{"id":1742,"date":"2011-10-27T17:23:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T17:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2011\/10\/27\/skate-canada-1-getting-pumped\/"},"modified":"2019-03-23T18:25:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:25:13","slug":"skate-canada-1-getting-pumped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/skate-canada-1-getting-pumped\/","title":{"rendered":"Skate Canada #1: Getting Pumped!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve attended events at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre every year since 2007, but I’ve rarely seen so many people in the main rink…and this is just official practice!  A few local school groups are here, and the kids are making a ton of noise and have been a huge support to the ladies, who practiced first today.<\/p>\n

I arrived today at 9.58 a.m. for the press conference that began at 10.15…not too shabby, considering that I had to cross an international border this morning! Of course, getting my credential was a huge disaster. I don’t know why this always happens to me (and only me), but I was sent to three different doors, stopped by multiple security guards, and was held up at a checkpoint for over five minutes while I waited for someone to “escort” me approximately twenty feet. I understand security measures, of course, but I would really like to be able to pick up my credential on the first try. At least occasionally.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2011-1027-2\"Fortunately, I managed to slip into the press conference even without a credential, so I didn’t miss the opening remarks. After the formal part was over, the athletes were available for interviews, so while everyone swarmed around Patrick Chan and Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, I chatted with Harvey & Gagnon and Weaver & Poje, both full of smiles and energy. They were sitting right under a spotlight, so when I took a group photo, I got a huge lens flare. I was going to ask them to move, but I decided to just go with it! I missed talking with Tessa & Scott (left)  because I had to sort out the credential fiasco, but I did snap a photo of them talking with another journalist.<\/p>\n

I talked to Tarrah Harvey & Keith Gagnon first. They competed last month at Nebelhorn Trophy, so I asked them how that impacted their training for their Grand Prix d\u00e9but.<\/p>\n

“We changed some of the patterns for the setups for elements, and we’ve just kind of been smoothing everything out,” Keith said. “I think that [the smoothness] is one of the biggest things.”<\/p>\n

The no-touch circular step sequence in the short dance has been a challenge for them (and for many teams) this year, but they are glad that they have competed a few times already to get feedback as they continue to tweak the element. Since the element is brand-new this year, they are getting a better feel for it as they try different steps and see what other teams are doing to score well.<\/p>\n

Tarrah did not stop smiling the whole time we were talking. “We just want to skate like we can,” she said. “I can\u2019t wait [for the competition]. I can’t believe we’re here.”<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn & Andrew were sitting just to the left, and I started by asking them about d\u00e9buting their programs here.<\/p>\n

“We’re so excited to show off all the hard work we did over the summer,” Andrew said.<\/p>\n

“We have good mileage on the programs for this time of the season,” Kaitlyn said.<\/p>\n

I loved listening to Kaitlyn talk about their programs. She sounded so happy with how they have turned out, and confident, too. I think that finishing fifth in the world has suited them quite well.<\/p>\n

“It’s so important for us to be emotionally involved with the program,” she said about their free dance, which she described as the “polar opposite” of the sassy, energetic short dance.<\/p>\n

It sounds like this is going to be an excellent event!  I am looking forward to seeing all seven teams in practice later today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2011-1027-1\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve attended events at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre every year since 2007, but I’ve rarely seen so many people in the main rink…and this is just official practice!  A few local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-competitor-blogs"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"et-pb-post-main-image":false,"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":false,"et-pb-portfolio-image":false,"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":false,"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":false,"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I’ve attended events at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre every year since 2007, but I’ve rarely seen so many people in the main rink…and this is just official practice!  A few local […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-s6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19936,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions\/19936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}