Men's Medal Ceremony - Patrick Chan getting his GOLD medal. I know this isn't a great picture, but I wanted to post it anyway - I realized I needed our other camera, with more zoom, and took it on Sunday.
Canada was well represented on the podium - although the second place skater is Japanese, and the third place skater is American, they are both coached by Canadians! The American skater, Adam Rippon, is coached by Brian Orser - and I'm not sure who was more entertaining to watch...Adam, who is an amazing skater with great jumps, or Brian Orser, who never stopped moving during Adam's entire skate! He seemed to walk through the whole program on the ground - he was so into it. As a coach, I loved watching Brian, too.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the Pairs competition, but I did get to see the Pairs medal ceremony.
Pretty proud moment for us Canadians! Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch were second, and Paige Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers were third. Two young Canadian teams, who obviously have a lot of potential in the next few years. Oh yeah, and the girl second from the left is a skater from Quinte! A number of our skaters were selected as volunteers and got to do a variety of cool jobs.
I also got to see the Ladies Final on Saturday evening, and there was another Canadian medal! Surprisingly, it wasn't Cynthia Phaneuf who made the podium (she had a disappointing skate in the long, and dropped to fourth. But, Amelie Lacoste was consistent, and won the bronze! I don't have any pictures of the Ladies, the battery died in my camera.
I was back at the competition on Sunday, and watched both events - the Free Dance and the Exhibition. Despite all the highlights from the day before, I think Sunday was my favourite day - I LOVE ice dance!
I think what made it extra special is that Canadians Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier won the event. The reason that's special to me is because two years ago, while at a coaching clinic, I got to share the ice with these two. The clinic focused on coaching dance, and these two came to do on-ice demonstrations for us. They were really nice, and not all that well known at that point - and here they are, only two short years later!
Ice Dance Medal Ceremony - Vanessa Crone, looking pretty happy, being congratulated by the President of Skate Canada.
One of the things I was most looking forward to, was getting to see Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skate, live. However, weeks before the event, Skate Canada announced that they had to withdraw because Tessa had surgery - so that was disappointing. But, I did get to see Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam skate - a young dance team, and relatively unknown, for now. And they were like a mini Tessa and Scott - in looks and in style. They teamed up in February 2009 and won Silver at the Junior World Championships in 2010, after skating together for only a little more than a year! They were awesome, and placed fourth - amazing for one of their first competitions at the Senior level!
And, although they didn't skate, Tessa and Scott were there - they gave a speech during a presentation to a Canadian judge, she was being inducted into the Skating Hall of Fame.
The exhibition was amazing, and it was great to get to see so many Canadians perform again. It's nice to see the top skaters perform in a lighter atmosphere, and I enjoy when they put on a real show, rather then just coming out and doing another competition like performance.
I got home from Kingston just in time to start welcoming the trick-or-treaters! Maria and Henk & Amy were here for the night too, so we played some games and watched a 'scary' movie. It was a great finish to an awesome weekend.
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