Craig Buntin turns to technology to advance sport

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What’s a pair skater to do when he hangs up his skates at age 29, and contemplates the future?

If he’s Craig Buntin, he takes care of business.

In five years, Buntin, now 34, has taken a fascinating journey – in the world of business – from tea connoisseur to skating software company executive. And he just might have the perfect tool to revolutionize figure skating – perhaps even to curb subjectivity in the sport.

Buntin is a principal in a Montreal start-up company that uses computer vision software to analyze the movements of figure skaters: how high they jump or throw, the distance the move travels, the speed at which it travels, the flow, the ice coverage. It’s called VeriSkate for good reason. “Veri” is a root word that means truth.

“It’s super cutting edge,” said Buntin of the action recognition software that was actually developed for security concerns, with the ability to recognize and then pinpoint movement that is unusual. Buntin and his software development buddies from McGill University are using it to recognize figure skating movements and define them analytically.

“In sport, there is very little action-recognition happening right now,” Buntin said. But there is definitely a move toward using analytics to gauge performance quality in athletes. After all, the Oakland Athletics baseball team has a budget that pales in comparison to that of the New York Yankees and has to find promising young prospects by using the analytical evidence-based approach to assembling a competitive team. It worked for the club.

“I think figure skating has something that no other sport has – we’re judging specific movements,” Buntin said.

This software that keeps Buntin awake with excitement at nights when he should be sleeping can be used for evaluating kids at a summer competition. He intends to build an app that will give skaters all sorts of data about their skating. “In the future you will know if you have the fastest Axel in Canada,” Buntin said. And a young male skater, for example, can take this information and compare it to Patrick Chan’s. They can scientifically see what they have to do to improve. The software is a step beyond Dartfish, Buntin says.

“We’re measuring the speed overall in a program, how fast skaters are accelerating, the power output,” he said. “We know how much time skaters are spinning in their programs versus how much time they are accelerating versus how much time they are standing there, doing artistic things in a stationery spot.

“We can measure the actual ice coverage for a footwork sequence. Inch by inch, we can tell much ice skaters are covering. So we know, more or less, how difficult a program is.”

Needless to say, the software would be an excellent tool for media and broadcasters and it could also be one more valuable aid to judging officials.

The software has been on Buntin’s table for only the past few months. The idea caught Buntin’s imagination while he was at the Skate Canada Grand Prix in Saint John, N.B., last October. He’d attended the event as a delegate for Skate Canada’s major game-changing strategy session. After the session he spoke with Skate Canada’s Chief Sport Officer Patricia Chafe, put a proposal together on the Sunday night and pitched it to Chief Executive Officer Dan Thompson on Monday. Two days later, he was on a flight to the United Kingdom to a sports analytics conference. He’s been running at top speed ever since.

Buntin had started a tea company about the time he was wrapping up his career, having missed a shot at the Vancouver Olympics in his home province. He knew he needed a break from the sport. After a while, he realized that he knew absolutely nothing about business and decided to get some education. He’d been out of school for 12 years.

Buntin, who had finished skating at age 29, approached a couple of universities to find out his options in education. McGill University in Montreal made an exception for Buntin, allowing him into their MBA program without an undergraduate degree if he passed the GMAT exam. As it turns out, McGill had never made such an exception for any student.

Buntin graduated from university, sold his tea company to his distributor, and then thought: “Now what?”

In the meantime, he felt the pull of figure skating again. During his MBA studies, he’d taken part in a business plan competition. One of the judges had been the chief executive officer of a venture capital firm in Montreal that deals in technology company start-ups, getting university research to market.

The company, investing in a new computer vision, was looking for people to start high-tech companies. During a meeting with Helge Seetzen, the CEO of TandamLaunch, the executive asked Buntin to look through all of the company’s technologies and see if anything excited him.

Now Buntin is the co-founder of VeriSkate, and has raised $500,000 for the start-up. (Who knew?) He’s working with a student who has just finished his PhD in computer vision at McGill and he’s also brought in a project software developer.  The company is developing an app, and it’s hiring. It’s an industry that is “exploding,” Buntin said.

Buntin had never foreseen himself getting involved in anything high-tech. This opportunity fell into his lap. “I walk into a skating competition now and I feel like I’m home,” he said. “The smell of the rink, the people, the lights. Yeah.”

What gives Buntin goosebumps is the thought, that if he’d had this software when he was a skater, it would totally have changed the way he trained. His goal is to introduce it at some summer competitions and if all goes well, have it in place for Junior Grand Prix events this coming season.

He’d love to see it used at Skate Canada in Kelowna, B.C., his home town. He dreams big. And he dreams fast.

Beverley Smith

Canadians merging figure skating with the digital app world

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Who knew that an elevator ride could have such far-reaching consequences for a figure skating coach?

