Every skater dreams of World and Olympic glory, but for some, it’s more realistic than others. From the outside looking in, it might initially have seemed a long shot that Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson would one day challenge for those podiums when they first teamed up in 2016. At the time, Lilah Fear’s top …
Continue reading Fear/Gibson: “The crowd is part of our team”
Just two years ago, Madison Hubbell was on the podium at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, winning a team gold medal and a bronze medal in ice dance. Since then, Hubbell has married Spanish ice dancer Adrian Diaz and recently gave birth to a daughter, Chloe Diaz Hubbell. She’s also coaching in London, Ontario, with …
Continue reading Coaching for Carreira/Ponomarenko: Madison Hubbell
Two-time Czech ice dance champions Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler were excited to start their season this fall. The brother/sister team earned medals at two Challenger Series events and placed 5th at Skate America. There was one big problem, though: Filip Taschler was increasingly suffering from back pain. “I’d had a problem with my lower …
Continue reading The Taschlers Return from Career-Threatening Injury
At Skate America, we caught up with a few coaches to get their thoughts about their students’ performances at the first Grand Prix event of the season. Patrice Lauzon (I.AM) Ice dancers from the I.AM (Ice Academy of Montreal) school swept the podium at Skate America, with Chock/Bates taking gold, Lajoie/Lagha winning silver, and Lopareva/Brissaud …
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada went home with a silver medal from last weekend's Humana Skate America in Allen, Texas. The duo were happy with their results in Allen, Texas, especially since they spent the summer coping with shoulder and back injuries for Lagha, and also had a subpar start to their season …
Marie-France Dubreuil, co-head coach and co-founder of the Ice Academy of Montreal (I.AM), coaches many of the top ice dance teams in the world, including reigning World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Dubreuil is also a highly esteemed choreographer–and not only for ice dancers, but other disciplines as well. Dubreuil had to tackle some …
Last season’s ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series was notable for the emergence of several standout new talents in ice dance. Among the new stars were Hannah Lim and Ye Quan of South Korea. They captured fans’ attention starting with their first JGP event last year, where they skated with unexpected fire and aplomb. Lim …
Ben Agosto is a man who needs little introduction for figure skating fans. During his 12 years competing with partner Tanith Belbin [now Tanith White] (1998-2010), Agosto amassed a pile of medals and played a pivotal role in bringing the United States into the top echelon of the ice dance world. In 2002, Belbin and …
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha have had a breakout season in 2022-23. But when the rhythm dance starts next week at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships, they will unfortunately be missing from the roster. It’s their misfortune that Canada has only two ice dance spots at Worlds this year–and three high-ranked ice dance teams. …
Continue reading Lajoie/Lagha: “Worlds is the piece that is missing to have had the perfect season”
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are excited to be kicking off their Grand Prix season this weekend at Skate America. They have big plans for this year’s Grand Prix–and this season in general. "We are absolutely aiming to be at the [Grand Prix] Final this year, which would mean podiuming at both of our Grand …
