Canadians might skip worlds after downtime

National qualifying to be recorded in home rinks, judged from virtual show

If the world figure skating championships do go ahead in a bubble in March in Sweden, there is a good chance Canada won’t be there.

The Swedish Figure Skating Association hopes to hold the event in a “bubble” in Stockholm from March 22 to 28, the organization said on its website.

But COVID-19 has created a wildly uneven playing field, with protocols varying from country to country. Keegan Messing, a men’s skater who lives in Alaska, is the only Canadian who has even competed since February.

“That is one of our concerns, and we have talked about that with our athletes and coaches, given all the challenges we’ve had across Canada,” said Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada’s high performance director.

Slipchuk pointed out that rinks are closed again in COVID-19 hot spots such as Toronto.

“So, it’s been very hard for the athletes to be on a consistent training program,” he said. “And then readiness, even if we do get to a real championship this year, we just don’t feel that our athletes will be in a (state of ) readiness that they would normally be in a normal season — which when you’re trying to qualify for Olympic spots is important.”

The world championships determine how many positions each country will get per event at the 2022 Olympics.

The Canadian team — other than Messing, who won bronze at Skate America a month ago — has been sidelined since the world championships last March in Montreal were cancelled, one of the first global sporting events erased by the pandemic.

The first lockdown in Canada last spring kept many skaters off the ice for months. Pairs and dance teams were particularly hard-hit as safety protocols prevented them from touching — so no practising lifts, etc. — even when they were able to return to the rink. In some areas, contact was prohibited until August.

“So just trying to prepare has been hard … this never happens in a normal year, we would have been competing already,” Slipchuk said.

Skate Canada Challenge, the qualifying event for the Canadian championships, will be held virtually.

Athletes will perform programs at their home rinks with a videographer, then submit them to Skate Canada.

Judges won’t see the programs until they’re streamed together in a virtual show format in early January.

“It’s going to be pretty unique. So when you watch, you would see Keegan do his short program from Alaska, the judges will judge it live, a score will come up, and then Nam (Nguyen) would come on, etc.,” Slipchuk said.

A Skate Canada official will be at each session to ensure skaters follow competition rules such as a six-minute warm-up, etc.

Slipchuk is keeping his fingers crossed that the Canadian championships, originally set for January but pushed back to Feb. 8 to 14, can be held live in Vancouver.

“If that ends up being the end of the season, I think it would be a good way to finish for the athletes and coaches and officials and everyone involved with Skate Canada, that we actually got to the finish line on an event.”