Brian Orser walked into an elevator in his condo building one day about three years ago, and emerged as a future developer of a skating “app.” Never mind that he’s not on Facebook and has never tweeted in his life. His app is now called Peak Performance Skating, all in aid of helping athletes on blades  get by those rough mental bits, like relaxing enough to fall asleep, or finding the energy and the perfect mental picture for success.

Ben Ferreira, who won the hearts of a country with the skate of his life at the 2004 Canadian championships, when he landed a quad-triple in the short, and seven triples plus a quad in the long to take the silver medal, loves the tech world too, but never saw himself as a developer of an app. Now he, too, has his hands on the latest technology, all in aid of teaching skaters to wrestle that jump, single or triple.

Not to mention former pair skater, now businessman Craig Buntin, also developing a fascinating app from his perch in Quebec. More on that later.

It seems as if Canadian skaters have a grasp of this world of iPhones and iPads and iPods and Androids and getting vital information with the brush of a fingerprint on a digital device. And they all seem to be ahead of the curve, not only trail blazers in the world of figure skating but also in digital contexts.

For Orser, the timing was perfect. The stars were aligned when he stepped into that elevator and met Asad Mecci, a hypnotist/motivational coach who knew who Orser was (but not vice versa.)

Mecci had been involved in mental training, visualization and meditation for more than 10 years and had worked with members of India’s junior national tennis team on mental strength and imagery. He had an idea to develop apps to help athletes in other sports with mental training.

The timing was perfect.  “It was something I was looking for,” Orser said. He knew it was important, from his own experiences. He hadn’t had to worry about it much with Yuna Kim, blessed with all sorts of mental strength, he said. “I’m sure at night she visualized,” he said. “A lot of kids don’t.”

The mental aspect of skating made the difference for Orser. In 1986, he was the red hot favourite to win the world championships – but he admits he “choked.”

“It was devastating for me,” he said.

Immediately afterward, Orser contacted sports psychologist Peter Jensen, who helped him to relax and focus on the competitions, to be in the moment. He won the world title in 1987. “I was so happy and I wanted to tell the world!” he said. He told journalists about the importance of Jensen’s contribution at every single interview for a month afterward, but he didn’t feel they listened. “To this day, the mental side of skating is still not talked about enough and there are zero resources that are easily accessible to the average skater,” he said. “Only the top tiers of athletes today are fortunate enough to have access to the kind of help that I received.”

Ferreria’s journey to technical wizardry began with the seminar company he started alongside wife/choreographer/dancer Jadene, and with the help of performance coach Steffany Hanlen as partner. The idea, he said, was to take seminars to the next level – and they do this by, for example, offering a Master Class in doing one jump, like the Axel, and poking into its every nuance and angle. They call their seminar company “Skating Success.” Jadene offers transitions and choreography. Ferreira knows positions and jump fundamentals.

Ferreira comes armed with Dartfish training, and offers consultations. One of his clients is Canadian champion Kaetlyn Osmond. Ferreira can determine the proper body angles with Dartfish and even measure the flight time and flight angles of skaters.

“Before Dartfish, I wouldn’t call myself a technical guy,” Ferreira said. “But Dartfish changed everything.”

Dartfish has led him to become a partner in a just-released app called FS Tech Jump 1, which teaches the technique of jumps from singles to triples.  There are very few skating instructional apps out there, really, but Mark Fitzgerald, a former ice dancer married to Naomi Lang, created a series of them for US Figure Skating. “Birds of a feather flock together,” said Ferreira, and the two have become a team, crossing borders to each add to an idea. Fitzgerald’s company is called Rink Tank Interactive.

Fitzgerald handles the monumental task of filming skaters, like Michael Weiss and Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, and his strength is as a computer programmer, kicked into gear when the iPhone came onto the scene. Ferreira adds his Dartfish expertise to the project. Currently, the apps serve as a reference to skaters, coaches and parents on proper technique – and the content can be updated anytime. They warn their clients not to look at their iPhones when trying out the tricks! The app was released on December, 2013.

Ferreira says he’s spoken to Fitzgerald only perhaps eight times on the phone. They  communicate mainly through Facebook messenger. “It’s really getting content to the masses,” Ferreira said. “It’s a continuation of the Skating Success seminars. We have a really big vision for this. We really want to make a difference on a large scale. I think we can.”

At the beginning, Orser wasn’t certain that visualization and hypnotic processes would be effective without an actual instructor to go through sessions. So he kept the app to himself for a while. Instead, he gave it to some of his students to see if it worked. One of them was Yuzuru Hanyu, among the first to use it.

Hanyu wanted to leave all emotional baggage aside when he hit the ice. He wanted pure focus and to be in the moment. The app helped him with that “immensely,” Orser said.

That was the proof Orser needed. “You don’t need to hire an expensive hypnotist to do this for you before and after training sessions and competitions,” Orser says. “You can simply listen to the audio contained in the app anytime you need it!” Orser’s words are on the app, leading a skater to visualize what it feels like to finish an event, satisfied at having done his best. The voice is Mecci’s.  It’s rather hypnotic.

