Gilles & Poirier skate to emotional ice dance silver at World Figure Skating Championships
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier brought the drama to the free dance on Saturday as they won silver at the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal.
Performing to the soaring orchestral soundtrack of Wuthering Heights, they were the last competitors in the event. The home crowd was hyped for what they were about to watch, a mesmerizing program about the co-existence of love and hate.
Four fast minutes later, after striking their final pose in which the look between them encapsulates the tension between those two emotions, they soaked up the adoration that surrounded them.
“We’re really proud of ourselves today,” said Gilles. “Skating last can be really difficult but I think we really embraced the moment, we let the crowd give us energy. To create a moment like that and a program like that at home was something so special.”
“I think there was definitely mixed feelings, definitely tiredness was one of them,” Poirier explained of his facial reaction as they hugged at centre ice. “I think it was a mixed bag of relief that it was done, relief that it had gone well, joy that it had gone well, and joy that we were able to just share a really special moment with that crowd.”
But of course, figure skating is a sport and there were scores to be revealed.
When they were posted, the three-time Canadian champions had earned a personal best 133.17 in the free dance, ranking them first in that portion of the event. It was largely due to them having the highest technical score of the day. That gave them an overall total of 219.68 – also a personal best — moving them up to take the silver medal. They had been in third place following Friday’s rhythm dance.
Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their second straight world title with 222.20 points. Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri dropped down to third place, finishing with a score of 216.52.
After winning two world championship bronze medals in 2021 and 2023, Gilles and Poirier hadn’t quite digested that they had moved up a step on the podium.
“It still feels like we haven’t done it, I don’t know why. Just sitting here, I’m like, oh we have to compete again later today,” Gilles said in the post-event press conference.
The love they felt from the fans in Montreal almost created a full circle moment for them. Eleven years ago, they made their world championship debut as a team on home ice in London, Ontario. Back then, they were so new they had to skate first in what was then called the short dance, yet they were welcomed with waving flags and their names being cheered.
“Now we’re closer to the top of the podium and it just feels so nice to be able to be there and celebrate all that Canada has done for us,” said Gilles.
They weren’t the only Canadian ice dance team to be super pleased with their performance at the home worlds. Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha posted personal best scores in both phases of the competition to finish fifth – marking their ascent into the top flight of ice dancers. It was a big bump up from their 11th place finish the last time they were at the worlds in 2022.
Combined with Gilles and Poirier’s placement, Canada holds onto its three ice dance spots for next year’s world championships in Boston.
But with the season now done, the question had to be asked of the new world silver medallists: what are your plans for the future?
“Being an athlete, you put your whole life and soul and you kind of put your persona life on the backburner. Not always, I mean we have a very good balance between that, but I think when we feel like we don’t want to come into the rink every single day I think is when you won’t see us anymore.”