TORONTO — Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were emotionally spent at the end of a Beijing Olympic season spent trying to dodge COVID\u002D19.
“The stress of the Games really ate into our enjoyment, especially during the second half of last season,” Poirier said.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc.
“We both felt excited about the possibility of skating and competing again, but neither of us knew definitely how we wanted to approach the season,” Poirier said. “What we ended up doing was simply showing up at the rink and skating because we didn’t have a game plan.Article content They spent their respective off-seasons visiting family and travelling, things they’d missed doing during the pandemic.
Gilles, from Toronto, and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., will skate their short program to “Do What I Do” and “Rhythm Only” by Lady Bri. Their free dance is to music from “Evita.”Every skater and dance and pairs team is assigned two Grand Prix events, and the top six scorers in each of the four disciplines advance to the Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy in December.