Jamie Sale And David Pelletier Now Hall Of Famers

They've sat and watched athletes retire, have their banners raised and go into halls of fame.

And they never got it.

"I always watched them and wondered 'Why are you crying? You had just a great career. It's a happy thing,'" said Jamie Sale.

Yesterday, as she and David Pelletier, the world champion and Olympic gold-medal winning pairs team out of Edmonton, were inducted into the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame, she got it.

"I guess you just have to be in the moment," Sale said as she and her partner/husband left the Pacific Coliseum ice after a ceremony filled with tears and laughter.

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Source: Winnepeg Sun

Anabelle Langlois And Cody Hay Win First Canadian Title

The long wait ended for Anabelle Langlois when she and partner Cody Hay won the title while defending champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison battled their way back from fifth spot to finish second.

Langlois, 26, spent over a decade pairs skating with former partner Patrice Archetto but never won a Canadian title.

"It feels amazing," said Langlois, a native of Grand-Mere, Que., who now skates with Hay out of Barrie, Ont. "We worked so hard all year."

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Source: Canadian Press

Former Canadian Champs Training The Next Generation Of Elite Skaters

It seems contradictory to listen to insiders speaking bluntly on the dire state of figure skating in Canada against the backdrop of the Canadian Olympic Committee-driven Own the Podium program and the sport's unfailing reliability in producing medallist performers.

The BMO Canadian championships opened Wednesday by recognizing honourary chairs Victor Kraatz and Shae-Lynne Bourne, the only Canadian ice dance team to win a world championship (2003).

Later in the week 2002 Olympic pairs champions JamieSalé and David Pelletier will be officially inducted into the Skate Canada hall of fame. And during Sunday's presentations, all of the newly-minted champions will receive their medals from alumni members.

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Source: The Province

Shae- Lynn Bourne And Viktor Kraatz Reunite- Sort Of

Victor Kraatz gave his old partner Shae-Lynn Bourne an affectionate nudge yesterday at the Canadian figure skating championships.

After a time of stiffness between them, the 2003 world dance champions have reached a more peaceful friendship. But ironically, now that they have, they are competing against each other this week.

Kraatz is coaching Allie Hann-McCurdy of Nanaimo, B.C, and Michael Coreno of Toronto, who exceeded all expectations by finishing fourth at the Skate Canada Grand Prix in Quebec City last November.

And in the other corner, Bourne is coaching 2007 Canadian bronze medalists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont.

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Source: The Globe And Mail

Canadian Pair Champions Set To Defend Title

Pairs figure-skating champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison will return to the ice this weekend to defend their Canadian title, a challenge complicated by a horrible on-ice accident last year that left the pair with both physical and emotional wounds.

The accident footage was watched around the world as the clip of Davison's skate slashing Dube's face exploded in popularity on the video sharing website YouTube.

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Source: CTV