Hawayek/ Baker Cheer Thread

Dang, we've been slack here in their cheer thread. Congrats, Kaitlin and Jean-Luc! Their FD was my fave at Nationals...they were in the zone and their connection is wonderful. They knew they could do this. I was in tears by the end, so lovely! So happy they are going to the Olympics!!
 
Their LP is my favorite this year, of all the teams. I don’t know much about the finer points of ice dance, but their free dance was breathtaking and beautiful. Lifted me to another place for the moments they were skating. The highlight ID for me, at this Nationals.
 
I was so nervous for them after the SD results. I was a bit even before the competition as Green & Parsons seem to be the buzz and gaining momentum, but I still felt fairly confident they would be fine, but after the SD results it was oh oh. I was fearing the worst. I am so proud of them for fighting hard and earning that spot. I think that makes a big difference not only to this year but their future.
 
I keep rewatching their FD...so beautiful, I felt transported. The one foot step sequence was so excellent...with thvu's excellent vids on calling the levels and explaining the elements in ice dance, I can clearly see how clean that ss was and why it was called Lvl 4 for both. Just perfection. I am so, so happy they are going to Olympics especially after their struggle this season. The audiences will be treated to a lovely FD. And actually, I like their RD as well, they just always commit to what they are doing. I have watched them both since they were quite young (especially JLB) and they made a great decision teaming up.
 
@maatTheViking originally posted the link to this Seattle Times article about Jean-Luc Baker in the 2022 Olympics forum in Kiss & Cry:
www.seattletimes.com

A doctor said this Edmonds man would never walk; now he's dancing into the Beijing Olympics

Baker was born with a club foot and his parents were told he would never walk. He overcame that and accomplished a longtime dream of making it to the Olympics.
www.seattletimes.com www.seattletimes.com
Excerpts:
None of it might have been possible if Baker’s parents had not sought a second opinion about his club foot.
The new doctor had an idea: “They were taping my foot on a weekly basis to try to force it back and for the first six months of my life, I was in a cast,” said Jean-Luc, who was born in England and moved to Edmonds when he was 4.
That stunted the growth of his left foot, which is now “size 7-ish, and the right is a 9,” Baker said.
That difference in size is the only remaining sign that he once had a club foot.
Baker was put on the ice at age 2, and was a natural. His mother, Sharon Jones Baker, competed for Great Britain in ice dancing in the 1988 Calgary Olympics and father Peter competed in pairs in the 1976 World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
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Baker’s parents are traveling to Buffalo, New York, to watch the Olympics with Hawayek’s parents.
Baker said his mother has only shared a few anecdotes of her Olympic experience. Soon, they will have that experience in common.
“She didn’t want to tell me how amazing her experience was at the Olympics and have me want to go to the Olympics because of her experience,” he said. “She wanted it to be something I wanted. I didn’t ask many questions, but after my experience I really want to have time to ask her about it.”
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Upstate (Buffalo area) New York article by Jerry Sullivan on Kaitlin's challenges, especially this season, in getting to the Olympics (Jan 26):
www.wivb.com

Sullivan: Kaitlin Hawayek completes journey from East Aurora to the Olympics

Kaitlin Hawayek is one of the brightest athletes you would ever want to meet, an ice dancer whose observations can be as deep and flowing as her movements on the rink. A recent revelation: “I told …
www.wivb.com www.wivb.com
Excerpts:
Then, early last July, she and Baker were practicing a new lift, one they had performed many times without incident. But they pushed a little too far that day, affecting their counterbalance, and she fell and hit her head.
Hawayek went to the hospital, where she received stitches to her head and was diagnosed with a concussion.
“It was my first one, fortunately,” she recalled. “It wasn’t easy. I won’t sugarcoat it. There were definite challenges. It took a while for me to get back to full training. But I’m grateful I had the concussion in a day and age when concussions are taken very seriously.”
Hawayek was off the ice for 10 days, then began working with Sarah El Quiesi, a concussion specialist who eased her back into training. Gradually, they increased her heart rate and the duration of her exercise.
It was slow and frustrating at times. She suffered from vertigo, which limited her rotations at first and prevented her from doing moves that had become second nature.
“I wouldn’t call it fortunate, but it was a silver lining that prior to this year Jean-Luc had experienced several concussions in the course of our career,” she said. “So he had a lot of understanding and knowledge of the experience itself, which led to a lot of compassion and support throughout the process.”
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On Saturday night in Nashville, before a national TV audience, they nailed the free dance. Dancing to a medley of Chopin, they glided through a performance that was both artistically lovely and athletically clutch, one that had the crowd roaring with approval at the end.
At the finish, Hawayek had this blissful look on her face. Then she wrapped her arms around Baker’s neck and began sobbing. The judges awarded them a 205.68 score, which would be easily enough for third. [...]
“No, I don’t think we really knew until we got the call around 1 a.m. that evening,” Hawayek said. “We knew our body of work was in favor of us, but we also knew we’d had an unusual, unprecedented start of our season where we weren’t able to compete as much due to an injury.
“We didn’t want to make any assumptions and take anything for granted,” she said. “My reaction on the ice was purely just knowing we had created a moment that we would look back on many years from now and nobody could ever take from us regardless of where we ended up.”
Click to expand...
 
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Wow, just watched them from SA. They WON the FD and should have won overall. Earned silver by less than a point from gold. They were truly the best here, hands down. They have put C/B on notice, imo. They totally have the better program and their edges are just sublime.
 
