HALIFAX — After winning world championship silver last March, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier got a jump-start on their preparation for the following season.
So far, it’s paying off for Canada’s top ice dancers.
Gilles and Poirier scored 214.84 total points in their first event of the season to win a fifth straight gold medal at Skate Canada International on Sunday.
“It made a lot of difference just in our confidence,” Gilles said. “It's really tricky to be able to come to this event and have it be your first competition.
"There's a lot of nerves, but we didn't really have them this week."
The two 32-year-olds have been deciding their future one year at a time since competing at the 2022 Olympics. This season, they’re back with a commitment through the 2026 Games — and a feeling that they still have a lot left to give.
“We had spent the first two seasons of the quad feeling really unsure as we went into our break about what we wanted to do and whether or not we wanted to continue,” Poirier said. “This year it was a little bit easier to make that decision, and so we started doing our music research earlier so that when we got back on to the ice we were ready. We were prepared. We felt organized.
“We wanted to come out and feel really strong as we went into our first competition."
And so they did. Gilles and Poirier opened the weekend at Scotiabank Centre with a comfortable lead after their energetic rhythm dance to The Beach Boys.
On Sunday, they followed up with the highest score in the free dance, performing a challenging “tango-essence” routine set to Annie Lennox’s cover of “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”
“We're really pleased with how this week has gone,” Poirier said. “We really trusted our training every step of the way, we didn't get ahead of ourselves and were able to perform two really comfortable, solid programs that we feel set us up well for the rest of the season.”
Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., (199.90 points) won silver while France’s Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud (194.25) claimed bronze.
Gilles and Poirier joined former world champions Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz as the only ice dancers to win five consecutive titles at Skate Canada.
"They were a great example of what ice dance could be in Canada. They started the legacy of all these incredible teams that were after them … We're so honoured to be part of that legend,” Gilles said, before pointing to Lajoie and Lagha at the news conference and adding: “Hopefully they will continue it after we're gone.”
Lajoie and Lagha may have finished second, but they twizzled their way to a standing ovation for their captivating skate to “The Sound of Silence.”
The 2019 world junior champions bounced back from a rhythm dance where Lagha unexpectedly fell to the ice.
"We are very happy,” Lagha said. “It was not... actually, I cannot say it was not easy. It was pretty easy actually.
"I had a good talk with my psychologist. He told me when you think about this stuff, that's when you do mistakes. When you drive the car, you have to look forward at the road, external points, you cannot focus on where you put your foot.”
Earlier on Sunday, American Ilia Malinin dominated the field and captured men’s gold.
The reigning world champion received a standing ovation for his vampire-themed free program — which included a backflip — and won by more than 40 points to claim a Grand Prix title on consecutive weekends.
Malinin also won Skate America in Allen, Texas, last Sunday.
"I'm pretty happy with my skate today," Malinin said. "It was very tough doing these two back-to-back Grand Prix, and overall I'm pretty satisfied with my performance and how I was able to manage this."
The 19-year-old scored 301.82 points in total. Japan's Shun Sato (261.16) won silver while South Korea's Junhwan Cha (260.31) took bronze.
The only slip in Malinin's performance came during the fourth segment, where he failed to complete a quad loop.
"I'm a little bit bummed out with the loop," he said. "But it is what it is. When it happened I just had to push it aside for now and continue with the rest of the program.
"I'm always challenging myself. That's my main competitor, is just being able to fight through a program start to finish."
Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, B.C., scored 222.49 as the top Canadian, finishing seventh in the 12-skater field.
"There's proof in my improvements, getting this score," Rakic said. "Last year or two years ago, I would've had to have been absolutely perfect. Here I've had mistakes and missed elements, that means I can get even more points."
The Grand Prix, the top series in figure skating, consists of six events and a final. Next up is the Grand Prix de France from Nov. 1-3.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
