Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 6, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba C2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A S the calendar flips to 2025, the countdown to the 2026 Olympics begins for Canada’s top figure skaters. The Canadians hope to build on a strong 2024 in ice dancing and pairs heading into a “massive” year. “We’re one year from the Olympics — I look at it that way,” said Skate Canada high-performance director Mike Slipchuk. “A year from now all we have left is nationals, and then we’re in Italy.” The 2024-25 figure skating season, culminating with the world champion- ships this March in Boston, will give Slipchuk and the Canadian team “a sense of where we’re at.” After that comes an intense and shortened off-season as athletes prepare for the Milan-Cortina Games, beginning Feb. 6, 2026. “The clock is ticking,” Slipchuk said. “It’ll be about ensuring they have the right plan in place to be at their best when they get to Milan.” Here are five Canadian storylines to watch over the next 12 months. Going for gold, again Will Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps repeat as world champions? They’ll aim to become the first Canadian pair to achieve the feat since Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford went back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps struck gold in both Grand Prix assign- ments after their triumph in Montreal last year, but four teams posted higher scores during the GP season. They also withdrew from the Grand Prix Final — the top competition of the first half of the season — while Des- champs recovered from an illness. Slipchuk is confident they’ll return to their best with the Canadian cham- pionship in Laval, Que., approaching on Jan. 14-19. The pair can finally focus on throws, lifts and jumps instead of immigration after American-born Stellato-Dudek gained Canadian citizenship in Decem- ber. The 41-year-old is now eligible to represent Canada at the Olympics. “Every year they become a bit stron- ger, they refine certain elements,” Slipchuk said. “They need to use the next two months … to build up that trajectory so that when they get to Boston, they feel they’re at the peak of their game.” ‘A one-off’ Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier posted the best free dance score in a silver- medal finish at worlds last March, signalling the 2025 edition could be theirs for the taking. The decorated ice dancers, however, stumbled at the end of 2024. After dominating at Skate Canada International, they fell from first to second at the Finlandia Trophy when Poirier slipped during their twizzles in the free dance. A few weeks later at the GP Fi- nal, Poirier dropped to the ice from catching his foot on the boards in the rhythm dance. Gilles and Poirier bounced back with the second-best score of the free, giving Slipchuk confidence they’re leaving those mistakes in 2024 and contending through the Olympics. “It’s a one-off,” he said. “They came back the next day, they put up by far the second-highest free dance score, so it shows that they’re going to be pushing for the top.” Up next? Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha should pressure Gilles and Poirier at nationals after taking another signifi- cant step forward last year. Lajoie and Lagha finished fifth at worlds and earned two silver medals on the GP circuit before placing fourth in the final, one spot ahead of Gilles and Poirier. The 2019 world junior champions are proving they could eventually take the reins as Canada’s top ice dancers. Can they evolve into Olympic podium contenders over the next 12 months? “They’ve definitely moved them- selves into the top echelon of dance,” Slipchuk said. Who steps up? In singles, the Canadian men and women each have just one entry at this year’s worlds. They’ll need a top-10 finish in Boston to secure a second Olympic quota spot, and seeing that in the men’s event is unlikely. “To get into the top 10 is going to be a tough climb,” Slipchuk said. Top 10 or not, something to watch for in 2025 is who steps up as the leading Canadian man, because the national title feels wide open. The first half of the season fea- tured three Grand Prix withdrawals due to injury: 2022 Olympian Roman Sadovsky at Skate Canada, reigning national champion Wesley Chiu at Cup of China and Stephen Gogolev at NHK Trophy. Aleksa Rakic showed promise at Skate Canada with a seventh-place result, finishing a hair outside the top five. “We’re optimistic that someone’s going to step forward and grab the horns here and move forward with it,” Slipchuk said. “But definitely at this point there’s no one really leading the pack.” Steady Schizas There is some hope for a top-10 fin- ish in the women’s event with two-time Canadian champion Madeline Schizas having “one of her stronger seasons since 2022,” according to Slipchuk. Schizas has placed 13th (2021, 2023) and 12th (2022) at worlds. Last year, however, the 21-year-old from Oakville, Ont., finished a disappointing 18th on home soil and lost the national title. This season, she finished just over one point off the podium at Skate Can- ada with a near personal best, which bodes well for 2025 with the Olympics on the horizon. “With the women, we feel a lot better of where they’ve been tracking,” Slipchuk said. “With the scores that Maddie has put up this year, she’s in the game with those in the top 10.” — The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Katherine Henderson shares in the disappointment. Hockey Canada’s president and CEO adds the national sport organization will do what’s necessary to avoid a repeat. The country was bounced from the world junior hockey championship at the quarterfinal stage for the second time in 12 months earlier this week — an ugly first for the program. Henderson and fellow executives held a press conference Saturday ahead of a pair of semifinal games the tournament hosts will watch from the sidelines. “Canadians do expect to see our country play for a medal each and every year, and we all take that expectation very seriously,” Henderson said in her prepared opening remarks. “There will be time for reflection and discussion on next steps for our program.” Senior vice-president of high per- formance and hockey operations Scott Salmond was situated two seats down from Henderson in what amounted to a public vote of confidence despite Can- ada’s back-to-back losses to Czechia in the quarters, including Thursday’s 4-3 loss on home soil. “I will be sitting down with Scott,” Henderson, who pointed to success at other levels, said when asked what she’s seen from the men’s under-20 team the last two years. “We are going to talk about how we strengthen our programs for this particular tournament that we know