A Vancouver High Five

And so, the lights have been dimmed for another year.
One more Canadian figure skating championships in the book.
Another set of memories to savour.
We've all got 'em, many of them pretty much the same. None of us will soon forget the Saturday afternoon 17-year-old Patrick Chan announced he's not just the future of men's skating in Canada, he's very much a part of its present. He's a refreshing young guy and his remarkable free skate might well have been the performance of the week.
If not, that distinction had to go to ice dance prodigies Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, whose Umbrellas of Cherbourg free program already has plenty of tongues wagging about just how far they might climb at the world championships in Sweden a couple of months from now.
On a weekend of newness, Joannie Rochette had what it took to stay on top of the senior women's class for a fourth straight year. Say what you will about the state of what's below her, but that kind of a run of sustained excellence isn't anything to be taken lightly.
These are but a handful of things we'll remember, and some might suggest we're merely just stating the obvious.
Point well taken, I suppose.
But, following along with the 'alternative' theme that drives the blog, a few memories of my own, a personal 'high five' if you will:
1) When you're in the newspaper business, as I was for so many years, you hear all the time about the detachment we're supposed to feel towards it all. That we're not supposed invest ourselves emotionally in the people and the things we cover. But sometimes, it's much easier said than done and you can't help but care. And there's nobody I felt happier for this weekend than Anabelle Langlois, the fiery little pairs skater from Gatineau, Que. I've watched her show up at this event for so many years, a national title all but within her grasp more than once. As the crushing disappointments began to add up, Langlois began to wonder if she'd ever win. But as she bounded up to the stop of podium Sunday afternoon with Cody Hay, the young buck from Alberta she always believed was exactly the right partner, Langlois finally knew. That yes, it was true: Finally, she is a Canadian champion.
2) We crossed paths so many times this week that 'you again?' became almost a running joke between us. But truth be told, I can never see enough of folks like Shae-Lynn Bourne. She's one of those quality people who have more than anything to do with why I continue to cherish the time I spend around this sport. Bourne and Victor Kraatz were the honorary chairs for this week's nationals, and seeing them together brought to mind so many of the great memories they gave us all during their remarkable career. Especially when they Riverdanced onto the ice for the Parade of Champions, and later gave us a further glimpse of some of the trademark moves we remember so well. If they're getting a thought in their head that they might like to perform again together on the ice, well, count me among the first to say I'm there to watch.
3) The folks from Skate Canada talked a lot at the outset of this week about bringing their 'alumni' back into the fold, to re-establish that link to a vibrant past. And why should they not? I'm all for seeing plenty more of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who were front and centre during an emotional Hall of Fame induction ceremony today. Kurt Browning, Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson, Bourne and Kraatz ... just to name a few. They've all played a major hand in crafting the rich history of this sport in our country. And it is a history we should celebrate whenever we can, and a past we should work overtime to pass along to the next generation coming down the pipe.
4) Often, when we're looking back like this, the winners are the first to come to mind. But sometimes, if you look beyond the podium, you'll find a moment that has nothing to do with winning a medal. Lesley Hawker reminded us once again, as she often does, that there is only one best reason for doing any sport. That if you don't love pretty much every second of it, you shouldn't even be there. Hawker dissolved into tears at the end of a special free skate Sunday afternoon that, at the end of the day, mattered nothing to the final medal standings. But it meant everything to her. She wondered aloud later why the tears came, but when you care as much as Hawker does, well, these things happen. We should all have that kind of passion somewhere in our lives.
5) I've often said events like this can offer up quite the geography lesson. Maybe never more than this year, when we saw great stories authored by young athletes with addresses such as Wawota, Sask., and Salisbury, N.B. Small towns that are an integral part of the fabric of this country we call Canada. In these burgs, we find skating clubs that make up in energy what they lack in numbers. A Kelsey McNeil, Paige Lawrence or Rudi Swiegers is celebrated like perhaps nowhere else, living proof that dreams can indeed come true, no matter where you're from. And really, isn't that, when you get right down to it, the essence of that thing we love called sport?