(May 2, 2007)

Annie Barabé	Sophie Richard

Skate Canada congratulates national coaches Annie Barabé and Sophie Richard for receiving a $10,000 General Motors of Canada grant as part of GM’s Making Dreams Possible program. Barabé and Richard coach the 2007 Canadian pair champions Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison and will share the grant and use it towards next season’s needs.

“We are very excited to receive this grant and have many projects in mind regarding how we will spend this money on Jessica and Bryce’s training next season,” says Richard. “First, we are sending Jessica and Bryce to Edmonton in a few weeks for a week of extra coaching lessons with Olympic champions Jamie Salé and David Pelletier. We will then have David come to our club in Contrecoeur, Qué., for another week of lessons in July.”

Barabé and Richard also plan to rent ice space for Jessica and Bryce prior to competitions so they can train comfortably alone without having to share the ice with other skaters.

“This money will be very handy for us at this time as we started our own skating school recently. We already have a list of things we want to buy such as a camera and a television to help us work our technical elements, and other equipment for the school to help our pair champions Jessica and Bryce and our other skaters warm up and improve their training conditions,” says Barabé.

GM will award 10 grants of $10,000 each to coaches of high performance athletes every year through 2010. The 10 grants will be distributed as follows: five Winter Olympic coaches, one Winter Paralympic coach, three Summer Olympic coaches and one Summer Paralympic coach. These grants can be used by coaches to travel with their athletes, attend special training camps, and learn innovative coaching techniques.

Coach Manon Perron who coaches Canadian champion Joannie Rochette was the first recipient of a $10,000 GM grant last October. Perron used part of the grant to travel to the two ISU Senior Grand Prix events Rochette competed in this season in order to support her skater. She plans to use the remainder of the GM grant to give Joannie extra coaching lessons and get external instructors, such as a flamenco teacher, to teach and help her improve new skills.

The Ice Palace Figure Skating Club, in Edmonton, Alberta, was also selected as one of the 55 community sport clubs to receive a $2,000 grant for coaching skill development. This represents a portion of GM’s overall $1.2 million pledge to support Canadian athletes and their coaches through GM’s Making Dreams Possible initiative.

Congratulations to Annie, Sophie and the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club!