OTTAWA, ON: Six Canadian figure skating coaches received the 2013 Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award over the weekend. The awards were presented Friday, November 8th by the Coaching Association of Canada at the annual Sport Leadership Awards ceremony, during the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership conference in Calgary, Alta.

The Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Awards recognize coaches whose athletes excelled at world championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games, and at the Special Olympics World Games.

The following figure skating coaches received awards:

• Janet Collins
  (Athletes: Team Canada – 2013 Special Olympics World Games)
• Julie Dunlop
  (Athletes: Crystal Greig, Michael Sumner, Sara McKelvie, Darlene Jakubowski, Marc Theriault, Jonathan Edwards, Carlea Wilkie-Ellis, David Mullaly-Robertson, Timothy Goodacre, Alyssa Chapman, Meg Ohsada, Alexander Pang, Paul Jocys, Janie McGraw, Kennedy Zaytsoff, Brian Bell, Jessica Young)
• Richard Gauthier
  (Athletes: Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford)
• Cathy Skinner
  (Athletes: Crystal Greig, Michael Sumner, Sara McKelvie, Darlene Jakubowski, Marc Theriault, Jonathan Edwards, Carlea Wilkie-Ellis, David Mullaly-Robertson, Timothy Goodacre, Alyssa Chapman, Meg Ohsada, Alexander Pang, Paul Jocys, Janie McGraw, Kennedy Zaytsoff, Brian Bell, Jessica Young)
• Shelley Simonton-Barnett
  (Athletes: Nexxice – Senior)
• Marina Zoueva
  (Athletes: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir)

Julie Dunlop and Cathy Skinner were present at the ceremony in Calgary on Friday where a total of 76 coaches were honoured. All of the coaches recognized had Canadian athletes or teams win gold, silver or bronze on the world stage.