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Clemence Mayindu replaces Maia Mazzara at Grand Prix de France
Four Canadian Skaters to Compete at Grand Prix de France
October 29, 2024/by Skate Canada
OTTAWA, ON (October 29, 2024) – With the 2024-25 skating season in full swing, four Canadian athletes will travel to Angers, France this week for the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating circuit. The Grand Prix de France will take place from November 1-3, 2024, and will see Canadian skaters compete in pairs and ice dance.
In the pairs competition, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud will be the team to beat as the reigning gold medallists in the event. The duo will look to claim their first international medal of the season after narrowly missing out on a podium position at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September.
Seasoned ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac will arrive in France fresh off a seventh-place finish at Skate America, the first stop on the Grand Prix circuit. The team secured a top-five finish at the Grand Prix de France last year.
Team Canada
Name | Age | Hometown | Coach
Pairs
Lia Pereira | 20 | Milton, ON & Trennt Michaud | 28 | Brantford, ON | Alison Purkiss
Ice Dance
Marie-Jade Lauriault | 28 | St-Anne-Des-Plains, QC & Romain Le Gac | 29 | Laval, QC | Romain Haguenauer
Team Leader: Mike Slipchuk
Medical Team: Pat Stanziano
Officials: Erica Topolski & Leslie Keen
BREAKS the record for highest short program score for a U.S. woman in international competition. Her SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOK4eOOrkE
Their RD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFB16Z0h68Marie-Jade: “We felt really good today. We were also confident going into Skate America but during the last two weeks we worked hard to build our confidence back up.”
Romain: “It was a very intense 5 days of training where we focused a lot on the technical side. It was very good and we are very thankful to our coaches.”
On skating at “home” in Angers:
Romain: “When we represented France we skated for the skating club of Angers. We remember when this rink was built. We know a lot of people here, also we see some of the kids that back then skated here still skating here, or working here as volunteers. It is really nice to see how the skating here in Angers developed and what a great event this is.”
Video of their SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xGu9TwBQOgLia: “We feel really good about today. We still gain new experiences every time we go out there. This was our first time coming back to an event we won last year, so dealing with some kind of expectations was new. But overall it was very nice to come back here where we know the venue already and everything feels familiar.”
Trennt: “This new SP was choreographed by Jean-Luc Baker and Olivia Smart. They are two of my best friends. For Olivia it was actually the first choreography she ever did. We love her she is so creative and such a good performer.”
Lia: “People told us we look like we have so much fun during practices, so we wanted to show that in this new fun program. It shows this fun part of our personalities very well. We really enjoy performing it.”
Trennt: “Our goal is to medal in every event we attend, we know we are capable of that.”
wins the GP de France women’s title, her first GP 
of her career. 
has booked her place in the Grand Prix Final with her 
in Angers.
History was made, however with the landing of a 3A-4T combo by Mikhail ShaidorovThat was the biggest dog's breakfast of a men's event I've seen in a while. But the result is right at #GPFRA. Adam Saio Him Fa rose from 8th in SP to win the FP and the gold by 13 pts. Everybody else slipped around and struggled. Adam blew a big 4t combo but worked the rest.
To add to the craziness of the men's event at #GPFRA, Nikolaj Memola finished 2nd in the free (!!!!!) , sixth overall, after a 10th in the SP. Landed a 4Lz (crazy for such a tall guy), ripped off a huge 3A and did all, with level 4s. 158.91 for that, behind Adam's 171.68.
.
Marie-Jade: “We knew we made many little mistakes today so we expected the score to be not too high. We are still prpud because we improved on the levels from Skate America and that’s what we work on.”
They will skate next at Warsaw Cup, and will go back home inbetween, to take two days off, do the Christmasdecorations and of course work hard with their team.
- their FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYqdGD91tJg
Lia: “I can’t really tell what happened. We worked so much on the throws since Nebelhorn, also worked with mental performance coaches and skate clean long programs over and over again in practice. So I really can’t explain what happened in the moment.
Trennt: “Usually we feel more comfortable with the Free Skate compared to the short program, but not today.
We both wanted to skate to a tango for a while.”
Lia on her tango-look: “When we decided we’d do a tango program Ali [Alison Purkiss] and I decided to go with this little curl [styled on her cheek] and I really like it. In general I really enjoy doing my hair and make-up ahead of a competition, it’s part of my routine.”
Two Top 10 Finishes for Canadian Skaters at Grand Prix de France
November 2, 2024/by Skate Canada
ANGERS, FRA (November 2, 2024) – The ISU Grand Prix continued this weekend in Angers, France at the Grand Prix de France and saw Canadian pair skaters Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, and ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac both post top-10 finishes against top international talent.
Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Michaud of Brantford, Ont., came into the competition as the reigning pair champions from this competition last season and posted a new season’s best score in their short program on Friday to sit in third place heading into the free skate on Saturday. Unfortunately, a series of errors, including falls on both of their throws, left them in fifth place overall with a total score of 170.67.
“I don’t know what went wrong,” said Pereira following their free skate performance. “Usually, you can say I felt nervous, or I felt this, but I felt like I usually do. We’ve both worked with mental performance coaches and I think it’s been a really great addition to our team, so I think it was just mistakes in the moment.”
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, the reigning Grand Prix Final champions, won gold with a total score of 211.69. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy took silver (203.39), while Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, also of Italy, took bronze (176.62).
The ice dance competition saw Lauriault of St-Anne-des-Plains, Que., and Le Gac of Laval, Que., finish seventh overall with a season’s best total score of 175.85. They also set a new season’s best score of 72.54 for their rhythm dance on Friday.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t reached our goals yet, but we know we’re going to keep working, and it’s still the beginning of the season,” said Le Gac who also finished seventh at Skate America two weeks ago with Lauriault in their season debut. “We’re proud of our week. We learned a lot at the last two Grand Prix and we’re going to keep working for our next event.”
Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France, who took home bronze from Skate Canada International last weekend, climbed to the top step of the podium this weekend, winning gold with a total score of 195.27. Last year’s champions, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy, settled for silver (189.08), while Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville of the USA took bronze (185.88).
The ISU Grand Prix circuit continues at the NHK Trophy taking place in Tokyo, Japan from November 8-10, 2024 where Stephen Gogolev will be Canada’s lone competitor in the men’s competition.
decorations and of course work hard with their team.