Beverley Smith

Sarah K. Clarke joins Skate Canada as Partnership Director

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OTTAWA, ON: Sarah K. Clarke has been named as Partnership Director for Skate Canada. The native of Toronto, Ont. is excited to bring her passion for the sports business to developing and managing the relationships with Skate Canada’s broad spectrum of partners.

The graduate of the Radio and Television Broadcasting degree program at Ryerson University has worked across a variety of industries, media and digital platforms and brings over 20 years of wide-ranging experience to this position.

She handled international distribution of educational, home entertainment, inflight, broadcast and on demand content in all genres including sports, entertainment and news services. As Director of Sales for IMG, she was responsible for broadcast negotiations and content distribution of such sporting properties as Wimbledon, British Open, and World Snowboard Championships. She initiated business development opportunities with Toronto Fashion Week, and served as Executive Producer for skating properties, including Kurt Browning’s Gotta Skate and Stars On Ice. At CBS Studios International, she handled content sales distribution across all media platforms with French and English broadcasters, initiating new market entry into digital marketing on iTunes and Netflix. Most recently she was a Strategic Advisor with Bell Media and Entertainment One on VOD/CRM strategies.

Clarke looks forward to bringing innovation, relationship building and collaboration to find and nurture the best partnership opportunities for Skate Canada. A member of Canadian Women in Sports, she will be based out of the Skate Canada office in Toronto.

Skate Canada Announces 2014-2015 National Team

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OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada is pleased to announce its 2014-2015 National Team. Comprised of 25 senior members, the team includes five men, four women, three pair teams, five ice dance teams.

To be named to the National Team a skater must finish in the top five in senior singles, pair and ice dance disciplines at the Canadian Tire National Figure Skating Championships, or be added at the discretion of the International Committee. These skaters may be considered to represent Canada at international competitions.

Their appointment to the national team is effective from June 1, 2014 through to April 30, 2015.

Skate Canada also announced the three teams that will make up the Skate Canada Synchronized Skating National Team.

Men’s
Patrick Chan, 23, Toronto, Ont.
Kevin Reynolds, 23, Coquitlam, B.C.
Liam Firus, 22, North Vancouver, B.C.
Elladj Baldé, 23, Pierrefonds, Que.
Nam Nguyen, 16, Toronto, Ont.

Ladies
Kaetlyn Osmond, 18, Marystown, Nfld. & Sherwood Park, Alta.
Gabrielle Daleman, 16, Newmarket, Ont.
Véronik Mallet, 20, Sept-Iles, Que.
Alaine Chartrand, 18, Prescott, Ont.

Pair
Meagan Duhamel, 28, Lively, Ont. & Eric Radford, 29, Balmertown, Ont.
Kirsten Moore-Towers, 22, St. Catharines, Ont. & Michael Marinaro, 22, Sarnia, Ont.
Brittany Jones, 18, Toronto, Ont. & Joshua Reagan, 24, Waterloo, Ont.

Ice Dance
Tessa Virtue, 25, London, Ont. & Scott Moir, 26, Ilderton, Ont.
Kaitlyn Weaver, 25, Waterloo, Ont. & Andrew Poje, 27, Waterloo, Ont.
Alexandra Paul, 22, Barrie, Ont. & Mitchell Islam, 24, Barrie, Ont.
Piper Gilles, 22, Toronto, Ont. – Colorado Springs, CO. & Paul Poirier, 22, Toronto, Ont.
Nicole Orford, 21, Burnaby, B.C. & Thomas Williams, 23, Vancouver, B.C.

Synchronized Skating
NEXXICE, Burlington SC
Les Suprêmes, CPA Saint-Léonard
Edge, Skate Oakville

Full bios of the athletes are on the Skate Canada website. Hi-res photos are also available for download on the Skate Canada Flickr page.

For information:
Emma Bowie
Manager, Communications
613.747.1007 ext. 2547
[email protected]

Skating for the joy of it, Gary Beacom wins big at the ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition

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Gary Beacom’s excellent life adventure took one more turn last month when he decided to enter the ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition in Obertsdorf, Germany for the first time.

He is 54 years old, still with that enigmatic hint of a grin, that inquiring mind, and that wish to step onto a new path – and why walk the way anyone else walks?

He didn’t go to revisit the career of his youth, when he won the Canadian silver medal twice in 1983 and 1984 behind Brian Orser, took 11th at the 1984 Olympics, won the world professional skating championships and attracted the eye of the iconic Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who adopted him into their world-wide tour, impressed with his brand of awe-inspiring transitional tricks and creativity.

His quest at the international adult championships was much simpler. “I didn’t look at it as a competition,” he said during a stop in Toronto on the way home to Victoria, B.C. “It was a chance to get out there and perform and be the best I could be. And make sure the program fit the rules. And play the game.” He had never competed under the most recent ISU scoring system, the code of points. He made sure he checked all the boxes, worked on level four spins and footwork.

