|
|
|
Finalists say it's been a long haul as 'Battle of the Blades' finale looms
| Source: |
680 News |
| Date: |
November 12, 2009 |
| Author: |
Michael Oliveira |
TORONTO - CBC-TV's "Battle of the Blades" concludes Sunday and Monday,
and the coaches and finalists say it's been a long, draining
experience with no shortage of ups, downs and surprises.
What sounded like a joke of an idea at first - take eight retired
hockey players and see how they do in figure skates - bloomed into a
ratings hit. Tickets to the live performances at Toronto's Maple Leaf
Gardens became a hot commodity.
Now, after six weeks of competition, Claude Lemieux, Stephane Richer
and Craig Simpson are the last men standing - along with their
partners Shae-Lynn Bourne, Marie-France Dubreuil and Jamie Sale - and
make no mistake, they all really want to win.
"They all have the competitive fire, you noticed it the first day we
arrived here," said coach David Pelletier, who won Olympic pairs gold
with Sale, now his wife.
"The first time when all the guys stepped on the ice you could see a
few of them were in to win it - and some of them were in to have fun
with it - but nobody wanted to go out first. They all wanted to make
it through a couple of weeks, and that fire has been burning even
harder and bigger as the weeks went by."
Mentor and series co-host Kurt Browning, a four-time world champion,
said the men have come a long way since first donning figure
skates.
It takes more than just athletic ability to excel at pairs figure
skating and the men had to learn how to develop a level of intimacy
with their partners, and adopt new personas as skating entertainers,
he said.
"I certainly wasn't expecting them to start emoting in their programs
but I think the girls have pulled it out of them," Browning said, and
recalled how difficult it was for some of the men, including Lemieux,
to build up their comfort level with their partners.
"(Bourne) came over and gave him a big hug and started holding his
hand ... and he was frozen with fear. He just couldn't believe this
girl came over and held his hand, so now he's gone from not even
realizing that she was going to do that, to really gelling as a
team."
Performance-wise, the men have far exceeded what was expected of them,
said another coach, Paul Martini, a former world champion who will
perform on the series finale with his old pairs partner Barb
Underhill.
"I would never have guessed back in September when we started that
we'd be doing full overheard lifts, it just wasn't something that I
thought was going to happen," he said.
But as far as they've come, there's one thing viewers probably
shouldn't expect to see in the finale: the men won't be pulling off
any double Axels.
"We had a couple guys try one revolution jumps - not quite," Browning
said with a laugh, and guessed the men would probably need another
year of training to pull off a single Axel.
The remaining three pairs will skate twice on Sunday's show. A winner
will be announced Monday.
"We're nervous for them ... we'll see if they have a good skate, I
really hope they do, they deserve it, they've come through a lot," he
said.
"They're tired and hurt, they're not used to picking up 110 pounds and
flipping it around."
Bourne said the skaters are feeling emotional heading into the finale,
given how hard they've worked for weeks together.
"It's sad knowing it's coming to an end and it'll be over," she
said.
"But we're excited about this last routine, we're still working on it
now, we just have one week to prepare."
Bourne added she's really proud of Lemieux for deciding to sing
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" for their routine.
"Putting yourself out there artistically to go all the way just shows
his commitment to this show and giving his everything to it," she
said.
Lemieux said the song is one of his daughter's favourites and his wife
convinced him to sing it himself.
"We thought about doing it live but that idea didn't last too long,"
he said.
"It'd really be beyond difficult with the wireless mikes and the
things that could go wrong in a live show.
"So we killed that idea and talked about recording it and it's worked
out great, it was a great idea."
Simpson said he's pumped about his finale performance and how much his
skills have developed, despite a few bad falls early on.
"I think I've come a long way," he said.
"It's been a great journey, from being really uncomfortable the first
few weeks, to starting to get a little more comfortable on my figure
skates by about the fourth, fifth week, to now trying something new
every day."
|
|
|
|
|
