— ‘Oh, we better land these jumps!’ Gain- ing physical focus helps calm things down and allows muscle memory to kick in.” Johnson’s movement classes, where she urges skaters to project and maintain their energy and develop more precise body lines, are staples in Colorado Springs. Denney and Coughlin also practice her teachings in front of mirrors, and often perform their choreography for her on the ice, minus the elements. Nothing — not a crosscut, not a wave of the arm — escapes Johnson’s notice. “Kathy will ask, ‘What do you want
to say here?’” Coughlin said. “She wants our fingerprints all over the program. She’ll say, ‘If this is the basis you want to go from, then breathe through it like this” and that gives you a way to relate to it.” “If we believe what we are feeling, then audiences will be able to see it more,” Denney said. “With Kathy, you start with who you are, and she enhances that and makes it the best it can be.”
HURRY UP AND SKATE It’s not surprising Denney
and
Coughlin have ramped up their focus on the finer details this season. When you win the U.S. title after fewer than 10 months of skating together, there isn’t much time to pause for polishing. “Last year we did programs we knew
we could execute well, because we need- ed to show we could compete,” Coughlin said. “Now that we have a year under our belts, we can push the envelope a little bit more.”
As Sappenfield tells it, their pairing
was serendipity. Denney, the 2010 U.S. champion with Jeremy Barrett, was left without a partner in February 2011 af- ter Barrett retired following a training accident in which Denney’s skate blade sliced his right calf, requiring 41 stitches. In three seasons together, they had placed 13th at the 2010 Olympics and won three U.S. medals.
with Caitlin Yankowskas, his partner of four seasons. Tey seemed to hit
Coughlin won the 2011 U.S. title their
stride at the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow, where they placed an impressive sixth. But Cough- lin — whose mother and number-one supporter, Stacy, passed away in February 2010 — was ready to call it quits. “It was such an emotional season for me; I thought I had done all I could, and after Moscow, I planned to retire,” Cough- lin said at the time. “I went to Dalilah, thanked her for everything, and said I
hoped I could work with her [coaching] the younger teams.” Meanwhile, Caydee’s younger sister,
Haven, had relocated from Florida to join Sappenfield’s group in Colorado Springs, where she trained pairs with Brandon Fra- zier. (Te two, who won the 2012 U.S. junior title, have since returned to Flori- da, where they are coached by three-time U.S. pairs champion John Zimmerman.) After inquiring about Caydee’s status from her mother DeeDee, Sappenfield urged Coughlin to give it another week, and a tryout was arranged. “I knew if there was one person who would keep him skating, it was Caydee,” Sappenfield said. So Coughlin gave it a go, and it was
kismet. “Tere was an instant connection,”
Sappenfield said. “Teir timing was very similar. Tey progressed fast; there was no time to sit back. Tey had to move quickly, train hard and stick to the plan.” By any measure, their first season to- gether was a success. After competing at several U.S. summer events, they opened their international career with a silver medal at Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, and then placed fourth and fifth, respectively, at their two Grand Prix events, Skate America and NHK Trophy. At the 2012 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., they overcame an uncharacteristic fall on a throw triple flip in their short program to skate a near-perfect free to “Nessun Dor- ma” and win the U.S. title, becoming the first U.S. pair champions to split with for- mer partners, team up and then recapture the crown. A few weeks after San Jose, they won their first ISU Championships medal, sil- ver at Four Continents. In March, they placed eighth at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France. “First, I had to decide I wanted to keep skating, and then, we only got to- gether in June, so we were a little behind,” Coughlin said. “International judges had seen us, we were familiar faces, but with different partners. We had to max out what we did well. Now we want to tell a more complete story, create an even stron- ger identity as a team.”
Teir timing may be just right for
the 2014 Sochi Olympics, just more than a year away. With two U.S. titles, two World finishes and an Olympic team to her credit, it’s easy to forget Denney is still a teenager. Te 2012 high school graduate thinks she is now truly coming into her
SKATING 25
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