Indeed, the record number of competitors (432 skaters, aged 28 to 78, with record-sized fields up to 35 competitors – compared to 332 skaters last year) bodes well for the future of the adult movement, finding joy in skating, staying healthy and fit for life through the sport. Witness the run of Midori Ito, who won last year, but showed up in 2011 with far fewer elements than required, uncertain of the rules. But Ito didn’t care. She competed for the joy of it, and applauded every competitor. Back home, teaching skating, Ito found more and more teaching requests from adults. She knew it was a chance to enjoy her sport again.

Inside, Beacom would have liked to have landed triple flips and triple Lutzes. He still feels that he has the strength and skill to do them – and he takes care of his body. He even dreamed of doing a triple Axel – an ambitious jump for a man of his generation, let alone his age – but never quite got there. He did a triple Salchow last year. A couple of years ago, he did a triple Lutz. He’s still working on overcoming his bad habits and improving his jumps, he said.

His one Achilles heel? An old chronic ankle injury, suffered years ago while he was playing volleyball, trying to block a spike. He leg slid beneath a net and a lumbering giant of a man fell on it, spraining it badly. If Beacom jumps too much, the ankle haunts him. He’s working on a technique so that his landings will be softer. And he got a new pair of boots a couple of months ago, a heavy pair of brogues with stiff imitation alligator uppers and blade hardware that is solid. They aren’t things of beauty, but he needed the support for the gimpy ankle.

At the adult championships for his life stage, Beacom won, big time. Not only did he take the men’s Masters Elite III free skate (for skaters 48 to 57) by more than 17 points, but he won the artistic free skate as well, by almost eight points, attracting marks as high as 9.75 for performance. Beacom didn’t even look at the scores. On top of it all, he won the Paula Smart Award for the highest score in the artistic event (male or female) at the event. That win hit home most.

“I’m really proud of that,” he said. “The top three ladies in the elite Masters Elite II (ages 38 to 48), were awesome and creative.”

Beacom showed up in style, skating to a funky version of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, wearing a pair of faded blue jeans (preferring to be himself out on the ice) and doing it Beacom-style: part of that routine was improvised. Sure, he knew where the footwork and the spins would go. The rest came out of the emotion of the moment. “I believe through improvisation we can achieve a certain freshness, a certain life, a here-and-now approach to performance that can’t be achieved through a set performance,” he said.

He knew the competition wouldn’t be stiff: there still aren’t a lot of elite skaters contesting the event, although Beacom believes the popularity of keeping up the skills will eventually attract some of the best. There’s always the argument: didn’t the elite have their day, years ago and it’s time now for the non-elite to have a go? Still, the woman who finished second to Ito last year felt gratified to be on the same podium. And it was fun. And friendly. And the ice was great, and the event was well organized and they can hardly wait to return next year.

For Beacom, the event served another purpose. He wanted to be seen and “make connections with the world.” He conducts skating seminars as a business. He doesn’t coach on a regular basis. He enjoys visiting clubs and working with groups of skaters, sharing his knowledge and creative ideas.

Because his trip to Obertsdorf was self-funded, Beacom made a few extra bucks by stopping in Britain to do seminars at five clubs on the way.

During the summers at home in Canada, Beacom has been known to hop aboard his motorcycle and ride from Victoria, B.C., to Ottawa and Toronto, stopping at clubs along the way to do seminars. Sometimes he just drops in, to do research, he says. It often turns into an invitation to stay for an afternoon. He has a lot to offer the skating world. “There are many different, creative ways to get into spins,” he says, as an example. “This is something that hasn’t been explored in the world of skating.”

But the trip to Obertsdorf has resulted in invitations to attend an adult competition in New Zealand and Australia and some seminars there too. He got 150 “Likes” on his Facebook page after the event and some very “gratifying comments” too.

“It’s been a real boost for my self-confidence and career,” he said. The ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition ? A win-win event.

Beverley Smith

Osmond, Reynolds, Weaver & Poje, Duhamel & Radford headline 2014 Skate Canada International in Kelowna

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OTTAWA, ON: The International Skating Union (ISU) has announced the line-ups for the six 2014 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating® events. Canada will host the second stop on the circuit, the 2014 Skate Canada International in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 31 – November 2, 2014 at Prospera Place.

Fans will get to watch members of the Canadian 2014 Olympic silver medal team compete, including Kaetlyn Osmond, Kevin Reynolds, Meagan Duhamel, Eric Radford and Kirsten Moore-Towers. Joining them will be Canada’s reigning silver medalists in ice dance, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, along with a number of world-class skaters including Spain’s Javier Fernandez, USA’s Ashley Wagner, Japan’s Takahito Kozuka and many other Olympic and world competitors.

“Canadian skating is coming off a high from the Olympic Games this past February and we hope Canadians will embrace this opportunity to see old favourites and cheer on new faces,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada CEO. “The Grand Prix series is an exclusive group of talented skaters and we are excited to have so many international stars coming to Kelowna this October.”

