Canadian figure skaters could collect plenty of hardware
Even if there was some home-country judging bias that added impetus to the slew of record scores at the Canadian figure skating championships last week in London, Ont., it was heartening to see all of the defending champs repeat in their final performances before heading to the Olympics in Vancouver.
Skaters in all four disciplines turned in their best efforts of the season. Plus, the battles for the second spots on the Olympic roster produced high quality and extremely close competition.
Two-time world championship ice dance medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (silver, 2008, bronze, 2009) are considered this country's best medal hope based on their consistency and the relative strengths of their adversaries.
They won back-to-back ISU Grand Prix dance titles in Paris and Skate Canada last October and November, respectively. At the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo, they were edged for gold by their Canton, Mich., training cohorts, Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
Their three skates in London added up to a third consecutive national title as they bid to become only the second ice dance duo to win an Olympic medal for Canada. Tracy Wilson and the late Rob McCall in 1988 in Calgary were the only other Canadian medallists in this discipline.
Those Winter Games of 22 years ago present some interesting parallels to the current figure skating team, especially in the men's and ladies events.
Both Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley won silver medals in Calgary, although they came into the competition under much different circumstances.
A new generation
Flash ahead a generation later and newly crowned repeat national champions Patrick Chan and Joannie Rochette each captured silver medals at the 2009 worlds in Los Angeles, gaining status as top Olympic contenders in 2010.
When Orser came to the 1988 Winter Olympics, he was the reigning world champion. After years of trying, he had finally defeated his friend and rival Brian Boitano of the United States at the '87 worlds in Cincinnati.
The two Brians were fractions apart heading into the free skate where Boitano skated a near flawless program to put the pressure on Orser.
Orser, who had been runner-up in the 1984 Winter Olympics to American Scott Hamilton, two-footed one landing and late in the program, downgraded a triple jump to a double.
He lost the gold medal by a five-to-four judges' decision.
Manley was also in her second Olympics but not considered a major threat to reigning Olympic champion Katarina Witt of Germany, or American star Debi Thomas.
However, Manley rocked the Saddledome with a feisty long program to skip over Thomas and finish just behind Witt. It was a brilliant silver-medal showing for Manley.
Chan, a 19-year-old Toronto native, has rocketed through the ranks from 2005 national junior champion, to 2007 world junior silver medallist, to his first of three Grand Prix titles in late 2007.
A calf injury forced Chan to the sidelines last fall, knocking him out of a Grand Prix in Moscow. He was well below his usual form in his return to competition, finishing sixth at Skate Canada in Kitchener, Ont.
A month of intense training in Colorado Springs put the smile back on Chan's face and the spring in his jumps, as he soared to his third national senior title on Sunday.
Canadian men have won seven Olympic medals including the double silvers by Orser and Elvis Stojko (1994, 1998), but have never claimed gold, a distinction within Chan's reach.
Or, based on his blazingly spellbinding footwork, at his feet.
Rochette celebrated her 24th birthday last Wednesday and skated to her sixth consecutive national ladies' title.
Like Manley, Rochette had developed somewhat of a reputation for under-performing at the highest level of competitions. Fifth at the 2006 Torino Olympics, Rochette may have turned the corner during the 2008 season when she posted back-to-back victories at Skate Canada and the Trophee Bompard (ISU Grand Prix) in Paris.
Last March in Los Angeles, she earned her first world championship medal in seven tries. Manley duplicated her 1988 Olympic performance with her lone world championship medal (silver) one month after Calgary. That was the last medal for a Canadian in the ladies event for 21 years until Rochette came along.
The top pairs team of Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, 2008 world bronze medallists, offer an opportunity for Canada to perhaps claim medals in all four disciplines in Vancouver.
They came all the way back since their terrifying 2007 Four Continents mishap, when Dube was struck in the face by Davison's skate blade during a side-by-side camel spin.
They earned two medals at the ISU Grand Prix circuit in 2009 and delivered an exquisite free skate program to The Way We Were in London. The result was their third pairs national title in four years.
The quality is there for Canada's greatest Olympic figure skating showing to occur on home ice.