Skate Canada gold has extra meaning for Stellato-Dudek

SASKATOON — Standing atop the medal podium Saturday night after clinching a third consecutive Skate Canada International gold, Deanna Stellato-Dudek was moved to tears as she took in the pageantry.

Two hours earlier, the history-making 42-year-old pair skater and her partner Maxime Deschamps had defended their Grand Prix title with a hard-fought, come-from-behind victory (213.40) over first-round leaders, Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin, of Germany (207.18.)

As the Canadian flag rose to the rafters at SaskTel Centre, the 2024 world champions sang O Canada with gusto.

“This one holds a lot more weight having it be an Olympic year, and us having had such a difficult year last year,” Stellato-Dudek said, thinking back to their frustrating 2024-25 season when they slipped to fifth globally.

“We’re very proud. This win somehow means more.”

It was the couple’s first Grand Prix gold since the Chicago-born Stellato-Dudek attained her Canadian citizenship and with it, eligibility to compete for Canada at the 2026 Olympic Games.

“To finally show a fraction of what we’re able to do in practice again in competition feels really good, especially since we had such a quick turnover (from Grand Prix de France.) It’s difficult to compete that close together, but that’s what we’re going to have to do at the Olympics,” Stellato-Dudek noted, referring to the double duty required of the skaters competing in the team event ahead of their own discipline.

With their win here combined with a silver medal at the series opener in France two weeks ago, the Montreal-based duo qualified as the first of six pairs who will compete at the exclusive Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan in December.

Winnipeg pair Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov will also be in Nagoya to compete in the Junior Grand Prix Final.

Canada’s second gold of the weekend came on Sunday courtesy of ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who notched their sixth consecutive Skate Canada win (202.89) to conclude three days of ISU competition on the Canadian Prairies.

The twice world silver medallists were joined on the podium by teammates Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha in the bronze medal position (192.41.) Lithuanians Allison Reid and Saulius Ambrulevicius (200.92) claimed silver.

“This is something we wanted as kids and now to be able to win it six times in a row, I think we’re very honoured and proud of ourselves,” Gilles said.

At Skate Canada, Gilles and Poirier debuted the reimagined version of their acclaimed 2018 Vincent free dance that they hope will lift them onto the Olympic podium in three months’ time.

For sure, there were kinks the couple will work to eliminate in the three weeks before their second Grand Prix assignment in Helsinki, the last of six events in the ISU Grand Prix series.

“Overall, we’re pleased to finally start the season and build momentum for ourselves as we head closer and closer to the Olympics.”

“It wasn’t our best performance today, but it is our first competition of the season. We come out of this event knowing we have a lot of room for growth and we’re excited to work on it when we get back home,” Poirier said.

“Overall, we’re pleased to finally start the season and build momentum for ourselves as we head closer and closer to the Olympics.”

In Finland, Gilles and Poirier will most certainly punch their ticket for the Final. Lajoie and Lagha, on the other hand, will likely need to earn silver in two weeks at their second Grand Prix — Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y. — to have a chance to make the cut.

Team Canada’s golden figure skating duos are among the country’s best bets to land on the Olympic podium at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina in February.

Canadian singles skaters, however, continue to struggle to match the technical firepower and steely-nerved competition performances of the planet’s best men and women, despite having upped their own games.

National champions Madeline Schizas and Roman Sadovsky, Canada’s top finishers in the women’s and men’s fields assembled in Saskatoon, ranked ninth and seventh, respectively.

Ilia Malinin, of the U.S., blew the doors off the SaskTel arena with an otherworldly free skate. The twice world champion and undisputed favourite for Olympic gold superbly executed six quadruple jumps en route to posting his highest total competition score (333.81) and qualifying for the Grand Prix Final.

Malinin’s tally was an astounding 76 points higher than his closest challengers from Estonia and Japan, who admitted being in awe of the American’s performance.

Japan’s world bronze medallist Mone Chiba earned the women’s Skate Canada title. Her compatriot Ami Nakai, who captured lightening in a bottle to win the Grand Prix de France, settled for bronze here behind American Isabeau Levito.

Ultimately, two Canadian pairs will skate at the 2026 Games. Three ice dance couples — the maximum allotment for any country — will wear the Maple Leaf.

Only one Olympic spot is available to Canada’s top men’s and women’s seeds.

The Olympic figure skating team will be named in January following the Canadian championships in Gatineau, Quebec.