Skate Canada International is the second competition in the annual series. The other events take place in the United States (Skate America), China (Cup of China), Russia (Rostelecom Cup), France (Trophée Eric Bompard), and Japan (NHK Trophy).

Skaters are awarded points based on their placements in the series’ events. The top-six men and ladies and the top-six pair and ice dance teams qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final® to be held in Barcelona, Spain from December 11-14, 2014.

All-event tickets are on sale now. Prices range from $135-$185, plus applicable surcharges and can be purchased online at www.selectyourtickets.com, by phone at 250.762.5050 or in person at the Prospera Place Box Office.

2014 Skate Canada International Entries*

MEN’S
Elladj BALDÉ (CAN)
Liam FIRUS (CAN)
Kevin REYNOLDS (CAN)
Michal BREZINA (CZE)
Florent AMODIO (FRA)
Takahiko KOZUKA (JPN)
Takahito MURA (JPN)
Konstantin MENSHOV (RUS)
Javier FERNANDEZ (ESP)
Alexander MAJOROV (SWE)
Max AARON (USA)
Adam RIPPON (USA)

LADIES
Véronik MALLET (CAN)
Kaetlyn OSMOND (CAN)
To be determined (CAN)
Nathalie WEINZIERL (GER)
Valentina MARCHEI (ITA)
Rika HONGO (JPN)
Satoko MIYAHARA (JPN)
Hae Jin KIM (KOR)
Alena LEONOVA (RUS)
Anna POGORILAYA (RUS)
Courtney HICKS (USA)
Ashley WAGNER (USA)

PAIR
Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD (CAN)
Britney JONES / Joshua REAGAN (CAN)
Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO (CAN)
Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN (CHN)
Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES (FRA)
Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE (GER)
Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV (RUS)
Felicia ZHANG / Nathan BARTHOLOMAY (USA)

ICE DANCE
Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER (CAN)
Elisabeth PARADIS / François Xavier OUELLETTE (CAN)
Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE (CAN)
Nelli ZHIGANSHINA / Alexander GAZSI (GER)
Ksenia MONKO / Kirill KHALIAVIN (RUS)
Sara HURTADO / Adria DIAZ (ESP)
Alexandra ALDRIDGE / Daniel EATON (USA)
Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE (USA)

Canadian Assignments for the 2014 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series*

Skate America — Chicago, IL, USA. — October 24-26, 2014
Men’s: Nam NGUYEN
Ice Dance: Nicole ORFORD / Thomas WILLIAMS

Skate Canada International —Kelowna, British Columbia— October 31 – November 2, 2014
Ladies: Véronik MALLET, Kaetlyn OSMOND
Men’s: Elladj BALDÉ, Liam FIRUS, Kevin REYNOLDS
Pair: Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD, Britney JONES / Joshua REAGAN, Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO
Ice Dance: Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER, Elisabeth PARADIS / Francois Xavier OUELLETTE, Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE

Cup of China — Shanghai, China — November 7-9, 2014
Ladies: Gabrielle DALEMAN
Men’s: Nam NGUYEN
Ice Dance: Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM

Rostelecom Cup — Moscow, Russia — November 14-16, 2014
Ladies: Alaine CHARTRAND
Men’s:  Jeremy TEN

Trophée Eric Bompard — Bordeaux, France — November 21-23, 2014
Ladies: Kaetlyn OSMOND
Pair: Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO
Ice Dance: Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER, Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM

NHK Trophy — Osaka, Japan — November 28-30
Ladies: Gabrielle DALEMAN
Men’s: Kevin REYNOLDS
Pair: Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD
Ice Dance: Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE

For full entries at the five other ISU Grand Prix events please visit www.isu.org.

*Entries are subject to change

Zach Daleman carving his own path to the podium

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Zachary Daleman isn’t just Gabby Daleman’s younger brother. He’s Zach Daleman, Esquire, with a passion of his own for the skate blade.

His time will come.

Now 14, Daleman has his cap set for bigger things: getting all of his triples, winning junior Canadians, maybe even this coming season. As a novice, he was doing two triples (Salchow and toe loop) and he has a triple loop in his back pocket. This year, he’s trying on triple flip and Lutz for size. And he says he is starting to work on a triple Axel.

He finished fifth at the novice level last January, but that was more of a triumph than it looks. For one thing, he’s grown seven inches since last May and now towers over his sister, who is two years older. For now, he’s five feet, seven inches.

And last fall, he broke his ankle when he came out of a three-turn and slipped during training.  “My leg went the wrong way,” he said. It was his left ankle, his take-off ankle. He couldn’t walk coming off the ice and off he went to hospital. The fracture was hairline, but still, it set him back badly.

“He was beside himself with grief,” said his mother, Rhonda Raby. “He had worked hard.”

“I was in a walking cast for a month,” Daleman said. In all, he missed four or five weeks of training during the important fall months. He started working again a few weeks before sectionals. And it wasn’t easy. “It was hard because every time I tried a jump, my leg would not want to do it,” he said. “So I was sometimes afraid of jumping.”

