I've done a manual translation using the subtitles on the video. My French is both rusty and mostly literary so it's not a perfect translation. I used a dictionary for the terms that I didn't know and chose the word that "felt" right in context. Hopefully there are no egregious mistakes and it gives an idea of what was said. The melodrama began to grate on me towards the end, so I didn't bother with the last of the fluff after the segment with Manon Perron.
Anyway, I was a Lubov/Dylan uber, and am totally ready to be a Lubov/Charlie uber as well!
*
Hello and welcome to this report dedicated entirely to the pairs skater Charlie Bilodeau, seen here.
Charlie Bilodeau, a sensitive soul, always searching for the rare pearl to relaunch his career and his skating.
And there we go!
He has decided to take a hand in his own destiny.
And it’s never easy, Alain, to go back to square one.
You’re right, Jacinthe. Charlie knows something of that.
He spends long months alone.
Charlie Bilodeau: I needed a moment completely outside, to look deep inside me, to see if I still had the energy to put into skating, if I wanted to compete again.
Others have had the same experience.
David Pelletier had 5 partners before becoming Olympic champion.
Not impossible for Charlie, but a long path, paved with solitude, questions and uncertainties.
CB: There’s certainly a level of stress that comes into it. I made a big decision, really, and I find myself in a place where I have to build everything in front of me [from scratch].
Charlie does everything to keep the rhythm of a skater and to stay in touch with his artistic side.
It isn’t easy/evident to keep the reflexes needed for skating pairs when you train without a partner. Charlie Bilodeau shows much imagination [in this regard].
And he has clearly neglected nothing.
And we’re off!
Landed!/Succeeded!
Time is ticking, Alain. Many months have passed since his performance with Julianne Séguin at the Pyeongchang Olympics. They dazzled us [there] with a 9th place finish at their first Games.
CB: A Top 10 at the Olympics, that’s something. But after that, if you want to aim for the top 5, or even the podium, well, that’s a totally different game.
There are things that need to change profoundly.
CB: We gave it a few months — to put everything into place. Then July came around and I had the impression that everything I’d made note of during the season, the gear that we were stuck in, well, we were still stuck there. And it was at that moment that I thought: I no longer believe in this. It’s nothing against her [Julianne]. It’s just that our project together, well, I no longer believed in it.
Alain, how does one find the ideal partner for Charlie Bilodeau?
All methods are good, you know, to attract potential partners. And some of them are unusual.
CB: Yes, there’s an internet site, icepartnersearch.com, it’s a bit like the Tinder of skating. I like to say that finding a skating partner is a bit like looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend. [Pause] Maximum height: 5 feet 1. I’ll go with that. “No skaters that meet your search options.”
Narrator: You’ll have to look elsewhere.
CB: Indeed I will.
Big news, Alain! A bit more than a year after the Pyeongchang Olympics, Charlie Bilodeau announces his return to competition. The skater from Trois-Pistoles has finally found his muse.
CB: The person that I found to skate with is someone whom I’ve been around during the past few years in competition. She has incredible athletic capabilities.
Lubov (in French): Hello, everyone. My name is Lubov Ilyushechkina and now I have a new partner, Charlie Bilodeau.
CB: She’s moving to Montreal today. I’ve come to meet her at her new apartment. She’s driving up from Toronto with her boyfriend.
[pleasantries while moving boxes]
CB: Initially, I told myself that my preferred scenario would be to skate with a partner from Quebec. You know, I saw Quebec, then Canada, after that international. Enter Lubov — a Russian-Canadian — but in the end I’ve got a bit of everything. I have the international, I have Canada, and a partner who speaks French.
Lubov (reading the card): May another new adventure be filled with success. Welcome to Montreal. [From] Charlie. Thank you.
[Lubov explains in English about her partnership with Dylan and her time with Cirque du Soleil]
Lubov: I found the first message from Charlie!
CB: I was on my way to the Gaspésie, on holidays with my girlfriend, and then I just said, no, this is it, before I leave I’m going to write to Lubov.
25th February
First Training Session
CB: The new adventure starts today! It’s really exciting!
CB: We got up at 4 o’clock in the morning to be on the ice by 6:30. [Lubov laughs and says, “Yes.”] It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. Listen, we’ve got a nice project for the next three years at least.
CB: And so it begins!
CB: We do a bit of stroking, we get to know each other a bit, anyway. You know, just to figure out how to hold hands. These are simple things, but you have to know them. Our natures (?) really go in the same direction.
CB: Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte, they’re really the best [coaches] in Canada, if not the world, that’s why we’ve chosen them as coaches.
Richard Gauthier: The advantage that they have, Lubov, she has incredible flexibility.
RG on the ice to CB: Can you do what she’s doing?
CB: I’m not going to say anything, I’ll just give it a try.
RG: I worked with Cirque du Soleil during the first years, when they wanted to try something on the ice. In my head, I’d always wanted a skater, of the contortionist sort. [But] whenever I asked a skater to do something that I thought they’d be capable of, they never managed to achieve the positions that I saw in my head. Lubov gives me even more than I ask.
CB: Simply in terms of lift positions, Lubov is capable of incredible things. After that, things like pair spins, side by side spins, it’s me who’s got work to do — in order to lift my leg like this, behind my head.
RG: We’ll tie him up and stretch him until he can do a split. But I think he’ll be capable of it. They really have the desire to improve and I think that a great part resides in your head here, it’s about what you’re willing to learn (?). I think they’re ready to do the work.
RG: In the past, Lubov had trouble with her jumps. A large part was psychological. Technically, she is capable of landing these jumps and they are even very beautiful.
CB: What do you call a ferris wheel in Russian?
Lubov: [says Russian word]
CB: [repeats Russian word]
CB: Try tabarnouche!
Lubov: Tabarnouche!
CB: There you go, you’re a real Québécoise now!
CB: We are becoming good friends, simply because we’re hanging around each other every day and have common goals.
CB [as they both listen to the iPod]: I think this is it, we could maybe talk about this one with the coach and then choreographer.
7 March
Third week of training
CB: Things are progressing at a stupendous pace. I really think that Lubov has a bit of that Russian rigidity, you know, of the right sense of work, to reach deep and push hard, to do the repetitions, etc. [He actually says et cetera here, this is not my abbreviation.]
CB: I lift her, and it’s really, you know, I feel that nothing moves, everything adjusts itself.
Manon Perron: Me, it’s the first time that I saw them together. I expected them to be good, but they’re really good. Of course, it’s the debut of a new pair. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, they have work to do. But at least, seeing them, one knows the potential is there.
RG: I think that Skate Canada were happy to learn that while 2 pairs had stopped skating, it was still possible to save one pair with these two.
They unexpectedly to me do match quite nicely. 
) but yeah, they look amazing, and I can't wait!
