500 Delegates Head for Vancouver to Celebrate 125 years of Figure Skating

[SkateFiguring]

http://skatebuzz.com/ViewNewsArticle...9-f154cdf74fa8

By SkateBuzz
OTTAWA, ON: More than 500 members of the figure skating community will be in Vancouver, B.C. this week for Skate Canada’s Annual Convention and General Meeting (ACGM) and National Coaching Convention (NCC). The events will be held from May 23- 26, 2012 at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel.

Since Skate Canada was founded in 1887, this year marks the association’s 125th year. During the four days both Skate Canada’s long-standing history and the many current initiatives that are keeping the sport and the organization moving forward will be celebrated.

The NCC kicks off on Wednesday evening with an inspiring address from renowned coach Christy Krall. The action moves to the Burnaby 8 Rinks on Thursday where coaches from across Canada will attend workshops from many world-class coaches, including Lee Barkell, Cathy Dalton, Doug Ladret, Joanne McLeod, Manon Perron, and Marina Zoueva. Canadian Pair Champions Meagan Duhamel, 26, Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford, 27, Balmertown, Ont. will also be part of the sessions, by demonstrating on-ice movements.

Thursday evening the ACGM begins with an inspiring look at the history of the 13 Skate Canada Sectionsas well as the organization. On Friday, attendees participate in workshops, presentations and social events that all celebrate the theme of 125 Years of Making New History. Several of Canada’s top figure skaters will join in the event, including two-time World Champion Patrick Chan, Canadian Pair Champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Canadian Champion Amélie Lacoste, Canadian Ice Dance silver medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, and Nichole Manahan representing NEXXICE, Canada’s Champion Synchronized Skating Team.

There will also be a number of awards presented on Friday evening during the Skate Canada Achievement Awards Gala. The program honours dedicated members of the skating community who have donated their time to help contribute to improving the quality of skating in Canada.

Media looking to attend any ACGM or NCC workshop or presentation are asked to arrange times through Barb MacDonald, Skate Canada Director Corporate Communications by contacting her at 613.894.1769

Interesting that Christi Krall kicked off the NCC event this evening because her only connection to Canadian skating is as Patrick Chan's former coach, a role she has resigned from. I guess the event was arranged earlier and she is still honoured as a renowned coach. I'd love to hear/read her inspiring speech.

Also, conspicuously missing are Tessa and Scott. Are they on vacation somewhere? Their coach Marina Zoueva is there though. The other current world champion and star, Chan, is back from his vacation surfing in Bali and all tanned.

[golden411]

I agree with your hunch that V/M probably are getting some well-deserved and long-awaited down time. D/W and the Shibutanis have been tweeting about their respective vacations, and I imagine that Team Canton had coordinated their calendars - so that the coaches could take a break of sorts too. (Part of it evidently is a "working" holiday for Zoueva.)
V/M hadn't had a chance to go on vacation any earlier. After Worlds, they trained for WTT -- plus they squeezed in quite a load of appearances and interviews to help Skate Canada with early promotion for 2013 Worlds in London. Then right after WTT, V/M performed and traveled coast to coast for three weeks of CSOI, which ended only on Friday.
(Although W/P were with CSOI too, they did not compete at WTT.)

ETA:
I forgot to say, "Congratulations to Skate Canada!" -- for its 125 years.
Have not been able to find any text or video for Krall's keynote, but will keep my eyes open. She also is giving workshops on Spin/Jump Technique and on Dartfish.
Zoueva is giving workshops on Edgework and on Building a Champion.
And Tessa's father is giving workshops on "The Business of Coaching: Navigating coach/club contracts."

[Olympia]

Thanks for the coverage! And congrats to SkateCanada. A century and a quarter; that's a pretty good span. Is anyone from GS going in any capacity, or does anyone know someone who is going?

[golden411]

Some photos from the Skate Canada gatherings:

Christy Krall and other members of a panel presentation
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...5677038&type=3
- And Scott Moir's aunt posted a nice comment in response to this photo.

Duhamel, Radford, and Jeremy Ten
http://twitter.com/#!/SkateCanada/st...59896317206528

Skate Canada's 125th birthday cake
http://twitter.com/#!/SkateCanada/st...58017823047683

BTW, from Skate Canada's FB post on Wednesday:

"Fantastic news from the Province of Ontario today - up to $1.5 M in financial support for the 2013 ISU World FS Championships in London."

[SkateFiguring]

That's great news. Thanks golden.

[Jammers]

Rather strange that the keynote speaker will be an american with very little ties to Canadian skating except as someone else pointed out being Patrick Chan's coach.

[golden411]

Interesting that Christi Krall kicked off the NCC event this evening because her only connection to Canadian skating is as Patrick Chan's former coach, a role she has resigned from. I guess the event was arranged earlier and she is still honoured as a renowned coach. I'd love to hear/read her inspiring speech.

Rather strange that the keynote speaker will be an american with very little ties to Canadian skating except as someone else pointed out being Patrick Chan's coach.

SkateFiguring of course is correct that Skate Canada had named Krall as keynote speaker well before she resigned from Team Chan.

It was easy to find SC's preview page for the conference, which is dated Feb 28, 2012, and refers to Krall as keynote speaker. http://www.skatecanada.ca/en-us/eventsresults/nccwelcome.aspx

I would bet that the Canadian coaches remained highly interested in hearing from Krall even after her resignation. She coached Chan to two consecutive world championships, and it's not as if she has lost any of her professional skills/wisdom/experience just because his priorities have changed.

[golden411]

Several of Canada’s top figure skaters will join in the event, including two-time World Champion Patrick Chan, Canadian Pair Champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Canadian Champion Amélie Lacoste, Canadian Ice Dance silver medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje ...

Fun photos of the assembled group:

http://twitter.com/#!/SkateCanada/st...49833269067776
and
http://twitter.com/#!/SkateCanada/st...53134505074688

And this one has Lacoste, Duhamel, W/P, and another guy (doesn't look like Radford to me, maybe Jeremy Ten?):

http://twitter.com/#!/melipetit/stat...56595917357057