This year’s Canadian Nationals were held in Mississauga, Ontario and luckily for me, it was only a province away so I thought, “why not go and support the skaters that represent my country?”. Unfortunately, I had to miss out on the Junior competitions that happened earlier in the week (cries in Junior Ice Dance 😭) but I was happy that I could at least watch the entirety of the Senior events!!
This is where I sat for morning practice. The perfect view to admire the banners I had just put up!
At this point, I’ve traveled between Montreal and Toronto enough that the bus ride is a very easy and familiar route. However, one thing I did not expect for the rest of my journey was how many bus transfers I would have to take from the bus terminal in downtown Toronto to the Paramount Fine Foods Centre where Nationals were being held. Thankfully, I had my dear friend Neel guide me from downtown to the rink because let’s face it, I did not want to use too much brainpower at 6:30 AM after getting off the overnight bus. One subway transfer due to some subway problems, two buses, and an 8 minute walk later, we made it to the rink! It took an hour and a half but thankfully no major issues getting to the rink.
It didn’t seem like there was much around the rink. From what I remembr mostly it was just a lot of highway. I think I saw a Subways that was a 15 minute walk from the rink? But with the cold and harsh Canadian winds, I didn’t really feel like exploring much outside. The rink itself was quite nice. As a photographer, the lighting was pretty great and I was happy to explore different areas to sit in during practice. There was also a lot of rail space on both short sides of the rink which was perfect because I brought banners that I wanted to hang! In case you missed it on my personal twitter, I had made three banners for Conrad Orzel. Why? Well, I originally made him a banner based on his On the Waterfront free skate back during Autumn Classic, but by the time he competed in Cup of China he changed his free skate to Les Miserable and therefore my banner was no longer accurate. The natural response to this deep betrayal was to show chaotic support for the new free skate by making three massive and obnoxious banners!!!
Practice
For Friday, I watched ladies and ice dance practices since they were the only open practice sessions in the main rink. One thing I appreciated was that practice wasn’t ridiculously early. Maybe I’ve been subjected to too many 6-7am practice sessions during the GP series, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that practices only started at 9:25 AM.
For me, the main motivation for attending practices is to practice photography and cross my fingers in hopes of getting pretty shots of some sparkly costumes, while making mental notes of good moments to photograph (like Ina Bauers and spirals!!).
Rubie and Petr bowing and thanking the people handling the music
One thing worth mentioning was how sweet the ice dancers were! I was seated next to the person handling the music and at the end of the ice dance practice sessions, for both groups each team would go up and thank the music guy after taking their bows. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed skaters do that at previous competitions that I’ve attended. I love it when people hard at work get some appreciation!!!
Competition recap
Being able to actually know what’s going on with levels and scores? Amazing.
First off, can I talk about the tech box? We actually had a tech box on the jumbo screen of the arena!!!!!! My joy knowing that I would actually be able to see the levels of the ice dance programs in real-time made me really excited. Even for the single disciplines, I was excited that I was able to see the TES for everyone and to see whether or not a skater would overtake the leader at the end of their skate. Though, I would have preferred not to have it constantly be red because I was quite confused at the start. But you know what? I’ll take the tech box despite just because I have never seen one live at a competition. More competitions need to get on that because it’s quite useful to know what you’re looking at!!!
Give it up for our 2020 National champion Emily Bausback 👏👏👏
Let’s start with the ladies event. I was pretty happy to see many familiar names such as Gabrielle Daleman, Veronik Mallet, and Alicia Pineault. I was also very excited to see some Canadian ladies whom I’ve never seen before. I was quite impressed with how lovely Alison Schumacher’s skating is. I was also endeared watching Amelia Orzel’s free skate. Her reaction when she landed her jumps and when she finished her program were great! Watching a skater’s happy reaction after skating their programs is definitely one of my favourite moments to witness in the sport. I was also quite happy to see Sarah Tamura. Though she did not skate her programs as she may have wanted to, it was great watching her. I really liked her costumes for both programs because 1) the short program has pretty sparkly crystals 2) a cool one-piece jumpsuit!!
As for the final results, I think I speak for everyone that no one would have expected this! I was actually openmouthed realizing Emily Bausback would take the title. I saw her earlier this season at JGP Lake Placid (where she ended up 6th) and have had a soft post for her since. I was quite content with this podium and I’m looking forward to what the next generation of ladies skaters hold for us in the future. Fingers crossed for Emily to reach the minimum tech for the short program at Four Continents next month so that we can see her on the big stage at Worlds in Montreal! 🤞
I absolutely love the Canadian ice dance field so I was quite excited to watch the competition. I wasn’t too familiar with Rubie Diemer and Petr Paleev seeing as they are a new team but their Grease RD dance was entertaining and they were very cute. They had some family and friends cheering them on a few rows behind me so it was nice to see them smile at their support squad!
I was quite excited to see Haley Sales and Nikolas Wamsteeker! Their Mamma Mia RD is just so much fun and they did a great job for the FD. I was so delighted to see them do well and place fourth overall.
