own on the ice.
“I did come up at such a young age,” she said. “I was still developing and ma- turing into the skater I am today [when I] teamed with John. I think we bring out the best in each other. I do feel this will be a big growing year for me.” “For both of us, really,” Coughlin
said. LET THE DREAM BEGIN
To show off their new maturity, Coughlin and Denney needed a vehicle to display both their powerful and con- sistent technical elements and their de- veloping storytelling ability. Teir choice: the haunting, dramatic Andrew Lloyd Webber score to Phantom of the Opera, the ever-popular tale of backstage intrigue at a Paris opera house that culminates in the Phantom kidnapping the young singer Christine.
“Te characters are really strong; it’s
very recognizable,” Coughlin said. “It’s very commanding and it gives us a chance to highlight things we do well.” “We knew we wanted music that
would show off their technical strengths, but we also wanted music that let them re- late to characters,” Sappenfield said. “Le- nore Kay edited the music, and Pasquale [Camerlengo] did a great job with the choreography. Kathy has been working on helping us tell [the audience] what the characters are feeling at every point of the mu- sic.”
Johnson thinks that while the audience and judges are important, Denney and Coughlin first have to bond with each other. “As a skater, it’s your job to bring the audience to you,” Johnson said. “I think a big mistake a lot of skaters make is they try to perform out to the audi- ence. Te most successful programs are the ones where skaters have their own connection and pull the audience into what they are feel- ing. And for that to happen, you have to work through every single movement.”
HITTING NEW HEIGHTS Of course, no amount of deep breath-
ing and narrow focus will bring Denney and Coughlin international success, with- out continually improving technical abili- ty. Sappenfield has targeted several areas. “We want to clean up some of the
elements, improve our unison,” the coach said. “We’re doing a lot of work on skating
26 NOVEMBER 2012
skills and stroking this year; that was a de- partment we needed to grow.” Tey have added new lifts and have also trained the quad twist, a breathtaking element few, if any, of their rivals are able to execute well. “We were doing it in practice and vid-
eoing it and doing it in some sections [of run-throughs], but we took a step back and said, ‘Where did we decide we needed to grow?’ Coughlin said. “It’s not our tech- nical that is holding us back, so we stuck to our guns. But it’s definitely something we’re capable of and as it gets a little more mileage on it, who knows?”
Competing this season has been so
far, so good. Coughlin and Denney made their second appearance at Nebelhorn Tro- phy, and again came home with the silver medal, placing second to Russian World silver medalists Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. More important, they gained encouragement from the interna- tional judging panel. “We saw a big difference from what
we did last year in Oberstdorf to what we did this year,” Sappenfield said. “Tere was a 16-point gain in the long [program scores] so that was a good start for us.” “Our components were a lot stronger
in our free skate than they were even at Worlds last year,” Coughlin said. “It was huge for us. We left a couple of points on the table, more mental mistakes than any- thing else, but it was close to a personal best for us for our free skate, and tradition- ally, scores are a little lower at the begin- ning of the season. So we have high hopes for this program.”
And in the musical chairs that some- times characterize the U.S. pairs scene, they think they have found ideal partners to help them get through the daily grind necessary to make it to Sochi. “John is very even-keeled every day, and that’s what you want,” Denney said. “You want to feel that kind of trust, and that safety, when you’re compet- ing.
And we
have a really good work eth- ic back home; I feel
we don’t change much [at competitions]; we just do
our thing out there.” “Caydee has always been a great com-
petitor and a great athlete, and the smile she has on the ice every day is just infec- tious,” Coughlin said. “Going to the rink doesn’t feel like work at all. We have a lot of trust in each other, and it puts us at peace. We’re in this together.”
PHOTO BY SCOTT HEAVEY/GETTY IMAGES
PHOTO BY ANDREA MORRISON
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