is very, very important to Cana- dians. “I know (Salmond) will work tirelessly to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” What happened was a team that fell far below expectations. Canada assembled a roster that left a boatload of offensive talent at home in favour of what was viewed by management as a more well-rounded roster. The results were disastrous. The Canadians started strong with a 4-0 victory over Finland on Boxing Day before a shock 3-2 shootout defeat to Latvia, an unconvincing 3-0 victory over Germany and a 4-1 loss to the United States on New Year’s Eve. That pushed them into the quarterfinals against Czechia instead of a lesser opponent. A lack of offence — 13 goals in five games — and an undisciplined parade to the penalty box was Canada’s ultimate undoing. “I understand anger, I understand dis- appointment, and I share it,” Salmond said. “I apologize. There should be full buildings in the next two days full of Ca- nadians, cheering on a Canadian team. That’s our job. I apologize for that. “We will make changes and we will be better.” Salmond was asked later what that might entail. “We’ll look at our selection process,” he added. “We’ll look at how we build teams. We’ve done that in the past. We’ve had a model historically where we built teams based on some sort of a ghost roster where we had skilled play- ers, we had checking players, we had players that brought energy.” Salmond then repeated “skill” in terms of the roster after Canada clearly focused on a wider range of factors and attributes with this failed iteration. “We’ll be criticized and probably should be criticized about how this team was constructed,” he added. Salmond said the contract of Peter Anholt, who led the under-20 brain trust at the last two tournaments and is also general manager of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, is set to expire, while head scout Al Murray has one year left on his deal. “We’ll go back and look at decisions,” Salmond said. “We’ll look at overall the way in which we build our teams.” He added the performance review includes independent analysis, player interviews and a deep dive on analytics. “We need to look at the process, not just the result,” Salmond said. “We need to make changes to that to improve. We do that win or lose, but we’ll spend a little more time and dig a little deeper into what that looks like this year so that we’re better prepared next year.” Also Saturday, Hockey Canada announced eight current and former players have been elected by their peers to form its new national team athlete committee. Billy Bridges, Michael Mastrodome- nico, Tyler McGregor, Bailey Mitchell, Markus Phillips, Alyssa Regalado, Kyle Turris and Kendra Woodland will each serve multi-year terms. Hockey Canada said the committee will meet quarterly at a minimum and be empowered to make recommenda- tions on issues impacting their fellow national team athletes. — The Canadian Press SPORTS MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2025 Hockey Canada CEO ‘disappointed’ by early world junior exit JOSHUA CLIPPERTON MICHAEL BURNS / CURLING CANADA Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant show off their gold medals Saturday in Liverpool, N.S. Peterman, Gallant win mixed doubles curling trials LIVERPOOL, N.S. — Jocelyn Pe- terman and Brett Gallant cleared a big hurdle Saturday in their quest to represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The husband-and-wife team defeated Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher 8-7 to win the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool, N.S. The victory gave the duo a berth in the April 26-May 3 world champion- ship in Fredericton, which will serve as the main qualifier for the Milan Games. “We’ve dreamt of this for a long time,” said Peterman. “In a sense it feels like it’s kind of the first step. We know we still have to earn that spot in a few months, but yeah it’s amazing.” The win capped a perfect run of 10 straight wins at the competition. “We had some really, really close games early and we were very de- termined this week,” Peterman said. “Just very proud of the week as a whole.” The two-time national mixed doubles champions opened with a tap for three points and led 6-1 after four ends. Peterman made a double-takeout in the fifth to limit their opponents to a deuce. Gallant and Peterman scored two points in the sixth end to restore the five-point lead. Homan and Bottcher had a deuce in the seventh and were held to two points in the eighth as Pe- terman made an open hit for the win. “We knew it was going to come down to the last shot either way,” Gallant said. “I’m just thankful that we had a strong game, we battled all the way.” Earlier in the day, Bottcher and Homan reached the final with an 8-6 semifinal win over John Epping and Lisa Weagle. Canada’s John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won gold when mixed doubles made its Olympic debut at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Homan and Morris missed the play- offs at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. — The Canadian Press PHOTOS BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps perform during the exhibition gala and in the pairs free skate (below) at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal last March. Five things to watch for this year in Canadian figure skating DANIEL RAINBIRD Medal winners seek to build on success IIHF president wants Russia back ‘as soon as possible’ OTTAWA — Luc Tardif will be paying close attention to global events over the next few months. The door for one of hockey’s powers to rejoin the fold could soon swing open. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has indicated he plans to work to end Russia’s war in Ukraine when he returns to the White House later this month. If that happens, the trickle-down effect could include a lifting of Russia’s ban from international competition that’s been in place since the country invaded its neighbour in February 2022 “We have to let the door open as soon as possible,” Tardif, the president of the Inter- national Ice Hockey Federation, said Sunday. “It will be interesting to see what’s going to happen in the next two months.” Russia has been frozen out of the world junior hockey championship — the 2025 event concluded Sunday in Ottawa — along with other men’s, women’s and para hockey tournaments. Tardif said a decision on the field for next year’s world juniors in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., will be made in February. He added the IIHF will also press the International Olympic Committee on an answer for the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, that will see NHL players return after a 12-year absence. — The Canadian Press ;