CANADIAN FIGURE SKATERS GETTING THEIR LEGS BACK
Autumn Classic provides refreshing start after pandemic sidelined almost all events
The Autumn Classic International has never looked quite so Canadian.
It's a Challenger Series competition, a step down from figure skating 's six-stop Grand Prix circuit, which is comprised this season of Skate America, Skate Canada International and events in Tokyo, Grenoble, Turin and Sochi, as well as the Grand Prix Final in Osaka.
Normally, no more than 15 Canadian skaters would attend an Autumn Classic, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn't been a normal figure skating season since 2019. So the sport's national governing body, Skate Canada, has brought a boatload of athletes to a rink in Pierrefonds, Que. There are five Canadian men, three women, three pairs teams and four dance teams competing this week, for a total of 22 skaters. The vast majority (15) are members of the national team, which isn't always the case for an event at this level.
By contrast, there were just eight Canadian skaters at the 2019 Autumn Classic in Oakville, Ont. — where there was no pairs competition — 14 in Oakville in 2018, and 15 at the 2017 Autumn Classic, which was also held in Pierrefonds.
“We're getting everybody as much opportunity as we can to get back to competing,” said Mike Slipchuk, high performance director for Skate Canada. “Just because, other than the worlds and World Team Trophy, nobody has really had live competition experience. We have no crowd here, it's just competitors and the support staff for the nations, but the judges are live.
“My feeling is, at the start of this season, it's about everyone getting back into the flow of skating. The skaters are getting used to competing live, to a competitive day, and the judges are getting back into the flow of judging, because they were out of it, too. They were doing it virtually. As much as virtual was a good resource for us over the last two years, nothing beats live for our sport.”
The pandemic took the life right out of figure skating, of course. During an abbreviated 2020-21 season, most events were cancelled, including Skate Canada International, the Grand Prix Final, eight of 10 stops on the Challenger Series tour, the European Championships, Four Continents, all nine junior Grand Prix series events and junior worlds. So what were most athletes doing in the meantime?
“It was so out of our control, so everyone kept preparing, kept training and in some ways it gave a lot of athletes and coaches time to work on areas they needed to improve, time you just don't have in a normal season when you are competing,” said Slipchuk. “When we finally got back out to monitor and see athletes, we found everyone was healthier, in better shape and had time to train. We did see a lot of improvements in a lot of areas. So as bad as things were, I think there were a lot of positives that came out of everything.”
The current international schedule has been largely unaffected by COVID, but for the cancellation of two events that had been set for China — the Cup of China and Four Continents.
“It's just so good to finally be back,” said Slipchuk. “We did our (high-performance) camp in the second-last week of August, which we hadn't done in two years. That was great. Then I was at a junior event in Slovakia, then Italy last week and now here. To me things are starting to feel back to normal. Everyone is getting back to competing and judges are judging. Everybody is getting comfortable again, which is nice.”
Indeed, the biggest positive by far is a return to the normalcy of competition; a short program followed by a free skate, just like the old days. The new team of Vanessa James and Eric Radford — she had previously competed for France and he had retired after the 2018 Olympics — finished second of seven teams in the pairs short program on Thursday, to lead the Canadian contingent. On the same night, Gabrielle Daleman, a 2018 Olympian who wasn't named to the national team this year, was first among Canadians and eighth of 11 athletes in the women's short program, just in front of 2020 national champion Emily Bausback and Alison Schumacher.
The men's short program, rhythm dance, pairs free and women's free programs were held Friday afternoon and evening, with Canada's best Olympic medal hope — reigning world bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier — capturing top spot in the rhythm dance, the first segment of the ice dance event. The men's competition is limited to just three Canadians, as the entire international field withdrew. Slipchuk said there were various issues at play there, including the fact that some skaters were concentrating on the Nebelhorn Trophy event, the last-chance Olympic qualifier being held next week in Oberstdorf, Germany. National teamer Roman Sadovsky is competing there, hoping to add an Olympic berth for a second Canadian man.