SKATE CANADA
zier continued an astounding comeback from Denney’s career-threatening knee injury that cost them the entire 2015–16 season. T e former U.S. pairs silver medalists
showed off an improved triple twist, solid tri- ple throws and impressive lifts. About the only missing ingredient was clean triple Salchows; Frazier faltered on the jump in the short pro- gram, and Denney missed it in the free skate. T ose mistakes cost them the bronze medal, and they placed fourth with 188.23 points, missing the podium by less than two points. After back-to-back Grand Prix events,
Denney looked forward to returning to their home rink near Chicago, where they train un- der Rockne Brubaker and Stefania Berton. “Luckily for us Skate America was in
Madison Chock and Evan Bates perform their free dance en route to the silver medal.
Chock, Bates bring new look to Skate Canada
by LYNN RUTHERFORD Last season wasn’t exactly a disappoint-
ment for Madison Chock and Evan Bates, but it sure was frustrating at times. “It was a tough one for us, not just with the
results, but with the training, the performances we were putting out at competitions,” Bates said. “We felt like things weren’t clicking.” T e Novi, Michigan, duo changed short
dances early in the season and made substan- tial changes to their free dance. Still, they lost the U.S. title they had won in 2015 to Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani. T ey ended on a high note, winning a World bronze medal, but knew they wanted to make changes for their 2016–17 campaign. “It fueled the fi re for us to kind of search
a little bit, look within ourselves and see what we needed to fi nd to get back on top of the national podium,” Bates said. With their coach Igor Shpilband’s blessing, they sought out new choreographers — Rohene Ward for the short dance and 1984 Olympic ice dance champion Christopher Dean for the free dance — to create a contemporary, harder-edged style. T e result: a silver medal at Skate Canada in Mississauga, Ontario, including a free dance win over Canada’s 2010 Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Chock and Bates’ short dance to “Bad to
the Bone” and “Uptown Funk” — part sexy blues, part eye-catching hip-hop — earned an impressive 76.21 points. “At the beginning of the season it was a
little daunting for us to do hip-hop, just be- cause it is such a diff erent way to move than
32 DECEMBER 2016
we were used to,” Chock said. “We worked really hard on it, and Rohene was wonderful getting us out of our comfort zone and into his program.” T eir free dance to “Under Pressure”
by David Bowie and Queen, highlighted by sharp movements and dramatic lifts, gained six Level 4 elements, and Chock and Bates took silver with 188.24 points, less than a point behind Virtue and Moir. “We have high goals to make the (Grand
Prix) Final again, and it’s getting more and more competitive,” Bates said. “We needed to fi nd a departure from what we were doing, and that was the thinking behind going a little bit outside of the box with the programs.” After placing fi fth in the U.S. last sea-
son, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker went back to basics with Detroit Skating Club coaches Pasquale Camerlengo and Angelika Krylova, working on speed, power and strok- ing skills during the off -season. It showed at Skate Canada, especially in
their lyrical, smoothly skated free dance to Franz Liszt’s “Liebestraum” (“Dream of Love”). T ey earned 162.19 points to place sixth. “Every time we perform it there are cer-
tain things that are getting stronger and cer- tain things we need to improve,” Hawayek said. “T ere were points we left on the table today, cleanlinesswise, that we know we can improve for Japan (NHK Trophy), but all to- gether I think we’re happy with the direction we’re headed this season.” Fresh off their silver medal at Skate America, Haven Denney and Brandon Fra-
Chicago and we train 30 minutes away,” she said. “We just got back into the rink and trained as normal. We left on Wednesday, got here T ursday. We didn’t have time to think about it, it was just go, go, go. I’m sure we will look back and say, ‘OK, we can breathe now.’” Two-time World champions Meagan
Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada landed a rare throw triple Axel in their short program and won gold, with China’s Xiaoyu Yu and Hao Zhang taking silver, and another Cana- dian pair, Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch, winning bronze. T e U.S. singles skaters had disappoint-
ing outings. Mirai Nagasu, fourth in the U.S. last
season, arrived in Mississauga fi t and ready, with an early-season win at a senior B compe- tition in early October. She was impressive in practices, but fell on a triple fl ip in her short program and faltered on several jumps in her free skate to place ninth with 151.42 points. Russia’s World champion Evgenia Medvedeva won gold with 220.65 points. “I feel like I really trained better than
I ever have, and to skate like I haven’t been training is really disappointing,” Nagasu said. “I can’t wait to go home and dissect this one, one piece at a time.” Grant Hochstein, 10th in the world last
season, also had jump troubles, although he landed a solid quadruple toe loop in his free skate. He was 11th with 204.69 points. Cana- da’s three-time World champion Patrick Chan won the title with 266.95 points. “I was really happy with the eff ort I gave
today, although obviously I lost points sin- gling my (fi rst) triple Axel,” Hochstein said af- ter the free skate. “Obviously it wasn’t brilliant and the score is lower than what I am capable of, but it’s the third quad I’ve landed interna- tionally this season and I’m pleased with that.” T ree-time U.S. medalist Ross Miner
doubled an intended quad Salchow in his free skate and fell on a triple Lutz to fi nish 12th with 196.53 points. “I did a lot of really good jumps with bad
landings, and that really aff ects the grade of ex- ecution (GOE),” Miner said after the free skate. “I’m a GOE skater, so I have to do better.”
TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES
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