Ladies Results Men's Results Pairs Results Dance Results
The second event of the Grand Prix series is being held in Mississauga, ON, a small city just to the west of Toronto. The reigning World Champions in each event are participating in this competition. Skate Canada marks the return to ISU competition for Elena Berzhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze who were suspended earlier this year for a drug doping violation. Berezhnaya tested positive for psuedoephedrine at the 2000 European Championships after using a cold medication. The team was stripped of their European gold medal, disqualified from the 2000 World Championships, and were suspended for three months. Here at Skate Canada they begin their quest to recapture their World title this season.
In the Ladies event Michelle Kwan goes up against Irina Slutskaya, one of her likely challengers for the gold medal at Worlds this season. Kwan won at last week's Skate America in a controversial decision against skates who have never beaten her in the past. It will be interesting to see this week how she fares against Slutskaya who has beaten Kwan before - assuming Slutskaya is ready for the season.
In the Men's event we get a repeat of the Todd Eldredege and Alexei Yagudin matchup. Add to the mix Chengjiang Li of China, who placed fifth at 2000 Worlds, and Takeshi Honda of Japan who, though inconsistent in his performances, has a quad and is capable of mixing it up with the big boys.
Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze's return to ISU competition puts them up against the reigning World Champions Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov. Canadians Jamie Sale & David Pelletier, who impressed at Skate America last week, would like a good result here against the two Russian teams. A medal here for the Canadians would cement their reputation as an up-and-coming team and contenders for a medal at Worlds.
The reigning world dance champions, Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat have no serious competition here. The Israeli team who skated well at Skate America and placed fifth at the 2000 Worlds are their nearest competition. After these two teams their is little to write home about. The Ukrainian team has stalled out in their development and the Canadian and U.S. teams here are all outclassed, with the U.S. team having little hope of making it into the top half of the standings here. Aside from the French couple, only the Israeli team can be identified as "comers" who stand a chance of moving up considerably in the world rankings this year.