2025–26 Canadian Ice Dance: News and Updates

[Sylvia]

For anyone who has an X account and likes this idea - please retweet! https://x.com/Post_Brodie/status/2022734961028264239

https://twitter.com/x/status/2022734961028264239

 

[dramagrrl]

Bev Smith' s latest article: Gilles and Poirier: Long Path to Olympic Bronze

A heads up - This is an opinion piece written from a pro-Canadian perspective. If you're looking for a balanced analysis of the current ice dance season's scoring, you might want to take a pass on this one.

Mostly a good read, but some revisionist history that made me go, "Uhhh...":

"Poirier made to his first Olympics in 2010 with Vanessa Crone, and finished 14th. They seemed to be on a stairway to heaven, but Crone decided to retire, and Poirier found another partner..."

That's not the way I remember it, and I'm pretty sure Vanessa would agree.

 

[elka_sk8]

So happy for Gilles and Poirier, I love that FD so much

 

[marbri]

Mostly a good read, but some revisionist history that made me go, "Uhhh...":

"Poirier made to his first Olympics in 2010 with Vanessa Crone, and finished 14th. They seemed to be on a stairway to heaven, but Crone decided to retire, and Poirier found another partner..."

That's not the way I remember it, and I'm pretty sure Vanessa would agree.

She should write a book

 

[BaileyCatts]

Mostly a good read, but some revisionist history that made me go, "Uhhh...":

"Poirier made to his first Olympics in 2010 with Vanessa Crone, and finished 14th. They seemed to be on a stairway to heaven, but Crone decided to retire, and Poirier found another partner..."

That's not the way I remember it, and I'm pretty sure Vanessa would agree.

I don't remember it. I vaguely remember the names sounding familiar together. Why did they break up?

 

[Alilou]

I don't remember it. I vaguely remember the names sounding familiar together. Why did they break up?

AFAIR Vanessa wanted to move to a different coach, and Paul was adamant that he wanted to stay with Carol and Juris. Same reason Nadiia Bashinska and peter Beaumont broke up

 

[jmtfti]

I left a comment on her piece re: Crone's subsequent partnership efforts.

 

[4rkidz]

An update on the August 2023 incident which resulted in the death of Alexandra Paul:

Driver pleads guilty in crash that killed Olympian skater Alexandra Paul | Globalnews.ca

The crash took place in August 2023, when police say a transport truck entered a construction zone and crashed into a lineup of stopped cars.

globalnews.ca

It is alarming the number of truck drivers accidents the past five years. There was a time when they were the safest drivers but now with buying licenses and illegal short cuts they have become a menace. This was the second time someone was killed by a truck in that area.

 

[skategal]

I left a comment on her piece re: Crone's subsequent partnership efforts.

Crone would probably rather forget considering she partnered with Nik Sorenson after she and Paul split.

 

[dramagrrl]

I left a comment on her piece re: Crone's subsequent partnership efforts.

How odd that it hasn't shown up yet, but two very complimentary comments are the only ones I can see.

Crone would probably rather forget considering she partnered with Nik Sorenson after she and Paul split.

From what I remember, when the split with Paul was announced, SC's press release said Vanessa was retiring, but she spoke out to correct that assumption. I remember she was skating at the DSC with Madison Hubbell's brother for awhile, but that didn't work out because he didn't want to sit out of international competition for a year or more and was then able to find an American partner. She then announced that she was planning to skate in singles, but IIRC, that never happened. When did the partnership with Sorensen happen in this timeline? I believe it was after the attempted partnership with Hubbell and that when it didn't work out with Sorensen, she announced her actual retirement from competition, but I might be wrong.

 

[dramagrrl]

AFAIR Vanessa wanted to move to a different coach, and Paul was adamant that he wanted to stay with Carol and Juris. Same reason Nadiia Bashinska and peter Beaumont broke up

There were also a lot of rumours going around that Paul and Carol thought he needed a more traditionally "feminine" and glamorous partner to get to the top of the ranks. He was not out then (and wasn't until many years after he'd established his partnership with Piper) and was probably insecure about not being perceived as the type of romantic "leading man" that was the norm in ice dance at the time.

I was a big Crone/Poirier fan - they were different from all the other teams competing at that time, and I loved their uniqueness - and it took me until Vincent 1.0 to truly get over the split enough to really love P&P, but once I was in, I was committed.

 

[Alilou]

There were also a lot of rumours going around that Paul and Carol thought he needed a more traditionally "feminine" and glamorous partner to get to the top of the ranks. He was not out then (and wasn't until many years after he'd established his partnership with Piper) and was probably insecure about not being perceived as the type of romantic "leading man" that was the norm in ice dance at the time.

I was a big Crone/Poirier fan - they were different from all the other teams competing at that time, and I loved their uniqueness - and it took me until Vincent 1.0 to truly get over the split enough to really love P&P, but once I was in, I was committed.

I loved them too, and it also took me a while to get behind him and Piper, but I did love some of their earlier stuff, before Vincent.

 

[OrioleBeagle]

.

 

[Alilou]

It sounds like Carol has the same influence with male skaters that Delilah Sappenfield had.

Maybe it's just more of what happens in all of ice dance and pairs - the boys are special because there are so few of them.

 

[puglover]

I am personally more surprised when teams that get together so young actually go the distance as opposed to those who call it quits. My son skated pairs with a nice girl who had sensible parents and still it was nuts. I recall going to divisionals (long time ago) and they were already fighting on the van ride to the airport on our way there. Her mother told me she was crying because my son didn't want to sit with her on the ride. When talking to my son, he expressed his feelings that he sat with her enough and he wanted to sit with his buddies. My thoughts - shoot me now! They were both in their young teens acting like young teenagers.
I remember all the criticism of Piper when she and Paul teamed up and I really respect any skater stepping into the skates of a former partner of a favourite team.

 

[Wyliefan]

It sounds like Carol has the same influence with male skaters that Delilah Sappenfield had.

Let's not make THAT comparison unless we know it's warranted.

 

[Taso]

Let's not make THAT comparison unless we know it's warranted.

Truly, that goes so so much farther....

 

[ChiquitaBanana]

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LaLa skating with Laurent-Duvernay-Tardif (you know, that MD who won the Superbowl )