Silver still sweet for Gilles, Poirier
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier can righteously call themselves the best ice dancers in the world, with a teeny asterisk.
No, the veteran duo didn’t cop gold — that was silver bling placed around their necks — but they won the free skate segment of the competition on Saturday at the Bell Centre. Surpassing the defending and now back-to-back world champions, Madison Chock and Evan Bates: 133.17 for the Canadians, 132.12 for the Americans.
Just look at those marks for the Toronto-based team: three 10s for component scores, six Level 4s for degree of difficulty.
Had they squeezed just a few more points from their rhythm dance on Friday, they might have toppled the Yanks. But they came into the free 3.57 points behind the first-place Chock and Bates, in bronze position — which Gilles and Poirier have claimed twice before at worlds. That’s a large gap to close in this discipline, with its historically incremental movement up the ranks and the predictability of placement.
“It’s a testament to the effort and the time we put in to try and get to this level of competition,” Poirier said afterward. “Taking these last few little steps to be the best in the world is so difficult, and it’s hard to know where to go. But these little victories are so rewarding and they’re teaching us that we’re on the right track, that our efforts are leading us to where we want to be, and that’s really exciting.’’
A year ago might have been their golden moment — they won the Grand Prix final and every international assignment en route to it — but then Gilles was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Surgery and recovery knocked the stuffing out of their season; they weren’t even able to defend their national title, since reclaimed.
But despite abbreviated training, they managed a second world bronze.
“Winning the free showed us that we’re capable of being on top of the podium at the world championships,” said Gilles.
While their ’80s-themed rhythm dance hasn’t garnered fat marks throughout the season (there’s something simply lacking, at least to these eyes), their alluring and engrossing “Wuthering Heights” free dance spilled out all sorts of technical and presentation grace marks, allowing them to overtake the elegant Italians, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
The Canadians had spent the past several weeks in intense training, focusing especially on the technical aspect of their footwork, particularly the one-foot section where they hoped to rack up points: “We know that our choreographic elements are where we usually thrive,” said Gilles.
It was exhausting and Gilles admitted that, much as she appreciates where this program has taken her, she won’t be sad to wave it goodbye, either: “It’s probably been one of the hardest programs to pace of our career. There’s so much in the middle of this program, and it’s really hard to not get excited and get overly antsy to get the elements done. But we got to the point that we let the program come to us and we can attack at the end.”
They knew, however, there was something special about “Wuthering Heights” — the characters they projected on the ice, how the program silhouetted their strengths. But you never know for sure until the judges assess it.
“That’s the big gamble, the jump you take off the cliff at the beginning of every season,” said Poirier. “Some programs feel when you’re creating them that they’re so perfect, then they kind of stagnate, don’t go how you want them to. Other programs surprise you, they grow in magical, fun ways.”
This one grew and deepened. But they’re done with it now.
Whether they’re also done with competitive skating halfway through the Olympic quadrennial, well, they’re not saying. They’ve got skating shows on the immediate agenda: “I think right now we’re just going to enjoy the show skating and keep everybody on their toes, keep everybody guessing,” said Gilles.
They’re both 32, which isn’t long in the tooth for ice dancing; notably, every duo on the podium Saturday was in their 30s. They’ve been at this game since 2011, in the shadow of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Sometimes judges just get tired of you, as if you’ve stayed too long at the fair. For a while, it felt like Gilles and Poirier might run out of career runway, gold-jinxed. They had to find ways to keep themselves motivated.
“Of course there are moments in any sporting career where you’re going to feel like you keep running into the wall and you don’t know how to get to the next step, get to the next place,’’ said Poirier. “You feel like your effort isn’t going anywhere.”
It’s likely that Chock and Bates (they’re tying the knot this summer) will be hunting for Olympic gold at Milano-Cortina two years hence.
There are rumours as well that 2022 Olympic champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, from France, will come back for those Games.
But Montreal proved a major breakthrough for Canadians Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, who finished fifth with their ethereal “Roses” program. They only recently returned to the ice, with Lajoie needing to recover from a severe concussion suffered in a fall at practice.
She’s 23, he’s 25, which pitches them perfectly toward the ’26 Games. Judges seem to like the cut of their jib, which counts for a lot in ice dance.
“To do two great performances, and how we followed the (concussion) protocol,” said Lajoie of their achievements this week. “We knew worlds were coming up, but we followed it step by step.’’
At their ending pose, they drank in the ovation.
Lajoie: “My eyes were closed for so long and I thought: Open them up and enjoy it.”
The third Canadian dance duo, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen, lifted themselves into the top 10 from ninth after the short with a sixth-place free skate.
“Coming back from (Friday) with a performance that we’ve put so much love into,’’ said Soerensen, “both of us are filled with love for the sport and getting to share that with the people of Montreal.”
“Just the feeling at the end of the program,” said Fournier Beaudry, “was worth everything.”