Canada’s Weaver, Poje dance to gold in Spain
Ice dancers add another title; Chan struggles but says he’s not about to hit the panic button
On the Nature of Daylight: A haunting melody that burnished gold for Canada’s ice dancers.
On fading into the shadows: What Patrick Chan is struggling to resist, to reverse.
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje brought the beautifully simpatico at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, amplifying this country’s generational dominance in ice dancing on Saturday with a triumphant defence of their championship title.
They are heirs to the legacy of Bourne & Kraatz, Debreuil & Lauzon, Virtue & Moir.
“In my memories, I was inspired by Shae-Lynn and Victor,’’ said Poje of the tandem that won Canada’s first dance world gold medal in 2003. “And then Marie-France and Patrice, and then Tessa and Scott. The reason why I think we’ve been successful is that every team in Canada pushes each other and we have that passion to be at the top.’’
For Chan, the top is a pinnacle he scaled thrice at worlds and will try to reach again in Boston three months from now. But it never looked as far distant as it did in Barcelona over recent days.
Chan finished fourth in men’s singles behind an untouchable and ever more masterfully remote Yuzuru Hanyu. Spaniard Javier Fernandez, reigning world title holder, took silver. Both Ha- nyu and Fernandez train in Toronto under Brian Orser, which makes their achievements just that much more enviable.
This was a competition Chan might prefer to forget but needs to remember.
“Definitely something I want to re- member,” Chan insisted to the Star afterwards. “Remember how challenging it is, actually. And that being a toplevel figure skater isn’t always a fairytale situation.”
Just-turned-21-year-old Hanyu, Olympic gold medallist, soared to stratospheric heights in Spain, smashing two more of his own global records to win his third consecutive Grand Prix: 219.48 points in the free dance, 330.43 overall, surpassing by 10 points the gaudy numbers posted last month at the NHK Trophy in his home country of Japan.
So it wasn’t just jingo scoring from the judges in Nagano. Hanyu really is that exceptional, that transcendent. The only question is — can he possibly get any better? Chan doesn’t think so. “Maybe the first time I saw the points gap it was shocking,” Chan admitted of his rival utterly demolishing records he’d established in this sport, when he was the nonpareil three-time world champion and before taking a year off.
“At the end of the day, he’s pretty much maxed out. What we see today, what we saw at NHK, that’s the best he can do. Whereas this is just my base and I’m building on it. I’m in a whole different strategy plan than he is. I’m not going to try and compare each other because I don’t think we’re on equal terms.’’
Ottawa-born Chan did pull himself up from dead-last sixth after an awful Mack the Knife short program Thursday, un-spooling a mostly clean third-best free skate performed to Chopin, scoring 192.84 and a combined mark of 264.45. Where Yuzuru landed three quads in the long program, Chan landed one, albeit in a quadruple-triple-toe combination.
“I’ll be honest,’’ said Chan. “It’s hard to catch him right now. He’s on a huge roll since NHK. How easy he’s been able to do those quads is quite impressive. A lot of men envy it. But there’s always another side to all skaters. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we’re all human.
“It’s still a long, long way to the Olympic season, so we’ll see. You can’t predict anything. All I can do is put my head down and focus on myself. Maybe that means adding another quad or just adding another triple axel.”
Chan had lousy practices this week and revealed he’d even briefly considered bailing after the dismal short, such was his frustration. He’s no quitter, however. A year away from the competitive fray was always intended as a temporary hiatus – no regrets, by the way.
“I would definitely have burned out if I had gone straight from Olympic season to the next.” So the long-range goal of Olympics 2018 in Pyeongchang hasn’t changed. “Absolutely, that’s the plan.” But getting back into elite competitive mode for the 24-year-old, finding his groove, has been more fraught with anxiety, if not selfdoubt, than anticipated.
“The difficulty of the jumps now and how many quads are in the programs is really unreal. I didn’t expect that. What I find most challenging this year is actually just dealing with my own demons — putting expectations on myself, trying to please everyone. Maybe I need to start learning to please myself first.
“What was a surprise and what I didn’t expect and what I’m learning quickly is how big of a learning curve I was about to experience coming back into competition and on to the international stage.’’
On this particular international stage, Canada had a rather good showing, with Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford earlier claiming silver in pairs — they were the defending champions — and, in the Grand Prix debut of synchronized skating, world champion Nexxice from Burlington winning bronze.
The best, though, was saved for the last afternoon, with repeat gold for Weaver and Poje. The Waterloo duo scored 182.66, comfortably ahead of Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates at 177.55. It was the duo’s sixth straight victory on the circuit over the past two seasons.
“In the short dance, we tried to be within the ( judges’) image of a waltz,’’ explained Poje of their Strauss routine.
“We feel like we captured that, bringing that grandness to the ice. With the free dance, it’s the complete opposite — very emotional. We feel we can bring that emotion and bring that story so the audience and the judges have an experience — they’re not just there to watch skating, they’re experiencing something else.’’
Weaver describes the strength of their free dance as “lyrical.’’
Yet, as they discovered last season, top of the podium at Grand Prix Final is no fast-track to gold at worlds. Bronze in 2015 was a bitter disappointment.
“Last year we learned that just because you win six out of seven events doesn’t mean you’re going to win worlds,” said Weaver. “What we learned is that you have to keep pushing every single time out, never get comfortable. Never think it’s enough and keep making every detail count. Because that’s what it comes down to in worlds — the details.”