The first week, he just stroked around the ice, and did skating skills. In a week or 10 days, all the doubles came back and then the triples.

By Skate Canada Challenge, he still lacked mileage, and finished 18th. He knew he wasn’t that. He was better than 18th. He wanted so badly to get to the national championships. That finish was just good enough to get there.

With a few more miles of training under his belt, Daleman was third after the short program at the Canadian championships novice division (triple Salchow, double toe loop, triple toe loop, double Axel, level four combination spin and a measure of pizzazz). Sixth in the long with a near-clean skate, he finished fifth overall.

“It was a miracle,” he said. “I didn’t have a good year.” He’d broken that ankle just as he was starting to land his triple Salchow and toe loop consistently.

Young Daleman wasn’t always keen about this pursuit in the early days. His parents were both advocates of exercise. Michael Daleman, a teacher at Pickering College in Newmarket, Ont., was a former track athlete, who specialized in triple jump. He is now a level three track coach and also works as the conditioning and strength coach for both of his children. Mother Rhonda is a figure skating fan. “It’s part of being Canadian to me,” she said.

Michael Daleman would take Zach skating sometimes. “He would lie on the ice,” Raby said. “He didn’t want to skate…He was the laziest kid known to man.”

But little by little, Zach skated more and more. He’d skate two days a week, then three and four. He improved. He tried hockey for a while, but one day told his parents he didn’t want to do it anymore. He just wanted to skate.

Now you can’t get the kid off the ice. “Now if you tell him he can’t skate, he will go crazy,” his mother said. “My son loves skating so much. He loves to perform, even more than his sister.”

Zach showed such promise that Skate Canada’s Ontario Section sent him off to a developmental international competition, the Mladost Trophy in Zagreb, Croatia in April of 2013, because of his excellent showing at the Challenge event in Regina in December, 2012. He was a pre-novice champion of Canada.

In Croatia, Zach finished third in the short program, and then went for it in the free, unleashing a clean free to win the gold medal overall. There, he landed his first triple Salchow in competition.

Last February, the entire family packed up and went off to Sochi to watch Gabby compete as the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic team. They got a hotel only 15 to 20 minutes from the arena. His grandparents went too. Ann and Theo Daleman were from the Muskokas, where Michael was born.

In Parry Sound, Daleman and Raby have owned a 106-seat family restaurant for 20 years, where Gabby has worked in the past.

In Sochi, the Daleman family attended speed skating, hockey and figure skating, although Zach said he saw only his sister’s events. “It was good seeing all the good athletes there and stuff.” He says the experience has inspired him to get to the Olympics as well.

Mother Rhonda said the experience was also difficult for him. “When is it going to be about me?” Still, they all support each other. They are best friends.

Zach has big footsteps to follow. But he’s intent on leaving his own mark.

Beverley Smith

Beth Crane awarded Canada’s top female official by Sports Officials Canada

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OTTAWA, ON: Sports Officials Canada (SOC) announced today that Skate Canada judge Beth Crane of Burnaby, B.C., has been named Canada’s top female official, winning the 2014 SOC Award of Excellence.

Crane’s career as a figure skating judge has spanned over 40 years. She is a qualified International Skating Union (ISU) judge and referee in singles and pairs and an ISU technical controller in singles. Her officiating record includes 16 international events, including two ISU World Figure Skating Championships, and six Canadian championships. She is currently the Chair of the Skate Canada Officials Development Committee, and her leadership capabilities were also recognized with this award.

“It is wonderful to see one of our officials being honoured nationally. Beth’s expertise as a judge at the highest level is extremely beneficial in developing figure skating in Canada.  She is a positive role model for all of our officials and a valued member of our Skate Canada team from the club level to the international level. Congratulations Beth on this distinguished honour,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada CEO.

Crane will receive her award on Saturday, September 27, 2014 at the Sports Officials Canada Hall of Fame Dinner in Ottawa, Ontario.

Sports Officials Canada
Sports Officials Canada (SOC) is a federally incorporated national organization dedicated to promoting excellence in sports officiating. SOC represents Canadian technical officials as a national voice. For more information about SOC please visit their website at www.sportsofficials.ca.

Skating in the family for Eric Liu

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Tiny when he won the junior men’s bronze medal at the 2014 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Ottawa several months ago, Liu is now inching up to the skies. The 12-year-old skater from Edmonton/Vancouver has stretched up about four inches since January. He’s now a towering five feet tall.  It seems as if it’s all in his legs.

And don’t forget the feet, too. Liu notes that since his growth spurt surged, he’s gone through four pairs of boots to accommodate the lengthening of his peds. He’s not even sure of the size he wears now. It’s hard to keep track.

