,” a curious choice for an ice dancing competition, when you want to do anything but. But it was the spirit of the thing, and it worked.
At their 12th world championship – both are 33 years old – Gilles and Poirier had a routine with a lower base value than Chock and Bates, third-placed Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain who finished third with 83.86, and Marjoie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, fifth with 81.77. Gilles and Poirier made up for it with HOW they did it, with their lofty GOE. Combine that with their component marks, and they nudged their way into second.
And details are everything. With their beach theme, they start with the sound of the waves washing over them. Did anybody notice them holding their noses as they descend into the “water”, where they do the backstroke? All seamlessly interwoven into their moving panorama of sixties’ life at the water side.
At the Four Continents Championships in Seoul last month, Gilles and Poirier defeated Chock and Bates in the rhythm dance with 87.22 points, a 1.01 advantage over the Americans.
Chock and Bates defeated them in the free dance with a score of 131.72, which edged the Canadians by only .48 points, not enough to push them away from the gold medal.
It’s different here, in Chock and Bates’ home yard. The Americans have a 3.75-point advantage leading into the free dance on Saturday.
“It’s just a friendly competition,” Gilles said after the rhythm dance. “We have so much respect for them. They bring so much to the table, just like we do. It pushes us to skate better.”
Although Gilles said they did not think they would even be skating after the 2022 Olympics, “It’s interesting to see all of us continuing, that there is longevity in this. Experience really does trump everything.”
Poirier said they felt calm and present. At their last appearance at a world championship in Boston in 2016, they had made it into the last group for the free dance for the first time. Now there is no doubt where they stand. “That was a milestone for us,” Poirier said. “It was a surprise at the time.
“Now we come into these championships with so much more experience and expectations. It is exciting now to stand on a level we once aspired to.
“It’s been an unpredictable season for ice dance and our job is to come out and give our best performance tomorrow.”
Unpredictable? Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania- 6th at the world championships last year – ran into disaster when she fell during a stutter step in their midline step sequence. They had been sailing along at the top of their game with level four twizzles and some nice GOE in their pattern dance step when the misstep occurred. That dropped them to 21st place – and only the top 20 qualify for the free. Failing to qualify for the free dance has other repercussions like trying to earn a spot at the 2026 Olympics.
They ended up with 68.08 points.
They weren’t alone. Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis of Finland (10th at the world championships last year) ran into a nightmare during their midline step sequence, too. Versluis tripped and fell into the boards at the end of the sequence, which wiped out enough points that they barely qualified for the free dance. They finished one-hundredth of a point ahead of Reed and Ambrulevicius and grabbed the last spot.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Turkkila said. “But the audience was amazing after the fall. And they helped us to keep going and we tried to save what we could. We were able to manage the components.”
“It’s hard to say anything right now,” Versluis said. “Somehow my feet got stuck and I fell.”
Canada’s third dance team, Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer, with a score of 68.95 looked as if they would not qualify for the free dance. But when both top teams with falls finished below them, they qualified for the free dance in the end.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain have made a habit of finishing ahead of more highly ranked teams this season: they won two Grand Prix events doing just that. In the rhythm dance they outfinished three-time European champion and 2024 world bronze medalists from Italy Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
The Brits earned 83.86 points, only .82 ahead of the Italians.
Guignard admitted they were a bit tense for the rhythm dance, although this isn’t usual for them. “In each competition, there is a different kind of tension,” she said,.
She added that they didn’t feel the routine was important, they did not expect to get such low scores. They initially received level fours for both their twizzles but a review dropped the levels to 3 and 2. received only level 3 and 2 for their twizzles. They also received only a level 1 for their pattern dance step.
They did not expect fourth place at all. “We have had a normal preparation, nothing extraordinary,” Guignard said. “We have worked a lot on the precision, to be very well together in the step sequence and on all those details. We are a bit disappointed that the last time we presented this program, we didn’t do it in the way we can do it.”
The judges indeed had eagle eyes on every detail. Both Gilles and Poirier got only level threes on their twizzles although it’s impossible to see the mistake on replay. Same thing with Canadian silver medalists Marjorie Lavoie and Zachary Lagha. Lajoie got a level 3, while Lagha got a 4. But it appears to be a mystery just what they did wrong.
Lagha doesn’t spend too much time thinking about it. “The only pressure we have comes from ourselves,” he said. “I don’t care about results. I don’t care about scores. We just want to skate clean, so what we do in training and what we do in competition, that is important. The rest does not depend on us.”
Lajoie said they had fun. How could they not, skating to the theme from Austin Powers, which stretched Lagha’s alter ego, where he teases 88 piano keys as a concert pianist.” It’s very entertaining, fast-paced, with a move for every note.
“I feel like I enjoyed every step,” Lajoie said after earning 81.77 to be fifth. “We did a good job and we have worked very hard these past three weeks. It’s a very stressful competition so it can go into your head.”
She saw many Canadian flags in the audience. “It means the world to us.”
Lagha dissipated the pressure by putting this message on the screen above the kiss and cry, as all competitors are doing at this event.
“Hold my beer,” said the Lagha note.
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