After three flights over a stressful 33 hours with numerous delays, Keegan Messing finally arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday for Canada’s Olympic figure skating trials.
He was almost a day late. His skates were yet to arrive, in his luggage somewhere at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
“But we’re staying mentally strong,” Messing said Wednesday, less than two hours after landing in Ottawa — too late to complete the day’s training at TD Place.
Brass, a dual citizen living in Girdwood, Ak. lives, traveled from Anchorage to Seattle to Toronto to Ottawa with his wife Lane Hodson and their six-month-old son Wyatt.
“We had about three or four canceled flights (Tuesday) that were constantly being rebooked and diverted. My wife and I actually split at some point,” said Messing, who believes a combination of weather and the myriad flights canceled due to the recent onslaught of COVID-19 factored into his marathon journey.
Messing is one of Canada’s top figure skaters who will begin his quest for a spot on the Beijing Olympic team on Friday.
The national championships will be held in front of no fans and the media will cover the event virtually as Ontario has had a high number of COVID-19 cases.
While the skaters bemoan the lack of fans, at least they’ve figured out curve balls. The World Championships in Montreal in March 2020 was one of the first international sporting events to be canceled due to the coronavirus and it has been similar ever since.
“Yeah, definitely unforeseen here,” pair skater Kirsten Moore-Towers said of the recent COVID-19 threat. “We are super disappointed that the crowd was removed by the nationals. But of course we understand…we’re grateful for the chance to perform at all.
“COVID has made us all so adaptable, that would have absolutely crushed us a few years ago,” she added. “We’ve really learned to roll with the punches and appreciate what we’ve got. And while there’s a bittersweet element, I think we’re just taking these things as they come and we’re still really looking forward to the weekend.”
Adding to the stress of fighting for a spot at the Olympics is the specter of COVID-19. A positive test at national teams could prevent an athlete from competing in China due to the schedule of pre-travel testing protocols.
Couple skaters Vanessa James and Eric Radford, who contracted COVID over the Christmas break, decided Thursday they would compete in Ottawa despite only having four days of practice following isolation.
“So after 4 days of training we’re just going to get started. We’re going to Ottawa for the Canadian Championships and we’re going to do our best!” Radford tweeted. “Both Vanessa and I had negative antigen tests this morning and feel happy and healthy.”
Radford spoke earlier this week about how stressful the Olympic home straight is at the best of times.
“But now this invisible minefield lies ahead of you for the next few weeks as you try to avoid COVID-19 and not get positive while training for one of the biggest moments of your life. I think there are already stories about COVID-19 shattering Olympic dreams.”
At this week’s US Championships in Nashville, defending champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier have already withdrawn after testing positive for the virus, amid reports of a maskless crowd at the official athletes’ hotel.
French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, runners-up to Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir at the 2018 Olympics, will not take part in the European Championships in Estonia next week to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Canada’s world ice dance bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier said they are trying to put thoughts of the virus on the back burner this week.
“We know how big the business is and our Olympic dream could be taken away in a matter of days if something like this happens,” Gilles said. “But we can’t really see it because if you do that we’re going to absolutely drive ourselves crazy and it’s not good mentally.”
Canada has three places in ice dancing in Beijing, two each in pairs and men’s singles and one in women’s singles.
It could be a close battle for the two men’s places between Messing, who finished tenth at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, Nam Nguyen and Roman Sadovsky.
Much of Messing’s preparation ahead of Ottawa revolved around minimizing contacts to avoid the virus. He does his off-ice weight training at home and his cardio at a backyard ice rink he built.
“(COVID-19) has definitely got us high, but you have to try to stay positive all the time,” he said. “It’s the only thing you can really do, just hope that the actions and at home and here help keep everyone safe.”
Gilles and Poirier and Moore-Towers and her partner Michael Marinaro all said they have severely restricted people they have been in contact with in recent weeks, only going between the ice rink, the grocery store and their homes. They all drove from Toronto to Ottawa instead of risking crowded flights.
“We both had a very, very quiet Christmas,” Gilles said.
Messing’s wife and son are not allowed on the rink during the competition, but Messing said their presence in Ottawa this week is reassuring.
“We bought the tickets a while back when it was a lot safer,” said Messing, who turns 30 on Jan. 23. “We talked a lot about it. Ultimately, it all came down to my wife dying to come and support me. My little buddy is getting his first trip to Canada. He did great and she was a super mom as always. She hit it out of the park. It was super cool and (Wyatt) handled such a bumpy journey so well.”
The short programs in all four figure skating disciplines take place on Friday, while the free program takes place on Saturday. The Olympic team will be announced on Sunday.
—Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
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CoronavirusFigure Skating Olympiad
