2023-24 Canadian Figure Skating

[4everchan]

They're having a practice/media day at the Bell Centre with the Canadian skaters. Lajoie/Lagha are there, it's good to see Marjorie has recovered

Omg... You have just made my day

 

[saine]

More practice pictures, these were all the other pictures of the skaters that In The Loop published:

Singles
Pairs
Gilles/Poirier

Edit: Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen were there and spoke to the media. In The Loop didn't publish photos for them.

 

[saine]

From In The Loop (linking to individual posts for those that don't have Twitter accounts):

- Wesley is going to see how he feels if he'll do a quad lutz in the free (source)
- Roman had a clean runthrough but fell on his steps They don't mention his jumps, so no idea if he's gotten more mileage on his 3A since 4CC (source)
- Team Event bronze discussion: Maddie, Roman, Piper/Paul 1, 2 and 3
- Marjorie discussing her concussion: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Kaitlin Hawayek was helpful to Marjorie in her recovery
- Loucas and Kelly Ann discuss their idols: Eric Radford, Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot for Loucas, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Deanna for Kelly Ann (source)
- Meanwhile Deanna's role model is Michael Jordan (source)

 

[RatedPG]

More practice pictures, these were all the other pictures of the skaters that In The Loop published:

Singles
Pairs
Gilles/Poirier

Edit: Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen were there and spoke to the media. In The Loop didn't publish photos for them.

Happy for all our athletes. Looks like they are super focused in their preparation for Senior Worlds.

Happy for Lajoie and Lagha
(Back from injury )
But, sad for Fournier/Sorensen
(They were the only team with no pics ) I will still be rooting for them

 

[4everchan]

Patinage Québec has pictures of all Québec skaters from media day... So it is an editorial decision from In the Loop.

 

[Skater Boy]

Happy for all our athletes. Looks like they are super focused in their preparation for Senior Worlds.

Happy for Lajoie and Lagha
(Back from injury )
But, sad for Fournier/Sorensen
(They were the only team with no pics ) I will still be rooting for them

Why are there no photos for F/S? I was hoping they would make a run to the podium. Iliketheirstyle.

 

[Skater Boy]

From In The Loop (linking to individual posts for those that don't have Twitter accounts):

- Wesley is going to see how he feels if he'll do a quad lutz in the free (source)
- Roman had a clean runthrough but fell on his steps They don't mention his jumps, so no idea if he's gotten more mileage on his 3A since 4CC (source)
- Team Event bronze discussion: Maddie, Roman, Piper/Paul 1, 2 and 3
- Marjorie discussing her concussion: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Kaitlin Hawayek was helpful to Marjorie in her recovery
- Loucas and Kelly Ann discuss their idols: Eric Radford, Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot for Loucas, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Deanna for Kelly Ann (source)
- Meanwhile Deanna's role model is Michael Jordan (source)

Skate Canada must be breathing with some relief and confidence in Maddie now that Ruiter kind of crashed and burn at junior worlds.Maddie is the obvious choice.

 

[Ziotic]

Skate Canada must be breathing with some relief and confidence in Maddie now that Ruiter kind of crashed and burn at junior worlds.Maddie is the obvious choice.

Not like there was a choice, Ruiter was unable to get her minimums to compete at Sr worlds

 

[saine]

Roman posted a clip from his runthrough. He should get extra GOE for his sense of humour.

 

[RatedPG]

Roman posted a clip from his runthrough. He should get extra GOE for his sense of humour.

I clicked hoping I could get a sense of whether or not he regained his 3A. Instead, I saw classic Romsky

 

[4everchan]

I clicked hoping I could get a sense of whether or not he regained his 3A. Instead, I saw classic Romsky

At least, he made it to the rink I hope he has planned to stay in Montreal for the next couple weeks instead of going back and forth

 

[saine]

I clicked hoping I could get a sense of whether or not he regained his 3A. Instead, I saw classic Romsky

He did post a clip of his 3A before 4CC here.

I wish someone had talked about his jump content there. We need you, Jackie Wong

 

[Skater Boy]

Not like there was a choice, Ruiter was unable to get her minimums to compete at Sr worlds

Kind of concerning Canada's national senior champ can't get the world senior minimums and placed out of the top 20 at junior worlds. Ditto for the men where the senior bronze medallist placed 15th and can't land a triple axel and struggles with the 3 lutz. THough is a unique artist this is still a sport. Aleksa and Lulu might bloom into something beautiful or may be a passing fad. Here's hoping. So odd to see Canada in such a lull that they may not make the team finals at the Olympics. That their best medal hope or gold medal hope for worlds comes from a team with a skater 40 or over. I would be curious to hear what people think is needed to change Canada's current struggle.. Canada looks like they will be down to one lady and one man come 2025. I do hope Anthony Paradis get his jumps - he could be something special. He is an artist. Jason Brown is a beautiful performer but Paradis is a real artiste. It is within him.

 

[saine]

That their best medal hope or gold medal hope for worlds comes from a team with a skater 40 or over.

...which is probably a sign that older skaters can bring a lot of strength to Canadian figure skating if they're given the opportunities to develop. If the younger skaters aren't there yet, they have time as long as they get the support needed to develop into having a long career.

would be curious to hear what people think is needed to change Canada's current struggle..

More competitions. They're losing out by not getting out on the international stage more.

 

[saine]

Interview with Maddie Schizas from Robert Brodie.

