2024-25 Canadian Figure Skating

[saine]

The individual pages for the skaters have some information about choreographers for this season:

• Anthony has himself listed among Vanessa Sauriol and David Wilson (also I love the picture of his nails in the header image )
• Stephen and Aleksa both have only Benoit Richaud listed
• Wesley has a Shae-Lynne Bourne program
• Roman has the choreographers from the 2023-24 season
• Lia/Trennt have Jean-Luc Baker and Olivia Smart added to Adrian Diaz and Madison Hubbell
• Kaiya has a Julie Marcotte program, likely her short
• Hetty Shi will have a Shae-Lynne Bourne program and is now coached by Rafael Arutyunyan/Brian Orser
• Kelly Ann/Loucas have Mark Pillay, David Wilson and Sandra Bezic

 

[saine]

How does this work, I wonder? Hetty Shi is going to be coached by two of the top coaches in the world, who are based in separate countries? Wow, she has that kind of money and promise? I guess they will be tasked to help individually with distinct aspects of Shi's skating.

Same way Stephen Gogolev was doing it. Irvine as primary training location with Brian Orser being her Canadian base.

Speaking of Gogo, he doesn't have Irvine as his training location any more or Raf as his coach, only Lee Barkell

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Same way Stephen Gogolev was doing it. Irvine as primary training location with Brian Orser being her Canadian base.

Speaking of Gogo, he doesn't have Irvine as his training location any more or Raf as his coach, only Lee Barkell

Yeah, because as I said, 'How does that work?' I think Gogo's stay in Irvine did work during his rehab from injury and retooling of his jump technique. Later, he probably desired to be back home in Canada.

It did not work for Marissa Castelli when she tried to keep her coaches in Boston along with being coached in Canada by Marcotte/ Gauthier during her partnership with Mervin Tran. I doubt that it worked well for Vincent Zhou when he was juggling Tammy Gambill and Tom Z together and back-and-forth. Or, maybe it worked for Vincent, but not for Tom or Tammy. In the more recent case of Tammy still listed as Shin's coach, that is likely partially due to Shin having a close bond with Tammy and thus Shin can solicit her advice during the transition to pairs. Marcotte and Evans will be Shin/ Nagy's main coaches, with Marcotte the lead coach.

I recall when Nathan Chen went to Marina Zoueva for presentation tips and choreo, and she tried to steal him away. Raf A. remained unbothered, and simply clearly stated the choice would be up to Nathan. When Camden Pulkinen attended Columbia, he sought out Alexander Johnson for coaching help, while still retaining Raf. But I wonder how that worked. Since Camden has now graduated, has he gone back to Raf in Irvine or is he still working with Alex.

In any case, Raf appears to be semi-retired and he rarely travels with his students anymore. I believe he is still working with Ilia, but it is Ilia's parents taking the lead. Raf is the kind of coach who has always advocated for his students to take initiative and to be equal strategists in responsibly charting their careers. Likely for Hetty Shi, Raf is on board as more of a tech consultant. Brian strikes me as someone who enjoys molding talented students in a big picture way, and traveling with them to comps, while others on his staff have generally helped students with tech issues.

 

[saine]

Yeah, because as I said, 'How does that work?' I think Gogo's stay in Irvine did work during his rehab from injury and retooling of his jump technique. Later, he probably desired to be back home in Canada.

It did not work for Marissa Castelli when she tried to keep her coaches in Boston along with being coached in Canada by Marcotte/ Gauthier during her partnership with Mervin Tran. I doubt that it worked well for Vincent Zhou when he was juggling Tammy Gambill and Tom Z together and back-and-forth. Or, maybe it worked for Vincent, but not for Tom or Tammy. In the more recent case of Tammy still listed as Shin's coach, that is likely partially due to Shin having a close bond with Tammy and thus Shin can solicit her advice during the transition to pairs. Marcotte and Evans will be Shin/ Nagy's main coaches, with Marcotte the lead coach.

I recall when Nathan Chen went to Marina Zoueva for presentation tips and choreo, and she tried to steal him away. Raf A. remained unbothered, and simply clearly stated the choice would be up to Nathan. When Camden Pulkinen attended Columbia, he sought out Alexander Johnson for coaching help, while still retaining Raf. But I wonder how that worked. Since Camden has now graduated, has he gone back to Raf in Irvine or is he still working with Alex.

In any case, Raf appears to be semi-retired and he rarely travels with his students anymore. I believe he is still working with Ilia, but it is Ilia's parents taking the lead. Raf is the kind of coach who has always advocated for his students to take initiative and to be equal strategists in responsibly charting their careers. Likely for Hetty Shi, Raf is on board as more of a tech consultant. Brian strikes me as someone who enjoys molding talented students in a big picture way, and traveling with them to comps, while others on his staff have generally helped students with tech issues.

With Gogo, he attends UC Irvine too. So if he moves back to Toronto, that effects his education. I don't think he rehabbed his injuries there considering how Nationals went.

I don't even know if he fully left Raf since Joanne McLeod posted a picture of Gogo in Irvine with Aleksa Rakic, Andrew Torgashev and Mihhail Selevko recently. I have no idea what's going on with Gogo, so pretty much the usual with him

 

[Bluediamonds09]

How does this work, I wonder? Hetty Shi is going to be coached by two of the top coaches in the world, who are based in separate countries? Wow, she has that kind of money and promise? I guess they will be tasked to help individually with distinct aspects of Shi's skating.

