Manon Perron receives 2018 Geoff Gowan Award

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OTTAWA, ON – Skate Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada are proud to announce that Manon Perron will be presented with the 2018 Geoff Gowan Award at this year’s Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Awards Gala on Friday, November 9. Known as one of the Coaching Association of Canada’s (CAC) most prestigious awards, it will recognize Perron’s lifetime contributions to coaching development.

“Skate Canada is thrilled that Manon will receive this prestigious and well-earned honour. Manon has represented Skate Canada for almost 40 years and her dedication and passion to the sport and to her athletes has been nothing short of excellent,” says Debra Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer, Skate Canada. “We are proud that six additional coaches from our sport will also be recognized. These coaches continue to show their commitment to professional coaching and mentoring day in and day out, and it is an honour to have them on our roster.”

The Geoff Gowan Award was created by the Coaching Association of Canada in 1996 and recognizes lifetime contributions to coaching development. It is awarded to coaches who have presented a positive public image of coaching and who have enhanced the role of the coach with the Canadian public. The award resides at Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary, Alberta.

“To be recognized for the time I’ve dedicated to coaching is a huge honour. It’s incredible that I’ve been able to turn my passion for coaching into a 39-year career,” says Perron. “Coaching has been the most rewarding experience, and I’ve also been given the opportunity to be a coach mentor and work with high-performance athletes through Skate Canada. When I think of where I am today, I have so many people to thank. I would particularly like to recognize Skate Canada and Patinage Québec for helping me make my dreams a reality. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who believed in me.”

Perron coached many high-performance figure skaters over her career and was most notably the was the coach of Canadian champion and Olympic bronze medallist, Joannie Rochette. Today, she gives seminars all over Canada and internationally to athletes and coaches. She is also currently a mentor coach in Skate Canada’s High Performance Mentorship Program.

Six other coaches from Skate Canada will also be honoured at the Gala on November 9 with a 2018 Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award. They are:

  • Lee Barkell
  • Marie-France Dubreuil
  • Patrice Lauzon
  • Brian Orser
  • Bruno Marcotte
  • Ravi Walia

Hosted by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) in partnership with Petro-Canada at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, the Gala recognizes those who live out the values and competencies of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and the positive impact they have within the Canadian sport community.

For more information about the conference and the Gala, visit www.coach.ca/sportleadership.

Five Canadian skaters headed to Japan for NHK Trophy

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Ottawa, ON: Team Canada will be competing at the 2018 NHK Trophy in Hiroshima, Japan from November 9-11. This will be the fourth stop on the ISU (International Skating Union) Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.

In the men’s category, Kevin Reynolds will be the lone male representing Canada. Reynolds finished eighth at the Autumn Classic International in September and 11th at Skate America in October.

Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro will be representing Canada in the pairs category. They have medaled at their three international events this season so far, winning silver at Autumn Classic International and at Finlandia Trophy and most recently they won bronze at  Skate Canada International.

In the ice dance, Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus will be the Canadian team in Japan. They won bronze earlier this season at the Autumn Classic International and placed eighth at the Skate Canada International.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT 2018 NHK TROPHY – HIROSHIMA, JAPAN

Discipline Name Age Hometown Club Coach
Men Kevin Reynolds 28 Vancouver, B.C. Champs International Skating Center Joanne McLeod
Pairs Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro 26/26 St.Catharines, Ont. / Sarnia, Ont. Winter Club of St. Catharines / Point Edward SC Richard Gauthier, Bruno Marcotte, Sylie Fullum
Ice Dance Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus 23/24 Chateauguay, Que. / North Vancouver, B.C. SC Repentigny / SC Repentigny Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon

Cynthia Ullmark of Canmore, AB., and Mike Slipchuk, the High Performance Director, will be the team leaders at the event. Dr. John Philpott of Toronto, Ont., and physiotherapist Shirley Kushner of Westmount, Que., will be the Canadian team medical staff on site. Cynthia Benson of Quispamsis, N.B., and Leslie Keen of Vancouver, B.C., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For results and full entries, please visit www.isu.org.

Skate Canada supports Calgary’s bid for 2026 Olympic Winter Games

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There is nothing that brings this country closer together than hosting an Olympic Winter Games on home soil.

In Canada, we’ve been fortunate enough to experience that incomparable sense of national pride and patriotism twice in the past 30 years. The enduring memories from Calgary 1988 and Vancouver 2010 have left a lasting footprint on the collective heart of our nation.

As a proud Canadian winter National Sports Organization, Skate Canada fully supports Calgary’s bid to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games and is urging Calgarians to let their voices be heard by backing the bid in the November 13 plebiscite.

“It is truly a special privilege to host an Olympic Winter Games at home,” says Debra Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of Skate Canada.

“As Canadians witnessed during the Calgary Games in 1988 and the Vancouver Games in 2010, a home Olympics offers the rare opportunity to unite the country and embrace the Olympic movement while inspiring young athletes to chase their own Olympic dreams. A successful Calgary 2026 bid will leave an everlasting legacy not only in Alberta, but right across Canada, for generations to come.”

A successful Calgary 2026 bid, which is expected to inject more than $4 billion into the local economy, will once again put Calgary on the world stage while sustaining the city’s reputation as one of the world’s premier winter sport cities.

Sport has the power to bring people together, and a home Olympics takes that unity to another level.  Eight years ago, the collective pulse of a nation elevated as we watched Alex Bilodeau claim Canada’s first Olympic gold medal on home soil. We were captivated by the strength and grace of Joannie Rochette, who epitomized the strength of the human spirit by overcoming personal tragedy to win an Olympic bronze medal in one of the most emotional performances you will see in sport. We cheered as Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won their first ice dance gold medal and, in an unprecedented display of patriotic pride, the nation reverberated from coast to coast to coast with Sidney Crosby’s golden goal.

In Calgary, figure skaters won three of Canada’s five medals. The Battle of the Brians mesmerized a nation as Brian Orser captured silver, Elizabeth Manley became Canada’s sweetheart with her stirring silver-medal performance and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall stood on the Olympic podium with a bronze medal.

A home Games offers the rare chance to bring us all together as one, while showing the world who we are, and what we believe in.

Canada has celebrated the privilege of hosting two Olympics in the past three decades. Those moments, and those memories, are etched in our hearts forever.

Eight years from now in Calgary, we may get to experience that feeling again.