Canada's defending figure skating pair champions Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay may not be ready to compete at the Grand Prix events in Canada and Japan that begin in October.The duo must wait until Langlois recovers from a spiral fracture to her lower right fibula which occurred in July.
"We had a great summer of training and got to work with David Wilson [famed choreographer] for both programs and it was during one of our final sessions with him, doing the short program, where the injury happened," Hay said.
Langlois said the accident was a fluke.
"I got stuck in new boots with my pick in the ice and ended up flat on my back … if you can imagine, with my foot stuck underneath me. I don't bend that way!
"I don't think of it as my bad foot — I think of it as my bionic reconstructed foot," Langlois said jokingly.
Surgery, five screws and a metal plate would make many skaters forget about returning to the ice quickly, but not Langlois. She has already been back on the ice training with her partner.
On Thursday, Langlois' surgeon gave her a clean bill of health so now she can begin to work on more difficult elements.
"Anabelle is basically a real world superhero," said Hay. "She has been through so much physically with her skating. She manages to bounce back so quickly and more than ever in a positive way … She manages to work her way through so quickly it's hard for me to not be motivated by it."
Both skaters agree that this setback has actually improved their relationship.
"It's really shifted the gear between me and Cody. I have always been driven and in the beginning he was along for the ride. Last year he really stepped it up so it was even. Since my accident, he has been training so hard and harder than I have ever seen him. He changed his entire body, he has been eating better, has less body fat, more cardio, more weightlifting. I started seeing him not totally relying on me. Hard for me to watch and get used to but very exciting for us," Langlois said.
Skate Canada's director of marketing, Debbi Wilkes, herself a former pair skater, said, "All skaters are tough and take risks every day but pair skaters are unique because their risks are higher, faster and more dangerous.
"Injury is commonplace for pair skaters. That said, Anabelle is one of the toughest pair skaters I know and if there is any way that she can be on the ice competing that's where she will be."
www.cbc.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment