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Skate Canada Alumni Show Support for New Generation of Skaters

Many former Canadian Champions, who are now Skate Canada alumni, will be out in full force on Sunday, January 20th at the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver.

Following the Women’s Free Skate, which will crown the 2008 Champion, several Skate Canada alumni will be present to take part in the medal presentation ceremonies. Honorary Chairs for the event, 2003 World Ice Dance Champions and ten-time Canadian Champions Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, will present medals to the Senior Ice Dance medalists and the Junior Ice Dance Champions. Canadian Senior Ladies Champion from 1940, Norah McCarthy, now a sprightly 87 years old, will be presenting medals to the Senior Women’s medalists and the Junior Women’s Champion.

Following the medal ceremonies, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier will be inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame which is sure to be a special moment. Serving as emcees for the Parade of Champions will be Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz who will introduce the newly crowned junior champions and all the medalists from the senior events who will skate exhibition performances. They will also have the honour of introducing former teammates, Salé and Pelletier, who will be the featured guest performers.

A number of Skate Canada alumni will be involved throughout the week. Four-time World Champion Kurt Browning and Olympic medalist Tracy Wilson will be commentating for the host broadcaster CBC Sports. Vancouver’s own, World and Canadian Champion Karen Magnussen as well as World and Canadian Champion Brian Orser will be on the sidelines as coaches. In addition, Skate Canada’s Director of Marketing and Sponsorship, Debbi Wilkes and Skate Canada’s Director of High Performance, Mike Slipchuk will be in attendance. Both are former Canadian Champions, Debbi in Pairs, and Mike in Men’s.

Canadian Champion Josée Chouinard will attend the event as a coach, and will meet with fans and sign autographs. Vancouver will also have one of their own present, Dr. Hellmut May, who is a former Olympic skater and current coach. Dr. May has spent over 50 years instructing at the Kerrisdale Figure Skating Club. In addition, The BC Centre of Excellence skating director Joanne McLeod will also be attending as a coach. Linda Brauckmann, who coached Karen Magnussen will be an interested spectator during the week.

Dr. Charles Snelling will also be in the stands. He had one of the longest Canadian figure skating careers of all time, winning six Canadian Men’s Championships during the span of years from 1950-1967. Also watching will be Canadian ice dance skater Virginia Thompson who skated in the 1960s and former 1964 Olympic skater Petra Burke. In addition, former Olympian and Canadian Champion, Rob Garossino who skated in ice dance with his sister Karyn during the 1988 Calgary Olympics, will join the other alumni in showing support for the 2008 BMO Canadians skaters.

The former generation will relive memories of their own visits to Canadians, as they watch the current generation of Canadian skaters take the ice. Skate Canada is proud to have so many of their alumni in attendance for the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Canadian Champions will defend titles at 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, BC: Three reigning Canadian champions are set to defend their titles when over 150 figure skaters converge on Vancouver for the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships, which take place January 16-20 at the Pacific Coliseum.

In singles competition, the 2006 Olympic bronze medalist, Jeff Buttle (25) of Smooth Rock Falls, Ont., will be seeking his fourth consecutive Senior Men’s title, while in Senior Women’s, Joannie Rochette (21) of Île-Dupas, Qué., will also aim for a fourth straight title. Looking to repeat as Canadian Pair Champions will be 20-year old Jessica Dubé (Drummondville, Qué) and 21-year old Bryce Davison (Cambridge, Ont.) who won their first national senior title last year. New champions will be named in the Dance event, since 2007 champions Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon are not competing this year.

Results from this year’s International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, held in December, indicate many Canadian skaters will be in world class form for the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships. The three Canadian entries, who competed against the top six finishers from the fall ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, all appeared in the Final for the first time, with exemplary results. Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison finished fourth in the Pairs event. In Dance, Tessa Virtue (18), of London, Ont., and Scott Moir (20), of Ilderton, Ont also finished fourth, while Toronto, Ont.’s Patrick Chan (17) was fifth in the Men’s event.

Skate Canada CEO William Thompson outlined what is in store for spectators at this year’s event. “Not only will people see the very best skaters in Canada competing, but they will be watching many of the top skaters in the world. Our international results at both the Senior and Junior events this fall have been very promising. We have exciting, dynamic young skaters who are right on track to challenge for medals at the Olympic Winter Games in this same arena in 2010.”

"BMO is thrilled to be hosting this year's event in Vancouver. The inaugural year of the bank's sponsorship was in 1997 when our first BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships also took place in Vancouver. Since then, BMO and its employees and customers have developed a wonderful passion for this great Canadian ice sport," says Sandy Bourne, Vice-President, Advertising, Sponsorships/Events and Merchandising, BMO Financial Group. "This week, we look forward to watching the next generation of Canada's skating champions deliver world class performances."

The 2008 national championships are being held in the Pacific Coliseum, which will be the figure skating venue when Vancouver hosts the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Practices will be held in the Agrodome at the Pacific National Exhibition.

Another feature of this year’s championships is the order in which skaters will compete. In the short program, athletes will be seeded according to their placement at last year’s championships, skating in reverse order so the highest placed skater competes last. Athletes who did not record a placement in 2007, will participate in a random draw to determine their initial start order. In the Free Skate and Free Dance, competitors will skate in reverse order of their short program results, or the combined compulsory and original dance results. This change adds a heightened excitement level, as the competitors in first place after the short programs are the last to skate in the free skates.

Canada’s best senior and junior-level skaters in the men’s, women’s, pair and ice dance events are also competing for spots on the Canadian teams that will compete at the 2008 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, the 2008 ISU Four Continents Championships in Goyang City, Republic of Korea and the 2008 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

All-event and triple Axel ticket packages, as well as single-session tickets, are all available for the event. Tickets can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.ca or by calling (604) 280-4444.

Visit www.skatecanada.ca for a complete entry list and schedule of events.

Skate Canada announces partnership with Post Cereals

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada announced today that Post Shredded Wheat Cereal has become the newest member of its national sponsor family.

Under the sponsorship, which is a three-year agreement through 2010, Post Shredded Wheat will be designated the “Official Cereal Partner” of Skate Canada and its events. The agreement provides Post Cereals with sponsorship exclusivity in the cereal, cereal bars and cereal snacks sponsorship category.

“Skate Canada is pleased to announce this partnership with Post Shredded Wheat,” said Debbi Wilkes, Skate Canada Director of Marketing and Sponsorship. “We work with our athletes to develop balanced, nutritional diets and Post Shredded Wheat cereals certainly provide a high source of fiber and whole grains for our athletes.”

We look forwarding to working with Post Shredded Wheat to promote healthy, active living throughout our skating family,” added Wilkes.

“We’re proud to partner with an organization that stands for healthy active living,” said Jennifer Hutchinson, Director of Marketing for Post Cereals. “Both the Skate Canada audience and our Post Shredded Wheat Cereal consumer are looking for better-for-you food options that fit into their active lifestyles.”

Post Cereals joins the Skate Canada corporate sponsor family, which includes title sponsors BMO Financial Group and HomeSense, principal partner CBC Television, national sponsors Artistry, Canadian Heritage, Sony of Canada Ltd. and supplier Adup.

Olympic Champions Sale & Pelletier to skate in Parade of Champions
This year’s 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships will have an extra-special moment, as the 2002 Olympic Pair Champions, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier will take part in the Parade of Champions. More...

Victor Kraatz to Host the
2007 BMO Community Skate in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, November 9, 2007 -- BMO Financial Group and Skate Canada invite friends, family, skating enthusiasts, media representatives and the general public to lace up their skates and participate in the 2007 BMO Community Skate on November 17th, at the Pacific Coliseum at the PNE. Participants will have the opportunity to skate with several current Canadian Skating Champions who will be competing at the upcoming 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships, January 16 to 20, at the PNE.

The BMO Community Skate features two public skating sessions at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., as well as a skating show, showcasing Canadian national team and junior national team athletes, which gets underway at 2:45 p.m. Athletes performing in the show include Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison (2007 Canadian Champions), Emanuel Sandhu (three-time Canadian Champion), Liz Putnam (third at 2006 Four Continents), Rika Inoda (Novice Champion), Jeremy Ten (Junior Champion), Allie Hann-McCurdy and Michael Coreno (2006 Junior Champions), Cecylia Witkowski (Junior Bronze Medalist) and Liam Firus (Pre-Novice Champion). Ten-time Canadian Ice Dance Champion and 2003 World Ice Dance Champion Victor Kraatz and Honorary Chair of the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships will act as master of ceremonies for the skating show, and will be on the ice for both skating sessions.

“Last year, over 600 skaters participated in the 2006 BMO Community Skate in Halifax,” said Richard Rudderham, Senior Vice-President, BC and Yukon Division, BMO Bank of Montreal. “I’m convinced that skating enthusiasts in Metro Vancouver will join in even larger numbers in this year’s event and seize this unique opportunity to get up close and personal with champion skaters”.

Tickets to the BMO Community Skate are $5 and are available to the public. They can be purchased in advance at the Skate Canada BC office by calling 604 205-6960. Tickets are also available at the PNE on the day of the BMO Community Skate. Proceeds will be donated to the Skate Canada Athlete Fund.

The 2007 BMO Community Skate was established to promote the upcoming BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championship and the launch of the single event ticket sales.

BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championship tickets can be purchased on line at www.ticketmaster.ca or by telephone at 604 280-4444.

In addition to the BMO Community Skate, members of the Skate Canada national team will be signing autographs at the following BMO Bank of Montreal Branch in Burnaby:

Internet: www.skatecanada.ca

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