On another subject, I'm delighted with the arrival of Dania Mouaden and Théo Bigot on the JGP scene.
Expectations were met.
During the summer 2019 on Passion Patinage forum, there was a big discussion about the state of french ice dance.
Everybody was doom and gloom about the post Papadakis/Cizeron era, about Haguenauer's departure, about Lyon's downfall.
Then I said I was very optimistic and asked if anyone had paid attention to what Karine Arribert was doing in Villard since 2015 and what Barbara Piton was doing in Chalons since 2010. Because since the murder of Lyon by Gailhaguet in 2014, they were brewing something.
The lid (only one high level center authorized by the fed; every good dancer MUST go to Lyon) had finally been lifted. There was no high level center anymore and Gailhaguet kept claiming France didn't have the expertise to coach its best, abroad being his solution.
So they felt free to try stuff, discretly, in little categories up to Novice for Barbara Piton, in junior slowly but surely for Karine Arribert
The equation was pretty simple.
You have little money.
You have limited ice time.
You coach in the middle of nowhere.
Your fed isn't looking at you.
The minute your athletes will distinguish themselves, they will be preyed upon, with the help of the fed.
And the age frame within which you'll be able to work comfortably and quietly is limited.
Simple.
How do you build something, with the constant threat of becoming Mme Papadakis number 2 (who is the original coach of Gabriella and Guillaume but also of Isabelle Delobel, like Eric Le Mercier, dad of Théo Le Mercier, is the original coach of Théo, Loicia - they were not paired then - but also of Olivier Schoenfelder) ?
Well, you have to invent new systems, new frameworks
And they were indeed very much functional in Villard and Chalons by 2019.
Gailhaguet's demise in 2020 was a blessing.
(He hates the Piton family guts and that's quite mutual.
He has always been dismissive of Arribert for being different and not elitist)
Loicia and Théo LM started to get recognition.
And Dania and Théo B started to skate together, instantly being the promise of the brightest future.
And unlike Mme Papadakis who had been facing the very same situation for years (little means, isolated, limited ice time), Barbara Piton didn't sat on her treasure, waiting for the means to develop her dancers in junior and senior.
She has polished them in novice until they shine so bright your eyes ache.
So nobody would think "oh, they should leave her to go to ...."
No, that's a coach/dancers team with a very long term project that is entering junior.
It has been a long time in the making but both Barbara Piton and Karine Arribert are resolving the equation.
Arribert wants to prove it is possible to coach top level ice dancers in France, for a minimalistic budget (for her, it's unacceptable that families would go through debt and financial difficulties for their kids to practice their sport; the price of practicing ice dance is an obstacle to its popularity and an issue she has been working on in her center).
Piton wanted to invent the next generation couple (Dania and Théo are not her first try) and I think she's very close to achieve that.
They are not working in the same direction at all but both of them have built something pretty unique and I hope it'll bear fruits very soon for both of them.
)
(+ GOE given by all the judges 5 4 5 4 4).