Maybe hetty shi can rise in the ranks and be the next Osmond. BTW, Osmond's coach got her to olympic bronze, why doesn't he have a top student from Canada?

 

[4everchan]

Maybe hetty shi can rise in the ranks and be the next Osmond. BTW, Osmond's coach got her to olympic bronze, why doesn't he have a top student from Canada?

He has a promising young woman who moved to him last winter ; Rose Théroux

 

[ladyjane]

This may sound silly, but has Olivia retired? I can't find anything saying that but as she is now choreographing with IAM? And Jean-Luc as well? They skated with IAM (no question about that) but turning to choreographing....

 

[FlossieH]

He has a promising young woman who moved to him last winter ; Rose Théroux

Who I still think should have been the 2023 junior champion, rather than the silver medalist.

 

[FlossieH]

This may sound silly, but has Olivia retired? I can't find anything saying that but as she is now choreographing with IAM? And Jean-Luc as well? They skated with IAM (no question about that) but turning to choreographing....

Olivia Smart? She's down for two GP events with Tim Dieck, representing Spain. If she was retiring, I would have expected her to do so before the GP events were allocated.

 

[4everchan]

Probably the shortest national team we have had in years... doesn't help that some skaters or was it Skate Canada messed up the conversion.

They have Max at 178cms and 5'8... 178 is definitely taller than 5'8 It's more like just over 5'10 (one inch is 2.54 CMS.... this gives me 70 Inches... so 5 feet + 10 inches.. .I am not sure what they did there ....

in any case, no real surprise here
3 pairs only... I guess one team could be added to the roster if getting the host spot.

Looking forward to seeing the next gen roster.

 

[saine]

Probably the shortest national team we have had in years... doesn't help that some skaters or was it Skate Canada messed up the conversion.

They have Max at 178cms and 5'8... 178 is definitely taller than 5'8 It's more like just over 5'10 (one inch is 2.54 CMS.... this gives me 70 Inches... so 5 feet + 10 inches.. .I am not sure what they did there ....

I think it's Skate Canada, they have Aleksa at 180 cm/5'9. I tried out this site for converting:

180 cm = 5'10 = 5.9055 feet
178 cm = 5'10 = 5.8399 feet

So I think however they're converting, they're getting the latter value and not converting it properly to feet + inches.

 

[4everchan]

I think it's Skate Canada, they have Aleksa at 180 cm/5'9. I tried out this site for converting:

180 cm = 5'10 = 5.9055 feet
178 cm = 5'10 = 5.8399 feet

So I think however they're converting, they're getting the latter value and not converting it properly to feet + inches.

the issue is that there is a site that says 5.5 inches meaning 5 feet and half a foot.. .which is 5.6 inches the decimal is a percentage (which is exactly what you are saying... but i saw the site now LOL)

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

This may sound silly, but has Olivia retired? I can't find anything saying that but as she is now choreographing with IAM? And Jean-Luc as well? They skated with IAM (no question about that) but turning to choreographing....

It's not unheard of for a senior internationally ranked skater to do choreography for others.

 

[4everchan]

BTW... did you all notice ? no spelling mistakes in the names of the skaters

just height incongruities

 

[saine]

Junior Grand Prix selection document - https://skatecanada.ca/wp-content/u...lection-to-JGP-and-Jr-Int-Comp-EN-JUL2024.pdf

They're only using 2 pairs spots at JGP Riga, but have 3 spots for the other JGP pairs spots. It also includes the criteria for a second assignment:

Competitive performances which demonstrate a strong likelihood of qualifying to the Grand Prix Final. Such performances should be achieving the following total scores at international competitions:

Men	205
Women	175
Pairs	145
Ice Dance	150

Or

Skaters/teams may be eligible for a second JGP if they are achieving the best scores in Canada within their discipline and have created a competitive gap amongst other Canadian skaters/teams.

 

[4everchan]

Junior Grand Prix selection document - https://skatecanada.ca/wp-content/u...lection-to-JGP-and-Jr-Int-Comp-EN-JUL2024.pdf

They're only using 2 pairs spots at JGP Riga, but have 3 spots for the other JGP pairs spots. It also includes the criteria for a second assignment:

so 11 spots
6 spots go to the top 3 from last year
2 spots to ? Behnke Sauvé ?
2 spots to Beau and Christophe
1 spot to ?

Would that be it ?

 

[saine]

so 11 spots
6 spots go to the top 3 from last year
2 spots to ? Behnke Sauvé ?
2 spots to Beau and Christophe
1 spot to ?

Would that be it ?

Rolland/Lacasse and Quattrochi/Desmarais could get spots too, they hit the target NextGen scores for 3+ years of eligibility at Nationals (120).

 

[saine]

I'll put the NextGen and JGP target domestic scores into tables here for easier reference:

NextGen Selection (here):

Years of Jr Eligibility	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice Dance
2 or less	190	165	140	145
3 or more	170	145	120	130

JGP Selection:

Years of Jr Eligibility	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice Dance
2 or less	198	163	154	153
3 or more	180	155	130	130

 

[4everchan]

Rolland/Lacasse and Quattrochi/Desmarais could get spots too, they hit the target NextGen scores for 3+ years of eligibility at Nationals (120).

I really like Étienne Lacasse... so I am rooting for them

 

[4everchan]

I really like Étienne Lacasse... so I am rooting for them

PS.. i really like all our junior pairs teams... Canada is in a good cycle here...