Messing, Gilles/ Poirier lead Canadian team selections for coming Winter Olympics
Thirteen total athletes will head to next month's Beijing 2022 Games, including pairs team Vanessa James and Eric Radford who had to petition for their spot on the team.
Figure Skating
Canada will send 13 figure skaters to next month's Olympic Games Beijing 2022.
Reigning world bronze medallists in ice dance, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, as well as singles skater Keegan Messing, who has finished as high as sixth at the World Championships.
The newly-formed pairs duo of Vanessa James and Eric Radford were also named to the team, having appealed for a spot after withdrawing midway through the Canadian national championships, which were held this past weekend (7-8 January) in Ottawa.
Radford won bronze alongside Meagan Duhamel at PyeongChang 2018. He and James teamed up prior to this season.
Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro won the pairs event for their third national title ahead of the Olympics.
Here's the full team:
- Men: Messing; Roman Sadovsky
- Women: Madeline Schizas
- Pair skating: Moore-Towers/Marinaro; James/Radford
- Ice dance: Gilles/Poirier; Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen; Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha
Messing, Schizas, Moore-Towers/Marinaro and Gilles/Poirier captured respective national titles in Ottawa.
Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen's path to the Games has been documented this season on the Olympic Channel original series, On Edge. Watch it here.
Canada is the reigning Olympic champions in the figure skating team event, which will kick off the skating action at the start of the Games (4 February). Here's the full schedule.