But Skate Canada is definitely keeping track of him. He was one of the youngest invitees to the development camp in Markham, Ontario in April. He’s got style. He’s got the jumps. Liu is a prodigy, having landed a triple Lutz – double toe loop combination to earn his way to a medal in his JUNIOR debut in January. He looked like Nam Nguyen did a few years ago, dwarfed by his competitors on a podium. But Liu is more balletic on the ice (at the same age). Both of them are crowd pleasers.

Liu comes by his skills honestly. His father Louie (Wei) Lui, is a Chinese national who competed as an ice dancer in China at a time when China didn’t have huge numbers of skilled ice dancers. But Louie knows his edges. He moved to Edmonton while he was still a skater, tried out with a Canadian partner at the junior dance level, showed up at the Thornhill Summer Skate with her, and then had to deal with life in a new country. He faded from view.

Louie eventually married Edmonton dentist Linda Xie, and they had two sons, Eric and Aaron. Louie and the boys moved to Vancouver to study under Joanne McLeod. Not surprisingly, younger son, Aaron, is an ice dancer, skating in the powerful dance group led by Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe in Vancouver. Eric’s path to stardom (on this small scale) didn’t come in such a predictable way.

He was a hockey player first. His first gold medal came in hockey. He loved to swing that stick. But everything changed when the Liu family travelled to Japan to attend the 2007 world championships. It was a big deal. Louie’s best friend, Hongbo Zhao and partner Xue Shen made a comeback that season after Zhao’s Achilles tendon injury had scuttled their career the previous year. They roared into Japan, undefeated for the season. The Lius saw Shen and Zhao win that world title in Japan by 15 points and as Zhao finished his free skate, he knelt onto the ice and proposed marriage to Shen. What could be more dramatic?

The Lius had been sitting in the best of seats and little Eric was mesmerized by the scene, no less so because Zhao is Eric’s godparent. The little boy saw a major spectacle with an audience that loved skating. He’s met Zhao several times since, also in Canada.

It was a life-changing event for Eric. “I saw them get a lot of flowers,” Liu said. “I told my dad I wanted to do that, too.”  He loved the glitz of it. He was five years old. Toe picks it was.

His father has taught Eric how to skate, how to use his edges. And so did Edmonton coach Jan Ullmark. It shows as he slips across the ice. He’s been taught to use his arms, quite nicely actually.

Ullmark isn’t surprised by his progress. He spent an hour every day teaching figures and turns to Liu. But Ullmark was taken aback by the little boy’s knowledge of what he was doing and why he was doing it.

Ullmark had him doing a back outside edge, the first test. “Isn’t this like the entry into the Lutz?” he asked Ullmark. Ullmark was floored.

And the back double three? “Doesn’t this lead to the loop?” Liu asked him.

When Liu was only eight years old, he did a clean double Axel, Ullmark said.

McLeod, who started working with Liu two years ago, says the boy has a beautiful flow across the ice. And already he is starting to work on triple-triple combinations and a triple Axel. He has a good start, McLeod said. Now they need to work on the height of his jumps and increase the trajectory. Every day, he’s been skating on the same ice as veterans Kevin Reynolds and Jeremy Ten. It all helps.

The kid is gutsy, too, McLeod said. He’ll try anything. “Let’s talk about it first,” McLeod tells him. But he might be already half-way down the ice.

“My favourite part is doing the jumps,” Eric says. “I like the speed and being in the air.” No ice dancing for him.

Liu’s goals are big, as big as they come. His idol is Evgeny Plushenko. He believes he can be just as good as the Russian. He spills it out with confidence: he wants to go to two Olympics and win one of them.

Liu had already been to the Skate Canada development camp last year. He’s not even a newbie on the scene, at his tender age. “I learned a lot of new tips from different coaches,” he said, referring to Christy Krall, the former coach of Patrick Chan. At one point at the most recent camp, he raced pell-mell down the ice with Roman Sadovsky, two years his senior but already a senior competitor at the national level. He’s already met Sadovsky several times.

And he’s already won internationally. In late March, Liu won a gold medal at the Gardenia Spring Trophy in what was called the advanced novice boys category. He faced skaters from Japan and Italy and won by almost seven points.

He sees and knows where he has to go.

Beverley Smith

Canada’s newest pair team – Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro

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OTTAWA, ON:  Two national team members, who had success with previous partners, are Canada’s newest pair team.  Kirsten Moore-Towers, 21, St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro, 22, Sarnia, Ont., have teamed up, and will begin competing together for the 2014-2015 season.

The two came together in late May, and have begun training at the Kitchener Waterloo Skating Club with coaches Kris Wirtz and Kristy Sargeant-Wirtz.

“It’s been really fun to work with Mike these past few days,” said Moore-Towers. “Although we’ve known one another for many years, now we are going through the process of transforming from friends to partners. We’ve been working on our pair elements, the lifts, the throws, the twists and side-by-side jumps. As we’re getting to know how one another skates, we’re also looking at interesting and innovative entrances and exits, and just exploring what we can do together.”