Excited to be at the Bell Centre since she's a Habs fan :

“I was so excited. It was really cool being at the Bell Centre,” said Schizas. “My family is from Montreal. We’re all Habs (Montreal Canadiens, a legendary hockey franchise) fans, so it’s pretty cool.”

Also she really wasn't certain she would be assigned to Worlds, even with being the only one with the minimums:

“You know what, I did. Mostly because I think you never get to assume anything. Even going into Calgary, I wasn’t saying ‘when I’m at Worlds’ because you just don’t know. You just don’t know what’s going to happen and how the selection meetings are going to go,” she said. “I never like to assume. I remember at Four Continents saying ‘if I’m assigned to Worlds …’ and everybody was making fun of me after I skated because I gave that quote and they were like ‘of course you’re going to Worlds.’ And I was like, well, you can’t assume. Until I actually get the email in my inbox with my assignment form, I would rather not assume anything.”

Understand that Schizas felt this way knowing full well she was the only Canadian women’s skater to have the technical minimum scores required for Worlds in both programs (“there were still events for other people to go get them”).

 

[labgoat]

Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha: “We love it when the coaches refer to us as super kids”. - Blossom on Ice

World Junior champions in 2019, multiple medalists at the Canadian Championships, and finalists in the 2023 Grand Prix series, Canadian ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha unfortunately had to withdraw from the Nationals in early January in Calgary, Canada, and also missed the 2024...

www.blossomonice.com

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Side note to Worlds, didn't know where else to post. Both Wesley and Kaiya were added to shows for SOI Canada. Kaiya Ottawa show, Wesley Vancouver show.

 

[Sackie]

Being in a show with some professional skaters might be good for them, esp in developing more performance skills.

 

[RatedPG]

Kind of concerning Canada's national senior champ can't get the world senior minimums and placed out of the top 20 at junior worlds. Ditto for the men where the senior bronze medallist placed 15th and can't land a triple axel and struggles with the 3 lutz. THough is a unique artist this is still a sport. Aleksa and Lulu might bloom into something beautiful or may be a passing fad. Here's hoping. So odd to see Canada in such a lull that they may not make the team finals at the Olympics. That their best medal hope or gold medal hope for worlds comes from a team with a skater 40 or over. I would be curious to hear what people think is needed to change Canada's current struggle.. Canada looks like they will be down to one lady and one man come 2025. I do hope Anthony Paradis get his jumps - he could be something special. He is an artist. Jason Brown is a beautiful performer but Paradis is a real artiste. It is within him.

Overall, I was really happy with how Junior Worlds went for the Canadians.

Junior Men
We did enough for two spots. I can’t expect anything more here.
Aleksa has a 4T and a 3A and seems to be improving little by little. I can see him as a good back up option to Wesley Chiu. I’m just happy to have another Canadian guy with both these jumping elements.
Anthony - I didn’t expect him to even make the free skate. His 2A, 3T, 3S, 3Lo and 3F were solid. He screwed up with the two triple lutzes here. I didn’t realize how young he was. The fact he went for two 3Lz, means he lands this jump in practice. He only needs a 3A and then he has the same arsenal as Jason. He could be the next Jason Brown. Him combined with one of the quad Canadian guys, could be a good thing for Canada moving forward. I’m happy to have an artiste…. Just look at the comments and how people raved about his performance and star quality. I’m happy he represents Canada. A high PCS score is under rated in this sport.

Junior Girls
Kaiya didn’t do that well. But, she was only off her score from last year, by 8 points. The event was super competitive. I don’t believe any other Canadian Junior girl would do better, than her. I’m a bit disappointed she hasn’t improved since her junior days where she score 179.92. She seems to peak at Nationals. But, remember, that last year she placed tenth, and is the reason we had two spots this year.

Lulu, I had a feeling could beat Kaiya here. She scored higher TES at Junior Nationals than Kaiya at Senior Nationals, with one less element. I was stunned to see her pull into tenth place. But, she almost skated cleanly. I would have ranked her 7th. Also, people might not know this. But, Lulu has a 3Lz 3T. She couldn’t do that combo in the SP due to 3Lz being the single jump, but, if that changes next year, she can increase her TES score, a bit more, after the SP. I can see her as Maddie’s biggest challenge, besides Kaiya, once she turns senior (which won’t be till next Olympic cycle). But, she will domestically

 

[4everchan]

Truly, there were only two disappointments at Junior worlds and many good things to cheer about.

Disappointing : that our pairs didn't handle the pressure as well as they did previously this year. One of them, if not two, had it to win a medal. But that happens and they will learn from this and will be skating in juniors next year again. They maxed out on spots for both JGP and JWC so it's not all lost.

Disappointing ; that our dance teams didn't get a slightly better result to earn the 3 spots.. Mind you, I didn't expect that to happen before the event but considering how well they skated from earlier groups and how high their BV were calculated, a bit more GOE and PCS would have made the difference for the 3 spots.

All the rest really ; cannot complain. If our senior skaters in singles manage at wolrds as well as Lulu and Aleksa, I will be happy. Let' s just hope that our senior pairs and dance teams do slightly better

And regarding Anthony : there is no worry about his triple lutz. He's had this jump forever. Of course, coming back from injury is not easy.
Let's see if he can grow a bit and get a bit more power this summer. With boys, the trajectory is different. (well unless you are Gogo and grow too much).