The Canadian figure skating championships arrive under a cloud

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Canadian figure skating hasn't been the same since the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. That's where a golden generation of performers featuring ice-dance darlings Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and three-time men's world champion Patrick Chan helped Canada capture a world-leading four medals, highlighted by a gold in the team event and Virtue and Moir's second Olympic title in their final major appearance.

Since the end of that season, Canadian figure skaters have won just three medals at the world championships (all bronze) and they were shut out at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. It's been especially bleak in the singles events, where no Canadian has reached a major podium since Kaetlyn Osmond won the women's gold at the depleted post-Olympic world championships in 2018. The dearth of medals at the worlds looks even worse when you consider that skating superpower Russia has been banned since 2022.

This season was supposed to bring at least a ray of optimism with Canadians set to enjoy home-ice advantage at the world championships in Montreal this March. But hopes were deflated by a somewhat disappointing showing at last month's prestigious Grand Prix Final, where Canada managed only a couple of bronze medals — by defending ice dance champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and the pairs tandem of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps.

Things took a much darker turn last week when USA Today reported that reigning Canadian ice dance champion Nikolaj Soerensen was under investigation by safe-sport authorities after an American coach and former skater accused him of a