Canadian duo Gilles, Poirier lead after rhythm dance at Skate Canada

HALIFAX — Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are back-to-back champions at Skate Canada International, but they’re not smiling about it.

Not after the multiple errors they committed in the free skate on Saturday.

“That was certainly not easy tonight,” Deschamps said. “It was going well at home, but it's gonna happen sometimes."

It started with Deschamps falling on a triple-toe loop to start a sequence early in the free skate, then Stellato-Dudek stepped out on a throw later in the program, which was awarded the second-best score of the day (124.10).

The Canadian pair finished with 197.33 total points at Scotiabank Centre, well below the 221.56 they set to win gold at the world championships last March in Montreal.

"I'm not really sure what happened,” Stellato-Dudek said. “I've done so many clean runs of this program at home, so I really have no idea why that happened tonight.

“We came here prepared. The performance was not indicative of how our training has been going. We have to figure out why it happened in the moment.”

Looking to find reasons for the blemishes, Stellato-Dudek wondered if Deschamps’s tumble threw them off.

"I almost said something after his fall, because I was like, what? What was that?” Stellato-Dudek said. "His fall shocked me a little bit, because it's not normal."

Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev of Uzbekistan finished second (189.65) and Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore of Australia were third (186.14).

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were an improbable match when they teamed up in 2019.

The 41-year-old Stellato-Dudek, a Chicago native in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship, retired at 17 but returned to the sport 16 years later as a pairs skater. Deschamps, a 32-year-old from Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., cycled through eight partners with limited success before finding Stellato-Dudek.

Now they're world champions and have their sights set on gold at the 2026 Olympics.

Not only are they fighting the competition this year, they’re also battling the pressure that brings.

The ageless skaters are talking to sports psychologists and taking tips from people who have been in their shoes before. That includes Eric Radford, a two-time pairs world champion with partner Meagan Duhamel.

“Eric was saying during the summer, like, this (world championship) is ours for good,” Deschamps said. “New season, and let's go attack. No defending anything — just attack."

So how will they regroup from a difficult night?

“You just have to forget about it, move forward, but learn from it,” Deschamps said.

“For me, the initial reaction is just extreme disappointment and sadness,” added Stellato-Dudek. “Then I get really, really mad and I will do things until I will never miss them.”

Meanwhile, Canada's Madeline Schizas was beaming after a fifth-place finish in the women’s event.

The 21-year-old from Oakville, Ont., posted 190.04 points — her highest international score in more than two years — and cried tears of joy at centre ice after laying down back-to-back strong performances.

“I wasn't really crying. I'm not really a crier,” Schizas said. "I was just happy. I put out some good skates in practice, but I've had such a hard time translating it to competition.”

It was almost enough to win a medal. Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto won gold with 201.21, ahead of Rino Matsuike (192.16) and Hana Yoshida (191.37) as Japan swept the podium.

Schizas had a disappointing end to last season with an 18th-place finish at worlds. This weekend, she put forth a joyful, nearly mistake-free short program to “The Lion King.”

The two-time national champion followed it up with a solid free skate to the intense “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saens.

“I just came in with a fiery attitude this weekend, and it really helped me perform my best,” she said. "With that I would have been top 10 worlds, and then some.

"It also makes me feel good going into Canadians, and good going into selection for the second half of the season, knowing that I now have a score that puts me in the top 10 in the world."

Earlier Saturday, Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took the lead after the rhythm dance.

Gilles, from Toronto, and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., scored 86.44 points for their Beach Boys-themed routine with Barbie and Ken costumes.

Fellow Canadians Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of St-Hubert, Que., finished second with 77.34 points.

Reigning world champion Ilia Malinin of the United States leads the men’s short program with 106.22. Toronto’s Stephen Gogolev finished fifth with 82.70 after a solid skate.

The free dance and men’s long program are scheduled for Sunday.

The Grand Prix, the top series in figure skating, consists of six events and a final. Skate Canada is the second event this year after the circuit kicked off at Skate America last week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.