OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada will send four entries, for a total of six skaters, to the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, the Cup of China. The competition will take place at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from November 7-9, 2014. Canada will have one entry per category in men’s, ladies, […]
By Debbi Wilkes Skating Coaches Karen and Jason Mongrain are nervous. It’s not because their students are competing at Sectionals next week or because of the demands their community and rink are facing this week at Skate Canada International in Kelowna, BC. As top-notch figure skating coaches with some 40 years of combined experience, this […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – We have missed them, both. We have wondered where they were, what they were doing, what they were going to do. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir don’t know yet. They’ve been rumbling the halls of the Prospera Centre this week, working for TSN on broadcast bits, finding out what they don’t know […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – The Skate Canada International aura isn’t a secret. Skaters from Russia, China and elsewhere love the crowds. They love how they are loved, no matter the flag. The exhibitions? Best ever. Chinese skaters wearing decorated sauce pans on their heads, denim overalls on the rest. The men breaking out brassy wigs. Duelling […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – A seismic shift happened in men’s figure skating yesterday at the Skate Canada International Grand Prix. A transformed Takahito Mura of Japan came out in the men’s final, and threw down such a powerful gauntlet that surely, Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu must be watching. Mura broke down in tears in the kiss […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – Hard to believe, but Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje had never won Grand Prix gold before. They have been fractions of points away from so many major achievements: making an Olympic team, winning a national title, and most recently, winning a world title last spring (missing out by .02 points). They’ve had […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – It didn’t take long. As soon as Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took their final pose, the crowd stood up, cheering, weaving Canadian flags. Duhamel and Radford won the short program at the Skate Canada International with a season’s best of 72.70 points, about 7 ½ points more than Chinese skaters Sui […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – Halloween night at Skate Canada International. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje came dressed to the nines, in full splendid costume, and won the short dance by almost nine points. There was no trick or treat about it. For almost every element they received bonuses of +2 and regrettably, lost a point for […]
By Debbi Wilkes Craig Buntin, Skate Canada International’s Athlete Ambassador, was 10 years old and had never been on a pair of skates when his family moved from Vancouver to Kelowna. He soon discovered that skating was BIG in Kelowna. The entire community and particularly all his classmates seemed to live and breathe hockey. Of […]
By: Amy Rosewater Piper Gilles recalls many childhood moments with her mother, Bonnie, dressing up her and her twin sister, Alexe, in princess costumes and toting them to Disney on ice shows. Not surprisingly, the Gilles twins, now 22, went on to become skaters. Alexe indeed has become a skating princess, and Piper, is a […]
KELOWNA, B.C. – In Kelowna, where the Skate Canada International Grand Prix is being held this week, the hills are alive with music. The setting is stunning, with purple hills and citrine yellow trees. It all just makes you want to sing, right? Well, for the first time at Skate Canada, the audience at the […]
Winter isn’t dreary in Canada any more, not with the new CanSkate program. In a frosty rink in Toronto, toddlers in jelly-bean coloured snowsuits and tiny skates zip around brightly hued pylons and cones, arms out to the side, eyes bright. It’s a hub of activity. They are like little bees zooming about the hive. […]