[OFFICIAL@STREAMs]*Skate Canada 2023 Live Online Free Coverage ON TV Channel 28~29 October 2023
The 2023 Skate Canada International will take place at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, in Vancouver, B.C., from October 27-29, 2023. 15:50:00, Ice Dance ; 18:45:00, Pairs ; 20:10:00, Men ; 28.10.2023.Kaori Sakamoto’s road to figure skating history starts, ends in Canada; Grand Prix stream info Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto begins her season in earnest at this week’s Skate Canada, a campaign that could end with figure skating history come March.
Peacock airs live coverage of the second of six Grand Prix Series events on Friday and Saturday from Vancouver.
Sakamoto, the back-to-back world champion, is the headliner.
She hopes to compete in Canada three times this season. Sakamoto already won a lower-level event in Montreal last month.
March’s worlds are also in Montreal. There, Sakamoto can become the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since American Peggy Fleming from 1966-68.
The task at Skate Canada, and at her second Grand Prix in Finland three weeks later, is to qualify for December’s Grand Prix Final, which often serves as a worlds preview.
A podium at each of her two Grand Prix starts should get her to the six-skater Final.
Sakamoto, the Olympic bronze medalist, has a Grand Prix title each of the last three seasons.
A benchmark score for her at Skate Canada should be 221.28, which Belgian Leona Hendrickx put up to win Skate America last week. That’s the world’s best score in the early season.
Challengers at Skate Canada include defending champion Rinka Watanabe of Japan, plus Americans Starr Andrews, Lindsay Thorngren and Audrey Shin.
Andrews was runner-up at last year’s Skate Canada to become the first Black American figure skater to make a Grand Prix podium.
The U.S. gets two spots at March’s worlds — to be filled after January’s nationals. Reigning U.S. champion Isabeau Levito scored 208.15 at Skate America. The next-best American so far this season is Amber Glenn, who had 189.63 at Skate America.
The other Skate Canada disciplines include world silver medalist Cha Jun-Hwan of South Korea (men’s), world bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada (ice dance) and Canadian pair Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who were fourth at worlds. Skate Canada is pleased to announce the talented team of former high performance athletes that will bring a fresh approach to skating coverage at 2023 Skate Canada International, which will take place in Vancouver, B.C., from October 27-29, 2023.
Our live stream will welcome back Kevin Reynolds, Kaetlyn Osmond, Kirsten Moore-Towers, and Kaitlyn Weaver, along with host Ted Barton to provide us with in-depth commentary throughout the week for English viewers. French viewers will also receive top-notch coverage throughout the event as Alicia Pineault, Charlie Bilodeau, Élisabeth Paradis, and Laurence Darveau make their live stream debut.
This enhanced production aims at providing positive analysis of our sport and a supportive approach to help skaters on their individual journeys to achieve excellence. Fans can stream 2023 Skate Canada International on skatecanada.ca, CBC.ca, or CBC Gem. These will be the only places to watch this prestigious event, as there will be no network broadcast. Canadian figure skaters are hoping to build on detailed preparation and past performances in front of home support as the Skate Canada International Competition is set to get underway.
Sixty skaters from around the world, including reigning Skate Canada ladies single champion Rinka Watanabe, 2023 world champion Kaori Sakamoto and Canadian ice dancers and two-time world bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, will take part.
It’s the first competition of the season for Toronto’s Gilles and Poirier of Unionville, Ont.
“It gave us a lot of comfort knowing that our prep last year worked and got us to a level of readiness for our first event and we replicated that as much as we could this year,” said Poirier. “Knowing we had a plan that worked gave us a lot of confidence.”
The routine they have worked on is inspired by the Emily Bronte classic “Wuthering Heights,” said Gilles.
“It’s about the ebbs and flows of love,” she said. “When we came back this year, we wanted to do something that fuelled our fire a little bit.”
Gilles added that they only received the final version of the program last week, requiring a quick turnaround in preparation for the competition.
For Watanbe, it’s a homecoming of sorts.
Watanabe moved to Vancouver when she was 15 to follow her coach, who also moved to the city, before the skater moved back to Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I love Canada so I feel pretty happy to be back in Vancouver,” she said. “I try to do my best here and my goal is top three because if I want to go to the final, a top three is good. Top three is my goal but I’m trying not to think too much.”
Watanabe took silver in the Finlandia Trophy Figure Skating competition in Finland and has spent the two weeks since working to clean up her skating.
“I think that’s what’s pretty good for me. Not (focusing) on jumping but clean skating,” she said.
Sakamoto said her goal is to accumulate enough points to make it to the Grand Prix final being held in Beijing in early December.
She said she was disappointed with her performance at the last Grand Prix, where she finished fifth, and wanted a chance to rectify that.
Pairs skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek of Brossard, Que., and partner Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., will compete in their long program with a vampire-inspired routine, based on the “Interview with a Vampire” series.
“When you’re practising through all the off-season, you hope you’ve improved, you hope people notice, but you don’t really know where you’re at until you get a score, and you can get a standard to raise upon,” said Stellato-Dudek.
The pair last competed at the Autumn Classic International in Montreal, finishing with a gold and 203.62 points.
“We had our standard at Autumn Classic International and now our goal is to raise that standard each time we go out,” said Stellato-Dudek.
Deschamps agreed, adding that there has been an added focus on improving the artistic side of their performances.
The event is set to run from Friday through Sunday in Vancouver. jkjhkuyiyu