According to Marinaro, “We’re just getting to know each other and trying to find our strengths. Everything right now is extremely new, but we’re having tons of fun on the ice and I’m looking forward to the next season.”

Canadian skaters return from 2014 ISU Adult Competition with 34 medals

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Canada’s adult figure skaters had a successful week at the 10th annual International Skating Union (ISU) Adult Figure Skating Competition held in Oberstdorf, Germany, from May 25-31, 2014. The team consisting of 50 Canadians took home a total of 34 medals, including 10 gold medals, 14 silver medals, and 10 bronze medals.

The competition drew a record 432 skaters plus 12 synchronized skating teams, between the ages of 28-78, from 28 countries. Canadian skaters showed great prowess in the record-sized fields that ran as high as 35 entries.

“The Canadian team in Oberstdorf did a phenomenal job representing our country both on and off the ice,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada Chief Executive Officer. “They truly embody the positive healthy lifestyle seen throughout the adult skating community, while achieving excellence in competition.”

ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta was in attendance last week and echoed these sentiments: “The enthusiasm and passion for ice skating that adult skaters transmit is a gift for the entire skating community.”

The Canadian medalists at the 2014 ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition were:

Gold medalists:
Jannette Wood (Ladies Artistic Bronze III)
Annette Nymeyer (Ladies Artistic Silver III)
Jacob Brunott (Men Artistic Bronze III)
Linda Maundrell (Ladies Artistic Bronze V)
Gary Beacom (Men Artistic Master (Elite III & IV)
Diane Gilders (Ladies Bronze III Free Skate)
Terri-Lynn Black-Calleri & Jacob Brunott (Bronze Pattern Dance)
Ken Langlois & Alison Clark (Master Pattern Dance)
David Dickey (Men Gold III & IV Free Skate)
Gary Beacom (Men Master Elite III Free Skate)

Silver medalists:
Diane Gilder (Ladies Artistic Bronze III)
Don Murray (Men Artistic Silver III & IV)
Raye Ryan (Ladies Bronze IV & V Free skate)
Hisayo Shibata (Ladies Artistic Gold II
Gloria Purvey (Ladies Artistic Gold III & IV)
Denis La Rochelle (Men Silver IV & V Free Skate)
Sarina Tsai (Ladies Artistic Master (Elite) I)
Jannette Wood (Ladies Bronze III Free Skate)
Hisayo Shibata (Ladies Master Elite II Free Skate)
Diana Barkley & Geoff Squires (Gold Pattern Dance)
Sarina Tsai (Ladies Master Elite I Free Skate)
Diana Barkley & Geoff Squires (Ice Dance Master Short Dance)
Sue Edwards & Jim Wilkins (Ice Dance Bronze Free Dance)
Diana Barkley & Geoff Squires (Ice Dance Master and Elite Master Free Dance)

Bronze medalists:
Joan McGrath (Ladies Artistic Bronze III)
Denis La Rochelle (Men Artistic Silver III & IV)
Francesco Ventura (Men Artistic Gold III & IV)
Jeffrey Bullard (Men Artistic Bronze III)
James Wilkins (Men Artistic Bronze IV)
Francesco Ventura (Men Silver IV & V Free Skate)
David Dickey (Men Artistic Master (Elite) III & IV)
Michelle Lamothe (Ladies Artistic Silver IV)
Gloria Purvey (Ladies Gold III Free Skate)
Luda Kalenuk (Ladies Artistic Master and Elite Master II & III)

The ISU Adult Working Group also took the opportunity to announce next year’s event, which takes place May 18-24, 2015 in Oberstdorf, Germany.

For more information, please visit www.adultskating.org or www.isu.org.

 

2015 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships heads to Quebec

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OTTAWA, ON: Quebec City, Quebec will be the host of the 2015 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships. The event will take place from February 27 to March 1, 2015 at the Pavillon de la Jeunesse.

“Quebec has a rich synchronized skating heritage and we are elated to bring this event to Quebec City,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada CEO. “The championships will kick-off an exciting time for synchro in Canada, as Hamilton, Ontario prepares to host the world synchronized skating championships later that year. I hope fans in Quebec will take the opportunity to come out and see our talented teams compete for national titles and a chance to represent Canada internationally.”

“The Quebec Section and CPA Charlesbourg are thrilled to be hosting the 2015 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships. This will be a fabulous opportunity for us to show off our first-class hosting abilities and our facilities,” said Sylvie Simard, Quebec Section Chair. “We are looking forward to welcoming the hundreds of skaters, coaches, officials, volunteers and fans that will come out to watch Canada’s best synchronized skating teams.”

The 2015 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships will bring approximately 40 teams and over 800 skaters from across the country to Quebec City.

Teams will compete for national titles in the senior, junior, open, intermediate and novice categories. The top two senior teams will represent Canada at the 2015 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships from April 10-11, 2015 in Hamilton, Ontario.

CPA Charlesbourg is the host club which is located in Quebec City the host of the 2015 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships.