Jessica Dube/Bryce Davison

[rocs_a]

multumesc Ade!!!

[florik2000]

Jessica Dubé, 20, and Bryce Davison, 22, just missed winning their second consecutive Canadian pairs championship this season by a mere .15 point. But they came back strong after a disastrous fifth place in the short to qualify for Worlds and keep their season goals in sight.

"At the beginning of the season, we wanted to medal at our first two Grand Prixs," said Davison, "so we were pretty happy to win Skate America and place second at Skate Canada to qualify for the Grand Prix Final.

The team wanted to retain their national title of course, but their biggest goal was to get into the top four at Worlds.

"There's no big advantage for anyone in Sweden," noted Davison. "It's a neutral site."

The couple finished seventh at Worlds in both 2006 and 2007, and tenth at the Winter Olympic Games in 2006. They won the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in 2004 and placed second at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships that same season. The skaters also won the Canadian junior title in 2005; a year after Dubé won the same title with former partner Samuel Tetrault. Davison, originally from Walnut Creek, California, started skating with Dubé in mid-2004.

Dubé and Davison were leading at the Four Continents Championships last season when they collided on side-by-side camel spins in the long program, opening a bloody cut across Dubé's nose and cheek that required 80 stitches. Although they missed the rest of the competition, they were back on the ice within a few weeks.

"The accident last year was just a fluke," Davison said. "We want to be aggressive, so we'll keep spinning close together. The accident just made us try to be sharper and more focused when we're spinning." "I don't even have much of a scar," Dubé added. "I can cover it easily with makeup, but I may have laser surgery after Worlds to remove the scar tissue." The skaters did, however, work with a sports psychologist and a therapist related to post traumatic stress.

Annie Barabe and Sophie Richard train the skaters with assistance from Yvars Desjardins. They usually train for three hours a day, five days a week, with another hour a day for singles practice.

"Our training is focused on the Code of Points and what we need to do to get the most points," Davison shared. "We'll probably still be adapting it for ten years, but that's the way sports evolve. I think it makes it more intelligible from a technical point of view, but it takes away from the theatrical side. It makes it challenging to match the technical and the theatrical." "If we don't have fun skating, our technical side gets worse," Dubé added.

The pair is using a throw triple loop and side-by-side triple Salchows as key elements in their short program. In the free skate, they are using a throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop, plus side-by-side triple Salchows and a double Axel-double Axel sequence.

"We may replace the throw triple Salchow with a throw triple Lutz by the end of the year," Davison noted, "but we still have to work to make it consistent. We were doing the Lutz in juniors, but it went away because it wasn't necessary to have it. Jessica, being the kind of skater she is, landed the first three we tried when we started doing it again."

"We worked mainly on our skating skills during the summer," Davison continued. "We wanted to make the lifts and throws more consistent. We added a lasso lift as our change of position lift and we hadn't done that since juniors. Then on our last star lift, we put in a new dance lift entry before it and added footwork to conform to the rules."

For the short program, the couple is using Galicia Flamenco by Gino D'Auri. Their long program is an instrumental version of The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice. David Wilson choreographed the short and Lori Nichol did the long. Their exhibition program is to the original version of The Blower's Daughter with vocals.

"The long came from a show program that we did a few years ago after Calgary Worlds," Davison explained. "We choreographed the program ourselves in about two hours and it means a lot to us." "Every time people saw it, they said that it made them cry," Dubé said. "It was such a perfect program for us. We still do it in our original version for galas."

"They're the same programs as last year," Dubé noted. "We only did them two and a half times. Next year, we'll have two new programs. Our skating fits lots of kinds of music, but we have a kind of romantic chemistry between us on the ice. We'll be looking for something that goes towards our strengths."

Both of the skaters also continued to compete in singles competition this year. Dubé finished sixth in senior ladies, but Davison, who was 15th in 2007, did not qualify for Nationals this year. "I won't be continuing much longer," said Davison. "It takes a toll on your body. I have all the triples, but my flip is pretty ugly. And I don't have a triple Axel. I'd rather spend more time in pairs."

"I was waiting to see how well I did this year," noted Dubé, who made the international team with her sixth place showing. "Last season, I had surgery on my knees in September to repair torn cartilage on the outside of both knees. I didn't fall either time I hurt my knees. I was just skating. It can happen to you when you're just walking down the street. Normally, I can do all the triples, but I could only do two jumps well last season."

Dubé includes a triple Lutz-double toe, a double Axel-double toe, and a triple flip-double toe in her programs, but no triple-triple combinations. "The triple toe is my worst jump," she confessed.

In senior men, Davison used Dinnerman from the Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack for his short and Titan Spirit from Remember the Titans soundtrack for his long. "The long was my novice program," he explained. "I won't continue in singles after this season, so I wanted to go back to something I already knew and was comfortable with. That was my favorite long ever, so I wanted to use it for my last. I chose the short because I really liked the movie and never saw anyone skate to it." Annick Schmidt choreographed the short while Sebastien Britten did the long.

Competing in senior ladies, Dubé is skating to music from the Patch Adams soundtrack for the short and Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Michel Legrand for the long. "I watched the movie and when the song played, I really liked it," Dubé said of the short. "Bryce said it would be good for me. The long program is from the same music that Scott (Moir) and Tessa (Virtue) use for their free dance this year. Someone cut it for me to use all the parts you never hear. It's a little more dramatic than what I usually skate to. Josee Chouinard did the short program for me and David Wilson did the long."

Although they definitely plan to compete at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, the future past that time is undecided. "We'll see what happens in Vancouver," Davison said. "We'll only be 26 and 28 by the 2014 Olympics, but we'll see how the sport changes and make a decision after the Games. We really hope we'll be able to go professional at some point."

"After that," Davison said, "I'd like to be a skating coach and be in some kind of business." "I love biology and sciences, especially medical science," Dubé stated. "But I also like fashion and photography. I like to do candid shots of people."

Both of the skaters enjoy cooking as a diversion. Davison also enjoys playing video games and watching movies, while Dubé enjoys hanging out with friends and going to movies. They both listen to pop and rock music, but Davison also listens to a lot of alternative music.

The couple has an unusual sponsor, Cascades Paper. "They're from near my hometown (Drummondville, Quebec)," Dubé said. "They like to support young athletes and they've helped a lot of other athletes from our region."

[baicea]

sunt o pereche frumoasa..imi plac cei 2..sper sa le iasa la olimpiada..ar merita

[Iulya]

Dube, Davison's letdown in Tokyo lights fire
Sharpening their mental game now a priority

http://web.icenetwork.com/images/200...2/qNvMuTxv.jpg

(12/02/2008) - Rethink. Regroup. Refocus.

Instead of competing at the upcoming Grand Prix Final as they had expected, Canadian pairs duo Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison will be concentrating on those three Rs as they turn their attention to regaining their national title next month.

Following two sub-par performances at the NHK Trophy last week which cost them a spot in the Final, the 2008 world bronze medalists will go back to the drawing board to ensure the rest of the season unfolds according to plan.

"Hopefully, we can take it as a learning experience. Rather than have it be a negative thing, turn it into a positive and use it for our future," Davison told icenetwork.com by cell-phone from Japan.

"We have to stay confident [through the program], adjust our training habits, accept errors and not let them get to us," added Davison.

Dubé and Davison won a silver and bronze medal in their Grand Prix assignments, but the quality of their performances was not up to their own high standards, particularly in Tokyo where they were plagued by serious errors in both the short and long programs.

On the up side, the triple twist lift that they introduced to their repertoire this season is improving nicely and should serve them well on the technical points side of the ledger in their bid for another world and, eventually, 2010 Olympic medal.

"Our main goal at NHK was to win and, if not win, at least make the Grand Prix Final and we didn't manage to accomplish either, so it was a little bit of a letdown," Davison said.

"As long as we take something and learn as much as we can from the competition, it will be worthwhile," he added, noting they lacked the smoothness they usually feel when competing their programs.

Shortly after completing the event, the couple had already talked with their coach about "running through their programs over and over again, so they are really comfortable."

Dubé noted that, in the past, whenever had problems in the short they had always been able to come back with a strong free skate. That didn't happen this time.

"When I think about it, I'm really sad, obviously, but I'm going to try to put it behind and learn from it and, hopefully, it will help us in the future," she said.

Dubé was impressed with the triple twist they executed off the top of the program and thought the rest was going to be great, but they seemed to lose focus on the side-by-side double Axel jump series which followed.

Davison said that focusing more on the mental aspect of their training will be important now. Realizing that even world champions have their off-days in competition, is a key lesson to learn.

"We'd really rather have that happen here at NHK than at Olympics in 2010," he chuckled.

Despite their schedule opening up now that the Grand Prix Final is off the agenda, Davison said they would not even consider allowing themselves additional holiday time in December.

"If anything, we're going to have work harder. Our expectations for worlds are still the same, for nationals it's the same. If anything, we're just going to want to do even better now. It'll light a fire underneath our derrieres and, hopefully, we'll just run with it," said Davison, who lost the 2008 Canadian crown to Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay.

Asked for his impression of their global competitors this season, Davison said, "I know that both Chinese teams are looking really good this year. The Ukrainians are looking incredible and the Germans, as always. Everyone's looking really impressive, gearing up for next [Olympic] year.

"You can see the extra emphasis is being put in on training long programs and repetition and getting things done. This year and next year are going to be very exciting in pairs," Davison concluded.

That excitement will be evident next month at the Canadian Championships, where Langlois and Hay will attempt to defend their title despite being sidelined throughout the fall as she recovered from an ankle fracture.

Also jockeying for podium position will be Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin, who formed their partnership just a year-and-a-half ago. The couple gathered steam throughout the Grand Prix season, opening with a fourth-place at Skate America and finishing with a bronze medal at Trophée Eric Bompard. In Paris, they actually delivered the second-best free skate despite having to interrupt their performance after her skate blade slashed open his hand.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news

[Iulya]

Figure skater Dube avoids another serious injury after major fall
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...ajor-fall.aspx

[Tracoromana]

Of Doamne, cat este de gihinionista Jessica.

[whisper]

Ai dreptate Flavia!
Saracuta de ea..ma bucur ca nu s-a accidentat grav.

[ricochet4]

Ar trebui sa poarte o casca, ca Totmianina. Chiar, cum ar fi sa fie casca obligatorie, ca la motociclism ?

[Cristinush]

Mi se pare cam bizara treaba. ori e ea prea ghinionista, ori..partenerul ei nu e good enough

[ricochet4]

Depinde la ce te referi prin "nu e good enough"

[Cristinush]

good enough sa o prinda si sa fie atent la miscarile ei ca sa nu se faca praf Jessica?!

[ricochet4]

Poate are alte talente Oricum, am citit ca a scapat-o pentru ca Jessica l-a lovit involuntar cu cotul. Adica la hochei s-ar numi "elbowing". Adica "a cotit-o"

[Cristinush]

Poate are alte talente Oricum, am citit ca a scapat-o pentru ca Jessica l-a lovit involuntar cu cotul. Adica la hochei s-ar numi "elbowing". Adica "a cotit-o"

Aha, am inteles

[Iulya]

Davison puts boots to scare: Early intervention avoids blood infection
http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/603058

[irinaidu]

saracii, tot numai probleme

[whisper]

OFF! Not again!
sper ca Bryce sa isi revina cat mai repede si sa aibe un sezon bun.

[Iulya]

TEB:
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...QE3ge/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...k44zA/610x.jpg

[andreeas]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskati...-davidson.html

[mikeyy]

Jessica si Bryce au decis sa se desparta: http://icemusings.blogspot.com/2011/...son-split.html

[andreeas]

Off! Ce se intampla oare cu perechile din SUA si Canada? De Jessica si Bryce imi pare cel mai tare rau!

[emiii03]

ohhh sunt socata
dupa toate problemele peste care au trecut....foarte trist