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Pairs will be wild at Canadians
In no other event is our talent cupboard so heavily stocked, with at least four top couples expected to contend for two spots at the world championships.
After the retirement of Michelle Menzies and Jean-Michel Bombardier this spring, Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, along with rivals Marie-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet, seemed a lock for world berths for the next few years.
Then came Skate Canada, where Jamie Sale and David Pelletier went out and beat both on the way to a bronze medal. This week, two more up-and-comers will skate in Germany -- 1998 Canadian bronze medallists Valerie Saurette and Jean-Sebastien Fecteau.
Both young pairs train at the St. Leonard club in Lachine, Que., with coach Richard Gauthier. They are, it would seem, pushing each other toward the top.
Sargeant and Wirtz, No. 7 in the world, went from the penthouse at Skate America two weeks ago (second) to the outhouse in Kamloops at Skate Canada Saturday. Their free skate meltdown, which included Sargeant telling her fiance Wirtz to "shut up" in the kiss-and-cry area before marching away, was their worst performance together. However, these two are fire and ice, so don't expect any lasting repercussions.
"We were bad," said Wirtz on Sunday, "but it was just a bad night. We're okay."
Savard-Gagnon and Bradet lacked the bounce and emotion that won them a national title two years ago, then lifted them to ninth at worlds last spring. After seeing Sale and Pelletier, who have both been to worlds with previous partners, they know things just got even more crowded at the top.
"That's the way it works," Bradet conceded. "It just makes us work even harder, always harder ... Nothing is easy, especially for us."
A prediction: Barring injury, Sale and Pelletier will be going to worlds. It remains to be seen who will not.
CALLING ELVIS: Critics are already all over Elvis Stojko for Merlin, calling it a knockoff of last year's The Ghost and The Darkness free skate. The two are similar, with the quad combination, and the sequence which includes both his triple axels, in almost identical positions to last year.
Stojko also recycles hand and body movements, and yes, it is another fantasy movie theme. However, due to a torn groin muscle, which severely reduced his training, the program is in its formative stages.
"There is still more to put into the program," he said after winning the silver medal Saturday. "It is going to evolve ... It's not based on results that I make changes. I make changes based on how I think the program should evolve."
He makes no apologies for using another movie theme, either.
"Many other skaters use soundtrack music," he said. "It just seems that because I have been in the spotlight for so long, every little thing I do is criticized, scrutinized, watched. I know what skating is all about ... and I will not change my perception even if I am not accepted. What I am doing is right for me."
Two thoughts. First, Stojko got six 6.0s for his program at nationals last year, and due to the injury at Olympics, never did take the program to its ultimate. Second, if there are changes coming, let's wait for the final product before getting too critical.