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 days of awaiting written reports, photos, and rogue video of programs of interest—particularly, this year,…
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 the first to present two separate programs to the song. And more than this, they…
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 at the 2017 U.S. Championships, Nica Digerness and Danny Neudecker began their off-season planning to…
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 last year, it was mainly about learning how to skate pairs,” said Stellato, who before…
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 prospect of re-entering the partner search scene while dealing with an additional complication. “One of…
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 the first months since retirement, the mundane is what’s grounded ice dancers Alexandra Paul and…
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 time to close a door. Canadian ice dancers Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam initially entered…
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 Aston, Pennsylvania’s IceWorks, changes at that elite rink, where coach Natalia Linichuk once trained students…
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. For Canadian juniors Keelee Gingrich and Parker Brown, such a match has also meant another…
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was conducted on June 27 and published July 24, to approving response from both partners. On August 10, Aaron and Settlage announced the conclusion of their partnership. This feature stands to capture their comments and perspective as they initially stood in this off-season. by Jacquelyn Thayer For two-time U.S. pewter medalist…
