National Post (National Edition)
On the evolution of Skate Canada’s program for high performance.
LARGEST CONTINGENT EXPECTED TO COMPETE IN SOUTH KOREA
Among the many factors that have contributed to Canada’s rise as an Olympic power, there’s the fact the country has taken advantage of the addition of a pile of sports to the five-ring schedule.
Canada has racked up medals in freestyle skiing, in short-track speed skating and in one of the very few sports you can do successfully while drinking beer, curling.
But there is also a throwback sport that in recent years has seen Canada become stronger than ever. The national figure skating team won five medals combined over the Vancouver and Sochi games, behind only the seven won by the Russians and ahead of traditional skating powerhouses like the United States, Japan and China.
Heading into Pyeongchang 2018, Canada has earned the right to send 17 figure skaters to South Korea, which would be the largest contingent of any nation. Barring injuries or disastrous performances at the National Figure Skating Championships this week in Vancouver that will go a long way to deciding those Olympic spots, Canada will have a shot at the podium in all four disciplines — pairs, dance, plus men’s and women’s singles and also the team event.
Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that Mike Slipchuk considers himself a lucky man.
The high performance director for Skate Canada and a former Canadian champion and Olympian himself, Slipchuk stepped into the role a little over 10 years ago prior to the Vancouver Games in 2010. As such, he’s been witness to the most consistently successful figure skating team in Canadian history, with those Olympic medals, plus a host of world championships from Patrick Chan, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford. At last year’s worlds in Helsinki, the Canadian women added themselves to the mix, with Kaetlyn Osmond (silver) and Gabby Daleman (bronze) each earning medals, the first time two Canadian women had done that at the worlds. “I count myself blessed,” says Slipchuk about overseeing such a roster. He’s aware, too, that this season will be something of a last ride for this group. While nothing is certain, this could be the final competitive reason for everyone listed above other than Osmond and Daleman.
“To go through with them over the last 10 years of their careers, I just feel so fortunate,” Slipchuk says.
But it isn’t just good fortune that has given Canada such a deep figure-skating roster. Slipchuk’s arrival coincided with the pre-Vancouver development of the Own the Podium (OTP) funding program that allocates government support to the sports that are most likely to produce Olympic winners. Money for medals in other words.
And Slipchuk is quick to say that the OTP money has been “vital” to his team’s development. Skate Canada received about $2.7-million in the four years leading to Vancouver 2010, for the same period leading the PyeongChang Games, that number is up to about $4.6 million. By way of comparison, OTP funding for alpine skiing dropped from $8.7 million before Vancouver to $5.4 million for this Olympic cycle.
Slipchuk suggests the stable funding envelope — more than stable, since it’s rising — is one of the reasons why Canada has had its best skaters stick around in the competitive amateur ranks for so long. Simply put, if a skater doesn’t have to hustle a part-time job to offset training costs, it makes remaining an amateur a lot easier. Slipchuk also notes that Own the Podium “gives us the opportunity to do things that we might not have been able to do.” Chief among those, for example: Skate Canada now runs an annual high-performance camp leading into every season in which International Skating Union judges are brought in to assess the performances and programs of the country’s top skaters.
In a sport where the judging is subjective, the chance to have a program given the once-over by the same judges who can be found on the Grand Prix circuit is invaluable. It gives skaters the opportunity to tweak certain things, to replace one element with another, to be more confident about the strength of their program, before they hit the competition circuit.
“It just helps with feedback and with readiness, and we have found it’s a good launching pad for the season ahead,” Slipchuk says. The results would agree with him.
And so, with the senior skaters here scheduled for their final practice sessions on Thursday and their short programs beginning on Friday, Skate Canada is just a few days from naming that biggest-ever Olympic figure skating team. Some of those spots are already assured, but “we will have some battles for spots, for sure,” Slipchuk says. The goal is an obvious one: “We want to send the best team.”
From a Canadian historical perspective: it’s already a given that they will.
(OWN THE PODIUM) HELPS WITH FEEDBACK AND READINESS.