by Matteo Morelli

Skate Canada International is the third Grand Prix event of the season. This year, SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is welcoming back this Grand Prix after last hosting it in 2001.

A little curiosity: did you know that Skate Canada is one of the oldest competitions in the Grand Prix series? The event was established in 1973 and became part of what was then called “Champions series” in 1995, which later changed to the Grand Prix series name we are all familiar with today.

Teams at the event

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are ready to debut their new programme on home soil. For their rhythm dance, they have chosen “Supermodel” by RuPaul and “I’m too sexy” by Right Said Fred. For their free dance, they have decided to bring back their Vincent programme, which they originally skated during the 2018/19 season (and later as a gala programme), sharing that it will be “reimagined”.

Gilles and Poirier have won the last five Skate Canada Internationals. We can expect them to enter their first Grand Prix of the season aiming not only to showcase their unique style throughout their new (and reimagined) programmes, but also to fight to have another podium finish in front of their home crowd.

Also from Canada, first Grand Prix of the season for the other experienced team of Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha. So far this season, they won Budapest Trophy, showcasing a rhythm dance set to music by 2 Unlimited and AC/DC, and a contrastingly delicate and elegant free dance on “Nureyev” by Ilan Eshkeri. The third Canadian team of Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac will be competing in their second Grand Prix of the season, after a sixth-place finish at Grand Prix de France.

Also competing in their second Grand Prix will be Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius, who will be hoping to add another medal to the bronze they won at Grand Prix de France. This will be their second appearance at Skate Canada International, where they earned a bronze medal two year ago.

Another two European teams will also be competing in Canada, both with interesting free dances set to Latin music. Germany’s Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan have already showcased their new programmes at Nebelhorn Trophy, where they finished in fourth place. Czech Republic’s Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek started their season with a silver medal at Lombardia Trophy and head into Skate Canada, and then Skate America, eager to show their full potential.

Three teams will be representing the USA. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko began their season with a silver medal at Nebelhorn Trophy, where they showed their free dance to music from the musical “Notre Dame de Paris”. Emily Bratti and Ian Sommerville head into their second Grand Prix after an eight-place finish at Grand Prix de France. After earning a bronze medal at Kinoshita Group Cup, Leah Neset and Artem Markelov will compete in their only Grand Prix of the season.

South Korea’s Hannah Lim and Ye Quan, who just competed at Cup of China, were announced as the replacement for Finland’s Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis, who had to pull out due to Versluis still recovering from an injury.

Event info: The rhythm dance kicks off on Saturday, November 1, at 12:45pm (CST); the free dance occurs on Sunday, November 2, at 12:40pm (CST).