2025–26 Canadian Ice Dance: News and Updates

[victorskid]

Haley Sales & Nick Wamsteeker were married yesterday - Ted Barton posted photo of himself with them on his Instagram.

Ted Barton on Instagram: "Congratulations to this wonderful couple!"

In this heartwarming video, Haley and Nick Wamsteeker share their romantic social media proposal story. From the surprise proposal to the emotional reaction, watch how their love story unfolded. Get tips on how to plan the perfect social media engagement and make it a memorable moment for your...

www.instagram.com

 

[shutterbug]

Bev Smith weighs in on the most recent ice dance judging controversy: Ice Dance Hocus Pocus

The Olympics always brings out the worst in ice dancing judging, but this year’s incidents have reached another level of hocus pocus.

To start off with, the optics were not good when Shawn Rettstatt, an American chair of the ISU ice dance technical committee, acted as the technical controller at both Skate America – where top Olympic contenders Madison Chock and Evan Bates competed – and at Finlandia Trophy, where a couple of their major competitors – Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron (France) and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (world silver medalists from Canada) were competing. Rettstatt and his panel set all the levels of difficulty up to level four, most difficult. We hardly saw any level fours.

At both events, the tech panel awarded a host of level ones (lowest difficulty) to teams that are the best in the world, unless of course, you were Chock and Bates, and another up and coming US team Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik.

 

[chantilly]

Ooooh that article's a doozy!

 

[Winnipeg]

I hope this does not take us back to the old days of judging cheating or unfairness in dance.

Is there no method of accountability built into the system yet? I thought this had been addressed after SLC?

 

[Jammers]

I hope this does not take us back to the old days of judging cheating or unfairness in dance.

Is there no method of accountability built into the system yet? I thought this had been addressed after SLC?

Like the Who song goes at the end We won't get fooled again "Meet the new boss same as the old boss". Different scoring system but the same judges and people in charge as before the scandal of SLC.

 

[tony]

The problem with the Bev Smith article is that it's a bunch of half-thoughts all pasted together, as if she literally went to ChatGPT and said 'put all of this together and just briefly touch on every subject but make sure you get every last thing in there'. I'm not a big fan of the 'one judge said this...' and 'one person told me this...' stuff. She's whining a lot about Piper and Paul when the level for her twizzle in the RD did deserve to be massively dropped-- we saw how it could be level 1 at best even if she did get a base level. Everyone in the competition was hit in probably overly harsh ways, though.

Finally, I read the article and I am absolutely sure she listened to Thomas' and my rant show about the judging, because she ever-so-briefly mentions Robin Cousins talking about choreographic elements but doesn't expand on anything else he said-- because that's all I gave in that particular show.

I have two of her books from the 90s still sitting on my bookshelves and they were among my favorites back when I was a pre-teen, but this article is so sloppy and has NO QUANTITATIVE analysis or understanding of the rules, which from the start of IJS until apparently the end of time is going to be my pet peeve.

 

[clairecloutier]

Bev is a good writer and has written many excellent articles about skating. I agree this wasn't one of her stronger efforts, necessarily.

 

[puglover]

I still see ads for "Own the Podium". I thought there was another corporate group that provided sports experts and funds for Virtue and Moir that paid for physiotherapists and really helpful extras for top Canadian athletes. Does anyone know what is in place now?It might have been called "Road to Excellence" and was for targeted athletes

 

[fan]

I still see ads for "Own the Podium". I thought there was another corporate group that provided sports experts and funds for Virtue and Moir that paid for physiotherapists and really helpful extras for top Canadian athletes. Does anyone know what is in place now?It might have been called "Road to Excellence" and was for targeted athletes

It was called B2ten and it’s closed

 

[Ice_dance_fan]

for her twizzle in the RD did deserve to be massively dropped-- we saw how it could be level 1 at best even if she did get a base level.

Then why Vadim in his twizzles got same level as Emiliea and level 4?

 

[tony]

Then why Vadim in his twizzles got same level as Emiliea and level 2?

I don't know what competition you're talking about. Unless there's a 'not' missing somewhere in what you're trying to ask me.

If you did miss a word, I would suggest checking out exactly what I said here:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

If it doesn't go to 13m30s, go to that part.

 

[kwanfan1818]

It was at the Finlandia RD where Gilles was given Base in the twizzles because of her net errors and lost levels vs features, and Zingas and Kolesnik both got L2. The argument is that he made the same mistakes that Gilles did, but wasn't penalized for them.

 

[tony]

It was at the Finlandia RD where Gilles was given Base in the twizzles because of her net errors and lost levels vs features, and Zingas and Kolesnik both got L2. The argument is that he made the same mistakes that Gilles did, but wasn't penalized for them.

Zingas and Kolesnik got level 4, hence why there's what I would assume to be a 'not' missing [before the 'level 2'].

 

[kwanfan1818]

Doh, yes, why didn't he get L2 instead of L4.

I didn't know why Gilles was at Base until there was a count of checks, missed arms, and the actual features, and I wasn't watching Kolesnik and never made the connection. Until I kept reading, "But Kolesnik..."

 

[kwanette]

Finlandia Trophy is over; the ice dance controversy is not - Anything GOEs

The ISU will be reviewing the ice dance event from Finlandia Trophy after skaters object to tech panel decisions

anythinggoe.com

 

[VarBar]

Maybe I am all wrong, but it's hard for me to believe the skaters and coaches who criticized the Finlandia judging and the direction ice dance is going in would have had the courage to speak up if they hadn't been given permission to do so by their respective federations. They must have had some solid backing because challenging the authority can often entail serious consequences.

 

[Alilou]

More from Guillaume

Guillaume Cizeron: “We expected it. We didn’t know how Shawn Rettstatt would do it, but we knew he’d find a way [to penalize the performance]. What happened is absolutely not representative of the two performances in Finland.”

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume won the Finland Grand Prix in ice dance, securing a spot in the Grand Prix Final, but expressed frustration over strict judging.

fs-gossips.com

 

[shutterbug]

A little more fuel for the (dumpster?) fire - Rob Brodie's thoughts: Are we really doing this again?

It took literally years to rebuild the sport in the wake of the Salt Lake mess (a new judging system emerged in the wake of the scandal. Basically the one we have today, although it’s been tweaked a bunch over the years). Eventually, fans were coaxed back into the arenas for the big events, but I’m not sure television ratings have ever truly rebounded in all the years that followed those 2002 Olympics (although, to be fair, the TV broadcast landscape has changed massively since then). Again, there was no real measuring exactly how much damage came out of that judging farce in Utah.

And this is what Gilles was talking about in Helsinki. There are fans out there with an itch to throw themselves back into watching ice dance in particular (the diehards will always be there) but again, it’s about trusting the system. People like Gilles and Poirier talk to fans all the time. They know exactly what’s being said and what opinions are being shared about likes and dislikes. Their ears and eyes are always open.