As for our 2020 national champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier I could not be happier!! I don’t think it’s a secret that I love both of their programs. The RD is just so much fun! At multiple moments in the weekend, we would find ourselves singing bits of their program! The moment when the beat drops and they start the midline step… chef’s kiss! The whole hair mishap during the RD had me gasping. It gave me flashbacks to one of my other favourite ice dance teams who suffered the same issue earlier this season. I’m glad they could laugh about it in the kiss and cry. As for their free, they skated to it so beautifully. I can’t help but be in awe every time I watch them skate.
One of the highlights for the weekend was during the RD. There were two kids sitting in front of us that were maybe around 5-6 years old. They really enjoyed watching Elysia Marie Campbell and Liam Fawcett and wanted to throw something on the ice for them. They didn’t have plushies or flowers… but they did have a $5 bill and that’s exactly what they threw!! Unfortunately, none of the flower girls noticed and it stayed on the ice until Dmitre noticed us frantically pointing to it as he and his partner Molly skated around waiting for Elysia and Liam’s scores. Dmitre looked at the kids and was about to give it back to them but they crossed their arms like we are not taking this money back!! So we pointed Dmitre towards the kiss and cry hoping he would understand but instead he skated around the corner asking people if it was theirs. He was so confused and we just kept pointing at the kiss and cry until he gave it to the ice captain who was handling the door to the kiss and cry. We laughed for a bit about how confusing the situation was and how these kids just threw $5 onto the ice. It wasn’t until Molly and Dmitre started their program and hearing the opening lyrics
Money makes the world go ‘round
Neel and I just started losing it and stifled a laugh at the sheer coincidence. The fact that we witnessed the whole confusion on delivering money to the team prior, and then have a RD about money? Poetic cinema. 💸Once I was back in the hotel after the competition, I looked up their ISU bios just to double-check the spelling of their names… and then I noticed one of Dmitre’s hobbies being “delivering things”. Well I am glad he was able to do something he liked before delivering such a fun RD!!
Pairs was interesting because I had seen most of the teams (save for three teams: one WD, and two of them were new partnerships) earlier on in the season during Quebec Sectionals and during the Grand Prix series. It was nice to see how some programs have evolved since August. One thing that I thought was pretty neat was the amount of crowd support the final group of pairs got. The cheers were quite loud every time an element was well executed, as well as when the pairs finished their programs. I really enjoyed watching Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud. It was my second time watching their programs this season (first time being at Skate Canada 2019) and I think I was able to appreciate the programs more this time around. They were so much fun and Evelyn is just so pretty!!! I was sad to see that Camille Ruest and Drew Wolfe withdrew since I like them but I saw them in the section next to me cheering on their teammates which was cute!
As for the men’s event... What a ride! In a pleasant surprise, Roman is our gold medalist and our 2020 national champion! It’s great to see this growth and momentum for Roman this season. Nam and Keegan also joined the podium with the silver and bronze medals respectively. Both of them fought hard throughout their programs and mad respect knowing there was the looming pressure of that single Canadian mens spot at Worlds. When Nam was skating, Keegan stayed in the kiss and cry to watch and cheer for him. Their hug as Nam entered the kiss and cry was such a sweet moment of great sportsmanship and friendship.
It was also great to see Joseph Phan do well and place 4th overall (and in both segments! yay consistency!!)! As well as seeing Conrad Orzel making it to the top 6. One memorable skate was Matthew Markell who delivered two great skates (save for tripping on the boards where the zamboni door was located during the SP 😔). After his FS, he knelt on the ice taking in the moment and he seemed so proud. Also a shout out to Jack Dushenski and Alexander Lawrence for some lit costumes that fit their respective programs!!
2020 National Champion Roman Sadovsky and a giant Canadian flag!
Alexander Lawrence skating to Rocketman for his FS wearing this funky jacket that had shooting stars on it!! 💫
Jack Dushenski skating to Chess for his FS ♟️
Finally, a shout out to the Skate Ontario goat. These ladies from Skate Ontario kept throwing the mascot on the ice for all the Ontario skaters and since there was only one goat they kept having to retrieve it from the flower girls in time to throw it for the next Ontario skater. By the time the men’s FS came around, the flower girls stopped picking it up and our section collectively shouted to the men to pick it up. We love a good team effort!!!
Last I heard, Skate Ontario had not named the goat. The ladies taking care of the goat planned to get all the skaters to give in their name suggestions and vote on the best one after Nationals. One of the favourites was Vincent Van Goat which I support because I am 100% here for all the puns! As I write this blog post, I have not seen any sort of poll online but fingers crossed the goat finds itself a good name!
Other Canadian skating mascots made appearances at Nationals! We obviously had our beautiful Skate Ontario goat. Allie and Bert who were in the crowd watching Friday morning practices. They represent Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut provinces. Even Blade the Cricket, the mascot of the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, made an appearance at the start of the week to cheer on some junior ice dancers!
Allie - AB/NT/NU mascot
Bert - AB/NT/NU mascot
Overall
I did not have many expectations for Nationals but I ended up having a lot of fun! Save for ice dance, I was pretty clueless about our fields… well except for those bigger names that pop up a lot during the Grand Prix series or major international competitions. It was nice to show support to the skaters that represent my country and I think we have some great talent coming up in the next few years! There was so much camaraderie between skaters which was also pretty heartwarming to see. Fingers crossed I get to see more of Team Canada in the future, and I’m really excited to see how 4CC unfolds for those remaining TBD Worlds 2020 spots that weren’t determined at this competition!