by Jacquelyn Thayer In spring 2024, two Canadian skaters were at a crossroads. Junior ice dancer Nicholas Buelow’s partnership with Dana Sabatini-Speciale, with whom he’d competed at three Junior Grand Prix events, had come to an end, while pair skater…
by Jacquelyn Thayer. Cover photo by Danielle Earl. For many ice dance fans, the Lake Placid Ice Dance competitions in July mark the new season’s start. But with livestreaming unavailable for 2022’s event, those at home resorted to the decade-old…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue have hit a sort of “Hallelujah” trifecta. Certainly they’re the first team to marry skating’s favorite versions of the Leonard Cohen composition—those of Jeff Buckley and k.d. lang—in a single program, and…
by Jacquelyn Thayer For every championship title that seems a foregone conclusion, another may come down to a simple decision: stay novice or take a leap of competitive faith? Before creating something of an upset in the junior pairs field…
by Jacquelyn Thayer What might be overachievement for many new pairs — third in the short and fourth overall at their debut Nationals — is, for Deanna Stellato and Nate Bartholomay, a bit more like a storybook accomplishment. “For me…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Though Skate Detroit will mark a competitive debut for U.S. pair Winter Deardorff and Max Settlage, it’s also the culmination of nearly a year’s preparation. Settlage, whose six-season pairing with Madeline Aaron concluded last summer, faced the…
Part 2 of a two-part feature; read part 1 here by Jacquelyn Thayer Athletes have spoken of the difficulty in moving from the concretely goal-focused regimen of the sporting life to the more mundane concerns of life after. But in…
Part 1 of a two-part feature by Jacquelyn Thayer Perseverance: few virtues are more celebrated in sport. For athletes grappling with injury and long odds, it becomes a mantra. But just as fundamental is the confidence to know when it’s…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Any move up from the junior ranks in skating to senior can mean upheaval. For U.S. ice dancers Julia Biechler and Damian Dodge, bigger transitions were in the works. Though the team has long been based at…
by Jacquelyn Thayer It’s common enough for skaters with neighboring levels of success — she a 2014 national novice champion with her previous partner, he 2015’s novice bronze medalist with his — to forge new partnerships as prior ones conclude.…
