Piper Gilles returns to Canadian figure skating championships after cancer scare

The 2024 Canadian figure skating championships will feel like a return to normal for ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

The two-time world championship bronze medallists didn't compete in last year's nationals because Gilles underwent surgery for ovarian cancer.

"Missing it last year was, I think, pretty difficult for us," Gilles said Thursday.

The 2022 Canadian championships was held without spectators in Ottawa and the 2021 event in Vancouver was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So Calgary's competition Jan. 8-14 at WinSport Arena feels like a homecoming of sorts for Gilles and Poirier.

"This will be our first, what I'll call, normal nationals in four years with missing last year, and then Olympic qualifiers kind of being closed and the year prior to them being cancelled," Poirier said.

"It really is such a special event every year. You spend the majority of your career coming up the ranks with nationals being the pinnacle of what you do every year. Even now that you know we'll have more left to the season afterwards, it still holds that magic somehow."

Gilles took medical leave midway through the 2022-23 season for what she said then was an appendectomy. She and Poirier withdrew from both the Four Continents and the Canadian championships.

Gilles revealed in May after the duo's bronze medal at the world championships that her left ovary had been removed along with her appendix.

"I'm feeling so much better than last year," the 31-year-old said. "It's been a journey to finally feel like I'm back where I'm supposed to be.

Toronto's Gilles and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., started this season strong by winning October's Skate Canada in Vancouver and November's Cup of China in Chongqing before a bronze