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, […]
Wesley Chiu
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 […]
Just a Fleeting Glimpse
Were we dreaming? Was it a mirage: the vision of young men classified as juniors sliding down the ice to impress? It all happened last weekend at the Skate Canada Challenge, an event with no venue, no spectators, no judges, no skaters, except by way of online streaming, firmly in the virtual world. They skated […]
Corey Circelli, Artist and Meniscus Manager
Corey Circelli isn’t the norm. He’s a junior skater who stands 6-foot-1 in his socks. And he seems to be an overachiever, energetic enough to compete in both dance and men’s singles at high levels. Throw all of that into the mix with a bum knee, and it’s astonishing that the 17-year-old skater was […]