CBC's "Battle of the Blades" Returns for a fifth Season. | Page 2 | Golden Skate

CBC's "Battle of the Blades" Returns for a fifth Season.

believed

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Full list of competitors:

“First-time competitors include three-time World Ice Dance medallists, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, and two-time World Pairs champion, and two-time Olympic Games medallist, Eric Radford. Season 2 winner and two-time Olympic Games gold medallist in pairs skating, Ekaterina Gordeeva, and Season 4 winner and Olympian in pairs skating, Amanda Evora, will return to the ice. They join previously announced figure skaters Vanessa James and Violetta Afanasieva.”

https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/pres...of-figure-skating-competitors-for-battle-of-t
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
So, there will be women hockey players matched up with Poje and Radford? Have they been announced yet?
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
So, there will be women hockey players matched up with Poje and Radford? Have they been announced yet?
Natalie Spooner (a Team Canada member for the last two Olympics) was announced as part of the initial lineup of skaters, so she's one of the two.

The only other hockey player so far announced is former Red Wing Sheldon Kennedy.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ I wonder who has the advantage, a man figure skater with a woman hockey player or the other way around?
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
So, there will be women hockey players matched up with Poje and Radford? Have they been announced yet?

So, Kaitlyn and Andrew compete AGAINST each other, is that right?

Well, that sure would be interesting. What a shame this is not available outside Canada...
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
The only other hockey player so far announced is former Red Wing Sheldon Kennedy.

:rock: I assume Kennedy will be competing for charities related to his advocacy work for child abuse victims in sports.

Wikipedia says:

In 1998, Kennedy roller bladed across Canada to raise awareness and funds for sexual abuse victims. Currently, Kennedy is the Co-Founder of Respect Group, which has trained over 1 million Canadians to recognize and prevent bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination in sport organizations, schools and the workplace.
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
^ I wonder who has the advantage, a man figure skater with a woman hockey player or the other way around?

I believe there's only been on female hockey player contestant so far (Tessa Bonhomme, who was paired with David Pelletier). They were somewhat handicapped by not having the usual size difference between the partners. But they won, so what do I know.

Both Andrew and Eric are both unusually tall for male figure skaters (even in pairs/dance), so size should be less of an issue for them.

Note that the show employs a lot of male figure skaters as instructors/coaches.
 

withwings

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
^ I wonder who has the advantage, a man figure skater with a woman hockey player or the other way around?

….O-Oh!:scratch2::noshake::laugh: made mistake...it is what happens when one is at work and, at the same time, looking in the fs forum :-( shame

BOTH! was meant to be response on this...
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
^ I wonder who has the advantage, a man figure skater with a woman hockey player or the other way around?

How about the other question: who had the advantage, ice dancers or pairs skaters?

To answer that you need to know: do you want to get a medal or do you want to win?

If you want to win, better to be (or be partnered with) a pair skater, since all 4 winners have been pair skaters.

If you want to get a medal, better to be (or be partnered with) an ice dancer. Of 32 total entries over 4 seasons, 10 have included ice dancers. They have won 6 medals altogether! (Marie-France 3/3, Shae-Lynn 2/3, Tanith 1/1 and three others all 0/1).

The 22 entries that included a pairs skater won the other 6 medals (but 4 of them gold), with 6 different skaters winning one medal each.

And if you just don't want to go home first? The going-home-first is pretty much proportional to the number of entries.

Of course, things are different with neither Shae-Lynn nor Marie-France participating, but I'm betting there will be one or two ice dancers on the podium, but a pair skater will win.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Oooh, I've heard about this show and was sad I never got to see it! Hopefully non-Canadians can get access somehow.

As for whether teams with male or female hockey players have advantages, if there are any throw jumps, I'd imagine that the teams with male hockey players will have big, big advantages due to the female skater on the team already knowing how to land jumps.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I believe there's only been one female hockey player contestant so far (Tessa Bonhomme, who was paired with David Pelletier). They were somewhat handicapped by not having the usual size difference between the partners. But they won, so what do I know.

Good point. Male pairs skaters are used to lifting and tossing around ladies half their weight.

Both Andrew and Eric are both unusually tall for male figure skaters (even in pairs/dance), so size should be less of an issue for them.

I looked it up. ;) Tessa Bonhomme is 5'7. Natalie Spooner is 5'10".

(By the way, Tessa Bonhomme appeared in the movie Goon: The last of the enforcers. :rock: )
 
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silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
The female hockey players have a better chance of being comfortable in figure skates and with the performance/artistic part of the sport. Not a guarantee, but a lot of girls start in figure skates even if they eventually end up in hockey and women are more likely to have taken some form of dance as a kid.
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
The female hockey players have a better chance of being comfortable in the figure skate and being comfortable with the performance/artistic part of the sport. Not a guarantee, but a lot of girls start in figure skates even if they eventually end up in hockey and women are more likely to have taken some form of dance as a kid.

I’ve not seen the show, so just guessing here, but the male figure skaters would probably also be great at partnering, and showing off the female to her best advantage—which I think would play well on TV!
 

silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
I’ve not seen the show, so just guessing here, but the male figure skaters would probably also be great at partnering, and showing off the female to her best advantage—which I think would play well on TV!

There is that as well. Since to date we've only had the one female hockey player, the data sample is super small, but Tessa did seem to have an easier time picking things up than her male counterparts and was defiantly better at the presentation side. She also had the advantage of being younger and still an active player when she was on. Most of the male hockey players had been retired for awhile.
 

kkermit

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2018
I believe there's only been on female hockey player contestant so far (Tessa Bonhomme, who was paired with David Pelletier). They were somewhat handicapped by not having the usual size difference between the partners. But they won, so what do I know.

I was just thinking with Katia coming back, I wonder if David Pelletier will be making an appearance as a coach? Seeing as they are a couple and he works with hockey players on the regular. :think:
 

SarahSynchro

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Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
I hope WeakAnkles sees this thread. As a self professed fake Canadian, he can definitely help all you non-Canadians out with finding a good VPN and using it to watch live broadcasts from the CBC’s website.

Meanwhile, I’ll be throwing virtual tomatoes in his direction for the entire 2019-2020 skating season. HE KNOWS WHY.

:ddevil: :ddevil: :ddevil:

:rofl:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
The female hockey players have a better chance of being comfortable in the figure skate and being comfortable with the performance/artistic part of the sport. Not a guarantee, but a lot of girls start in figure skates even if they eventually end up in hockey and women are more likely to have taken some form of dance as a kid.

I don't know what Natalie Spooner's background is, but she does have a big interest in figure skating. She has a You Tube channel with some of her favorites on it (Yuna Kim for one).
 
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WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
I hope WeakAnkles sees this thread. As a self professed fake Canadian, he can definitely help all you non-Canadians out with finding a good VPN and using it to watch live broadcasts from the CBC’s website.

Meanwhile, I’ll be throwing virtual tomatoes in his direction for the entire 2019-2020 skating season. HE KNOWS WHY.

:ddevil: :ddevil: :ddevil:

:rofl:

VPN? What is a VPN? Canadians love me and make me an honorary Canadian so certain skating events simply appear on my computer! It's Canadian magic at its best!!! And during these certain skating events they know I STAND UP AND CHEER FOR ALL CANADIAN COMPETITORS! Even the ones I criticize during the PBPs! They know it comes from a place of MAPLE LEAF LOVE!!!!!!

Why I'm even going to make tomato soup with all those thrown tomatoes and share it with my CANADIAN COMPADRES!!! But only during certain skating events.

:hap57:
 
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