KITCHENER, Ont. Keegan Messing hasn’t plopped himself down on a rinkside seat for two minutes before he pulls out the cell phone and up pops a photo of his three-month old daughter, Mia. She has so much hair. Dark, of course, like his. And then another one of son Wyatt in a snowsuit, with […]
Keegan Messing
Kurt Browning Farewell
KITCHENER, Ont. The rain fell in torrents on Kitchener, Ont., and two hours away in Orillia, Ont., too, on May 7. A soggy Sunday for the ages. It was a time for final curtain calls, all on the same day: one a visitation for songbird Gordon Lightfoot, who died May 1 at age 84, and […]
Indiana Jones has Nothing on Keegan Messing
The story of Keegan Messing reads like a book. A best-selling book. He’s the Indiana Jones of the skating set, pushing his way through temples of doom in his quest for the holy Sankara Stones, except that Messing’s high adventures are hair-raising in other ways: skates that don’t arrive, flights that are cancelled, a pandemic […]
The Men’s Short Program: A Slippery Slope
Okay, it’s early in the season. We get that. The Olympics took the starch out of a lot of athletes last season and it’s so hard to pull up the bootstraps after that. But the men’s short program at Skate Canada International Grand Prix was….a learning experience for most. It was hard. Really hard. For […]
Keegan Messing: A Fond Farewell
It’s going to be hard to say goodbye, says Keegan Messing as it became clear this week that this season will be his last as a competitive figure skater. He’s 30 and has other irons in the fire. During a pre-Skate Canada conference call, Messing sat beside his toddler son, Wyatt, at a breakfast of […]
Tough Decisions
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. […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]