~tapdancer~ said:
Wow, just watched them from SA. They WON the FD and should have won overall. Earned silver by less than a point from gold. They were truly the best here, hands down. They have put C/B on notice, imo. They totally have the better program and their edges are just sublime.
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Indeed. If C/B thought they would have a big advantage in the USA after H/D retired that idea seems to have dissolved like wet ice. :D Go Kaitlin and Jean-Luc!
 
Spiralgraph said:
Indeed. If C/B thought they would have a big advantage in the USA after H/D retired that idea seems to have dissolved like wet ice. :D Go Kaitlin and Jean-Luc!
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Welllllll... ChoBat now realize they need to hit their levels at every event, because, yes, HawBak are nipping at their heels.

What I love more, though, is that it's very clear the USFS and the int'l judges are willing to give Kaitlin & Jean-Luc the scores to be on the world podium. They really could contend for gold in Milano-Cortina if they stick around through the entire quad!
 
I just want to say that U.S. ice dance is in great hands with H/B taking the helm. Yes, I know Chock/Bates are still around but they've been at the helm for so long that we KNOW U.S. ice dance is in great hands with them. After the post-Davis/White period where U.S. ice dance had so much depth and competitiveness and excitement, I was worried that they wouldn't be able to replicate such things again, but I think H/B being one of the highlights of this ice dance season shows me that they know who they are as a team and have the confidence to be in a leading position of U.S. ice dance (with or without Chock/Bates).
 
Interview in Espoo (Judith Dombrowski for Golden Skate, uploaded on Nov. 28): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR5AZtFPtJ4

Kaitlin's latest post after the Grand Prix Final (5th place): https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCI66XOz30/

ETA from the ISU's Quick Quotes document after the FD:

Hawayek: We were thrilled with the performance, it was a skate that we felt incredibly present the entire time we performed it. It's always a learning experience to see that sometimes feelings don’t always add up to scores and vice-versa. Like you can feel like it’s a skate that hold onto and scores very well and today it felt like a really strong performance, and we didn’t score as high as we thought we would have, so, we’ll definitely continue to build for our next events but we’re really happy with the performance and at the end of the day that’s all we can control.
(on their schedule) We will have some time over the holidays to be with family which hasn’t been common the last few years so we’re both really looking forward to that. But other than like an extended weekend, we’ll be taking definitely a down period over the next few weeks. We’ll be continuing to train and we’re really hungry to continue to build the season as it goes on.

Baker: (on what they worked on since GP Finland) I think for us we’re just really focusing on the energy management in between the two events. We had fairly decent levels in the Free Dance in Finland, a couple things here and there. But you know, I think for us we were really just focusing on energy management so like try to push our performances because the amount of emotion that we fully put in, it cannot be done robotically, it is pure and real emotions that we put out there so it’s really important for us to be sure we come into the event where it’s not just fresh but like, emotionally fresh as possible.
(on their goals) For us, definitely being on the podium at the Four Continents is a big goal of ours. Knowing how strong North American Ice Dance is. We’re very pushing towards being a part of that, training to push for a national title as well as being top five at Worlds as well. So, we know being here is the first step to all those as was our previous performances, we’re definitely not happy with the score that we got today. We know we can do better but in terms of score, yes, but the performance for today’s purpose we thought we really maximized in where we’re at right now for December 10 through 11th.

Kaitlin after their RD - (on her knee protection) I had an irritation from the slide that we were doing a month ago, and it got a bit inflamed, so it's protective.
 
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Sylvia said:
Fan cam of their Free Dance in Torino! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnjU9EQWJ7A
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gorgeous. brought me close to tears. i wonder if reworking the ending so that it's a bit more impactful as the ending would be helpful? i realized when watching the gp final that the fd always ends kind of inexplicably for me, like out of nowhere they just decide to stop skating.

even though they're not trying to tell a story with this program, i think it would still help to structure it like a story with a clear beginning and middle that builds up to an end. it doesn't have to be a dramatic end, it just needs to feel clearer.

i dunno. i'm just super frustrated at the results they keep getting in the judging.
 
Kaitlin shared her 2022 highlights: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmxtQj3ure1/
2022 was a year of so many personal memories and moments that were culminations of years in the making. I am so grateful to have experienced this year with my incredible family and “extended family” of amazing friends who made the journey to these moments so much more meaningful. Here are some of my top “firsts” of 2022:
1️⃣ Qualified for my first Olympic Games (Nashville, TN).
2️⃣ Walked in my first Opening Ceremonies (Beijing, China).
3️⃣ Met a legend ? (Beijing, China).
4️⃣ Walked in my first Closing Ceremonies (Beijing, China).
5️⃣ Peformed in my first Stars on Ice Tour in Japan (Tokyo, Japan).
6️⃣ Toured the White House and met the president during the Team USA Olympic Summit (Washington, DC).
7️⃣/ 8️⃣ DJ’d my first Formula 1 event (Montreal, Canada).
9️⃣ Got my first tattoo with my best friends (Montreal, Canada)
? Attended my first New York Fashion Week runway show (NYC, New York)
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Jean-Luc's 2022 highlights "reel" (posted 8 days before the New Year): https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cmj35wwojeq/
There’s a quote that a good friend of mine told me in January right before going into the “Olympic Team Announcement” press conference at our US national championships. He said “after this moment, your life will never been the same” and I don’t think I’ve ever had someone tell me something that has resonated with me so strongly.

2022 has been the most transformative year of my life and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see what direction it takes me next.
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