Two-day Grand Prix schedules are grueling! I don\u2019t know how the French have been doing this for so many years. Four sets of free programs made for a long day yesterday, but fortunately, the day was full of memorable moments. And the best part about today\u2019s schedule was getting to sleep in, just a little bit, since I didn\u2019t have to be at the rink for dance practice. I had planned to celebrate the final day of the event with breakfast at Cora\u2019s, but when my alarm went off at 6.30, I reset it for 8 and fell right back asleep. For me, this was pretty huge…I\u2019m rarely too tired to go out for breakfast. Ah well. I\u2019ll treat myself to brunch one day this week at home.<\/p>\n
But back to yesterday. The day started off with a bang when Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond\u2019s free skate seemed to say, \u201cPressure? What pressure?\u201d I was so impressed with the way that she stood up to the sudden media hype and really delivered. She still has some growing to do before Canada christens her \u201cthe next Jo,\u201d but she\u2019s straightforward about her own capabilities and seems to have a great head on her shoulders. Plus she has shown that she can compete. Much of the rest of the ladies event was a bit lackluster\u2014I much preferred the short programs overall\u2014but I also really enjoyed Akiko Suzuki, whose program just flew by for me.
The pairs were up next, and again, the home team delivered. Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford were not perfect in their free skate, but they got all of their elements done, proving that they are gaining consistency with their ambitious technical content. I actually preferred their program to that of the champions, Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy. Savchenko & Szolkowy were stunning in many of their technical elements, but I did not care for their program and found the costumes distracting. It was also terrific to see Stefania Berton & Ondrej Hotarek deliver to win the bronze medal. They were so enchanting in the press conference after the short program, making me instantly want to see them succeed.<\/p>\n
The men closed the day yesterday and I\u2019m sure that Skate Canada expected the day to end with another rendition of \u201cO Canada\u201d when they arranged the schedule, but instead, we heard the Spanish national anthem. What an exciting moment for Javier Fernandez, and what a deserving podium. None of the medalists were perfect, but all built solid foundations for the season, and I thoroughly enjoyed each of the programs, something I haven\u2019t said too often about a men\u2019s podium.<\/p>\n
Which, of course, brings us to dance. Everyone is talking about Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir\u2019s free dance, and all I have to add is that they really surprised me. I wasn\u2019t expecting to like their free dance, but I think it\u2019s fantastic. It needs more time and perhaps a few tweaks (and some colour on her dress, please?), but what a way to start the year. All of the teams skated well and although there were some technical issues below the podium, the performances were strong\u2014and photogenic! So a big thanks to all eight teams for a strong and enjoyable event.<\/p>\n
Off the ice, I have to give props to Anna Cappellini for being a press conference rockstar, especially after the short dance. Everyone was exhausted, skaters and journalists alike, as the press conference didn\u2019t get started until after 10.30. We tried to make it quick and only asked a few questions, but whenever Anna answered a question, she lit up the whole room and made me feel like the most brilliant person in the world for thinking of such a terrific question.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been such a busy weekend, I apologize if I know anyone who was here and didn\u2019t have a chance to catch up. This a nice new rink, but it has some of the same traffic flow problems as the old ones\u2014it seems I spent half my time between events pushing my way from one end of the concourse to the other. (I also apologize if I smacked anyone with my camera bag while trying not to arrive fashionably late to the press conferences.)<\/p>\n
Anyway, I suppose I will try to get caught up with some photos before the gala begins in about an hour. I\u2019ll have a few more Skate Canada-related thoughts in my next Northern Lights post, but until then…I\u2019m signing off from Windsor!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two-day Grand Prix schedules are grueling! I don\u2019t know how the French have been doing this for so many years. Four sets of free programs made for a long day […]<\/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-2176","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":"Two-day Grand Prix schedules are grueling! I don\u2019t know how the French have been doing this for so many years. Four sets of free programs made for a long day […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-z6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","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=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19967,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/19967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}