Skate Canada looking to the future
New leaders will be expected to step up
I’m heartbroken, to be honest. That’s not me, that’s not how I skate. I’ve been very strong and very consistent, but it’s sport . ... I don’t know if it was nerves or pressure that got to me. But at the end of the day, I’m human and today was not my day. GABRIELLE DALEMAN, who finished 15th after the free skate
Giddy Skate Canada officials have every reason to whoop it up with the athletes and coaches who delivered an unprecedented four figure-skating medals at these Games.
Three was their target. Three had been the previous high for Canadian skaters at an Olympics, and this record total was obviously inflated by a team event that didn’t exist before Sochi 2014.
It will take some doing to replicate the feat, given the exodus of key veterans and what the team will look like in Beijing four years from now. Even a month from now, a very different Canadian squad will descend on Milan for the world championships. No Patrick Chan. No Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. No Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford. So, no Canadian dominance.
“We’re still going to worlds with a strong team,” said Skate Canada’s high performance director Mike Slipchuk, “but there’s time for a lot of our up and comers to step up.”
First-time Olympian Keegan Messing, who finished 10th here, will join Nam Nguyen in the men’s category.
The two pairs teams are Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael M arin aro (11 th here, eigh that their only worlds in 2016); and Julianne Séguin and Charlie Bilodeau (9th here, eighth at 2015 worlds, 11th in 2017).
The premier dance team is now Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who have two podiums and seven top-fives at the worlds. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have been eighth at worlds three times, and were eighth here.
Canada’s women will be counted on to lead the way on the ice. Kaetlyn Osmond won Olympic bronze to follow up 2017 worlds silver. Gabrielle Daleman, who fell to 15th here after an uncharacteristically flawed long program, won bronze at the worlds last year.
Off the ice, it’s now a team in need of new leadership, and Slipchuk believes the next wave of athletes includes people capable and willing to fill that role. Maybe not in the same way Moir did it, but to each his own.
“I know we have guys who will step up. They’ve taken a lot out of this experience and they’re going to want to be back here. It’s going to be a lot of change in a lot of areas. We have a lot of quiet leaders who just come out and do their job. Someone will rise. You know, Scott’s the one who has really been the gel for this team since 2011 and his character brings a lot of emotion, as we see to everything. He’s passionate and I know that’s going to rub off on some of our guys.”