Denmark duo are happy to ice dance for Canada
Canadian couldn’t get her Danish citizenship, leading the pair here
Seconds before they stepped onto the ice at the recent Canadian figure skating championships, Nikolaj Sorensen turned to Laurence Fournier Beaudry and said: “Welcome home, baby.”
After five seasons of skating internationally for Denmark, the ice dancers will represent Canada at this week’s ISU Four Continents championships in Anaheim, Calif.
“I know she’s been really excited about this change,” Sorensen said.
Fournier Beaudry is from Montreal, while Sorensen is Danish. They’ve represented Denmark at four world championships, twice finishing 13th. But because Fournier Beaudry couldn’t obtain Danish citizenship, they couldn’t compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics, even though they had finished high enough to qualify.
So the dancers — who are also a couple off the ice — sat out international competitions last season, and were finally granted a release to compete for Canada.
The moratorium ended Jan. 21, the day after the Canadian championships held in Saint John, N.B.
“The hardest part was actually to get the disappointing news that we were not going to be going to the Olympics,” said Sorensen, 29. “So as the Olympics approached, that was tough to sit out.”
There was the insecurity of not knowing if they’d ever compete internationally again.
“You never know, you’re going into uncharted territory. I’ve never skated for Canada, we’ve never represented Canada, it’s a big federation, there were a lot of questions. It’s like you start all over for a new country,” Sorensen said.
“It was exciting and scary at the same time,” added Fournier Beaudry, 26.
The ice dancers soon learned they wouldn’t need to start over.
“Canada has been extremely helpful and the federation has really welcomed us. We became a part of the team really fast; they really took into consideration the results that we had had from our past skating in representing Denmark,” So- rensen said. “So that was really cool. We were just so happy.
“It’s always scary to do something like that, it’s like you’re jumping off the edge of a cliff and you don’t really know where you’re going to land. So sitting out, we thought it was going to be really long, and it really wasn’t at all.”
The duo participated in Canada’s team camp in the fall, where they were presented with Canadian team jackets. They didn’t dare put them on, though, until they won bronze at the national championships in Saint John, N.B., officially booking their spot on the Canadian team for Four Continents and the world championships.