Twizzle bobble has Canadians Gilles, Poirier outside Olympic podium bubble in ice dance

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/02/2022 (1307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEIJING One point up, two places down.

That’s not what Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were hoping for in the rhythm dance section of the figure skating ice dance competition at the Olympics.

A week earlier, in the team event — which might still find a medal winding its way to the Canadian squad, depending how the legal wrangling from a Russian positive drug test shakes out — the reigning world bronze duo racked up a score of 82.72 in the first phase of the competition, what used to be known as the original dance.

They claimed to be pleased, although it’s hard to tell with this particular tandem who spent so many years skating in the long shadow cast by ice dance virtuosos Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, merely gold-silver-gold at the Winter Games.

But it was certainly useful to have a competitive skate under their belts, get their energetic program before the judges, sift through the entrails of their detailed scoring, what needed work, what had been rewarded.

On Saturday night, back in their matching tangerine onesies, the Canadian national champions weren’t quite so smiley about their performance, which drew a score of 83.52 — incremental improvement — yet knocked them down into sixth. And it’s a long way up to the podium from sixth, for what had been considered Canada’s best shot at figure skating laurels, in a period of transition.

“We had a small bobble on the twizzle,’’ granted Poirier.

Ice dance is technically complex, much of which isn’t understood by a casual fan base which sees only no jumps and no throws and no spectacular lifts. But twizzles — everybody gets twizzles, the most bedazzling trick in the ice dance repertoire. The slightest deficiency in execution, or too much space between the skaters, or lack of synchronicity and judges will make you pay for it.

So Gilles admitted that misfit twizzle would be much on her mind when she got back to the athletes village, lying in bed.

“I’ll replay it for sure. But you know, it’s a new day on Monday’’ — the free dance — “and I’m excited to kind of have a fresh slate.’’

This slate was performed to an Elton John medley, Gilles reverting to the long pants version of her costume that she’d worn at nationals in Ottawa last month. Seriously, these details matter, at least in the minds of the skaters.

“It just felt like what the program needed today. It just felt like coming home and having something I’m used to and I enjoy performing in.’’

They have a history of outre outfits, in a figure skating discipline that has been over-the-top sartorially over the decades. We well remember the jaw-dropping “Aboriginal’’ routine and costumes — an unbelievably distasteful appropriation of culture — by a Russian couple at the Vancouver Games, offensive even back in un-woke 2010.

Gilles and Poirier, both 30, like to have a bit of fun with their programs and their presentation, although completely capable of changing up the mood and the music in the free dance. This offering, however, didn’t quite match the standard of what the other top teams were showing off, though both tried to find the silk (or bejeweled) lining.

“Despite the (bobble), we did have an improvement in the score compared to the team event,’’ Poirier pointed out.

Um, just over one point.

“We felt after the team event that the program was a little bit contained in energy,’’ Poirier continued. “We really wanted to do it with more abandon today. And I think we did accomplish that.

“But it definitely wasn’t a perfect performance for us.’’

To no one’s surprise, the leaders coming out of the rhythm dance segment are four-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, who were silver behind Virtue and Moir in Pyeongchang, though they actually won the free skate portion and set a world record. It was a very close thing for the medal-studded Canadians.

Some observers still maintain the French would have taken gold, scored just a teensy bit higher, if not for the distraction of Papadakis’ breast popping out of her costume in a wardrobe malfunction midperformance.

She wore a high necked outfit on Saturday evening.

Since this was the first we’ve seen of figure skaters since the team event — more specifically, since it was learned that 15-year-old Russian sensation Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance, a drug most commonly prescribed for angina in older people, the matter to be heard at an expedited hearing Monday at the Court of Arbitration for Sport — dancers were buttonholed about the controversy in the mixed zone.

They wouldn’t bite.

“It’s not something that we’re really thinking about right now,’’ claimed Gilles. “We know that this stuff takes a really long time. I think at the end of the day, we have to focus on our individual event, enjoy our sport, enjoy what we’re going to do, and can’t really look at that stuff.’’

Still, if the gold Russia copped last Monday is taken away — actually, the medals have never been distributed, the formal ceremony cancelled while the issue hangs fire — the U.S. would move into first, Japan into second and Canada into third.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Jen Zoratti | Next

Wednesdays

What's next in arts, life and pop culture.

Sign up for Jen Zoratti | Next

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

“I don’t think we’ve thought about that too much,’’ said Poirier. “It’s one of those things that’s really out of our hands. We don’t have a lot of information right now and it’s not something we can actively change … We don’t know when there will be news or if there will be news. So, it’s kind of futile to give mental energy to it right now.’’

From Evan Bates, who with partner Madison Chock was sitting fourth, just behind American teammates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue: “Until there’s official word, I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about it at length. The team has been through a lot in the last week, with Vincent (Zhou, out of the Olympics after testing positive for COVID) and the medals being cancelled, etc.

“I just know that we earned a medal and we’ll get it eventually.’’

Canada has three ice dance couples competing in Beijing. Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen are in eighth place, with a score of 78.54; Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha are 13th, with a score of 72.59.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno