Figure Skating

With the figure skating Grand Prix season due to begin Friday, Olympic silver medallist Elizabeth Manley and six-time Canadian champion Jennifer Robinson weigh in on what to expect this year.

What does Joannie Rochette, who took silver at the 2009 World Championships, have to bring to the table to continue to compete with the world's best?

Jennifer Robinson: Joannie Rochette's program layout, even though it is still early in the season, looks like it's going to suit her ability to be able to showcase her power and strength at an end of the performance. That's where many of the other figure skaters in the field tend to falter.

I think even though the other women within the competition are upping their technical difficulty, it's going to come down to who can do it when it counts. Joannie is showing that she's ready and trained to lay it all down, which is a very good sign.

What do you expect to see from the rest of the women?

Jennifer Robinson: Looking at the field within the first event, of course Carolina Kostner of Italy is a dark horse because she has a lot of speed.

Kim Yu-Na is competing from Korea. She is the current World Champion. Obviously, top technical talent, very strong, working on triple-triples, trains in Toronto. Not sure what she's been doing throughout the off-season because most athletes kind of keep that close to the chest, more or less. And various rinks do tend to limit people coming in to watch their skates or training sessions. She's a serious contender with Mao (Asada) and with Joannie.

Patrick Chan has announced that due to an injury to his calf, he will not be competing at his first scheduled Grand Prix event this season. How concerned should his fans be?

Elizabeth Manley: You know what, to me, I mean the Grand Prix is very important, don't get me wrong, but right now the objective for the next four months is maintaining the health and the injuries.

And I think with Patrick ... he's probably making a good decision. Get it healed quick because the months are counting down right now. And that's a smart decision, not to chance injuring it more.

Looking to the rest of the men's field, who will Chan be battling when he gets back?

Jennifer Robinson: (At the Worlds last year) it came down to Evan (Lysacek). Evan, he's been training really strongly throughout the summer. He's a very dedicated athlete. I've had the opportunity to tour with him, doing shows.

The fact that he laid down the best performance at the night within the World Championships in his hometown in LA with a lot of pressure on him and a lot of talk about, ‘Can he do it?' ‘Is he capable?' It shows that he's very mentally strong and that's always what you need as an athlete heading to an Olympic Games.

It also seems to be the year of the comeback with Daisuke Takahashi and Stephane Lambiel, among others. What do you expect them to bring to the table and how will it affect the field?

Jennifer Robinson: (Stephane) Lambiel has always, always been known for his really strong fluidity. He's very fluid when he skates and he's very powerful and he's very passionate, which is the same thing that Patrick Chan has. He has all the same things, except Lambiel has the quad as well. So he's kind of if you take (French skater) Brian Joubert and you take Patrick Chan and you put them together and you get a Lambiel. So he's a serious threat for sure toward Patrick's gold medal.

There is a great race going on for the Canadian number-2 spot that people might not know about. Could you talk about that?

Jennifer Robinson: Number two is going to be interesting... But Vaughn (Chipeur), getting the world championship experience last year in Los Angeles, and at a first world championship competition, coming top 15? Most athletes, when they get to their first world championships, tend to be 15 or lower.

So the fact that Patrick laid down a solid skate and Vaughn definitely top 15, but really close to cracking that top-10 gave him tons of experience that I think Shawn Sawyer, who has also been to a world championship, but didn't achieve the same results as Vaughn, may be lacking. So there is definitely a tight race between securing that second Olympic berth within Canada, within the guys, but I still have to give the nod to Vaughn.

Looking now to pairs, Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison had a disappointing performance at Worlds last year. What do you expect to see out of them, and who will their top challengers be?

Elizabeth Manley: Well, definitely the pairs that are challenging them, not only at this coming event but, you know, for the rest of the Grand Prix (events) are pretty much all the pair teams from China. You know, they're just so strong right now.

And, obviously, the German team, (Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy), the World champions.

So, really all (Dubé and Davison) need to do is just get consistency going. They actually had a pretty good season last year, it was just the Worlds. You know, they had a couple mishaps at Worlds and it knocked them off the podium, obviously. But for them, what they need right now is some good performances under their belts and regain their confidence.

Looking behind Canada's top pair, who do you think will be the other team to go to the Olympics?

Elizabeth Manley: (Annabelle) Langlois and (Cody) Hay have been injured and they've missed some time. They've also been extremely strong though, so my expectations are for them to come in, full blast, skating really well. Not only to regain their notability but to just show people, okay, we had an injury and we're okay. We're back.

But then you've got the other team, Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin, who have been pretty consistent. But it's hard to say who's going to make those two spots because we haven't really seen Langlois and Hay skate much yet. Until we see more of that, it's going to be hard to judge.

But it kind of makes it fun that we have three great teams that are fighting for a spot.

There is a similar situation in Canada's ice dancing teams behind Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

Elizabeth Manley: Personally, I love (Paul) Poirier and (Vanessa) Crone. I think they're just kind of the cat's meow in dance. They've come out of nowhere, they're incredible to watch, they're consistent, and between them and the team of Kaitlyn Weaver (and Andrew Poje), it's going to be very, very tight.

Who are the teams to watch in the ice dance event?

Elizabeth Manley: Well, I think definitely Virtue and Moir. They're going to be ones that not only are we excited about but I think the rest of the world is going to be really anticipating to see do well.

You've got your Russian teams, theyr'e always in the running, and the American team of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. They're also ones that are going to be the tough ones to beat. And if they can beat any of them at a Grand Prix, that's going to be huge on their confidence level.