Figure skatingGrand Prix Season Preview: Canadian women rebuilding

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Canada's Cynthia Phaneuf has revamped her routine in an effort to rebound from a disappointing showing at the world championships. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images)

For figure skating fans, the time between the end of worlds and the start of the next season's ISU Grand Prix series can seem like a long time with no action. (In case you forgot, Miki Ando won the 2011 women's world championship after the event was moved from her native Japan to Moscow in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.)

But the truth is, the work never stops for the skaters.

Canada's top women are in what some would call a "rebuilding" phase. Selections for the upcoming Grand Prix series are based in part on individual skaters' results and rankings, which means that Canada will only be allowed to field entries in three of the six events. Compare that to Japan, the United States and Russia, which are allowed entries in all six events. There's no doubt that heading into this season the Canadian women are at the base of a steep hill to climb, but that doesn't mean they won't be able to do it.

Cynthia Phaneuf, the two-time and reigning Canadian champion, finished in 13th place at worlds after a dazzling fifth-place finish in 2010. She was not happy with her 2011 result.

"I was depressed after worlds and I wasn't sure what I should do," Phaneuf told me this summer.

This is an intelligent young woman who knew that Canada had qualified two entries in the women's field for the worlds in 2011 as a result of her fifth-place finish the year before. But Phaneuf's performance in Moscow, along with teammate Amelie Lacoste's 16th-place finish, means that Canada can send only one woman to the 2012 world championships.

Back to the drawing board

Phaneuf and longtime coach Annie Barabe went back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to duplicate her success from two seasons ago.

"I want to have more consistency in this coming year," Phaneuf said. "I will have better results by being a better skater."

One of her strategies was to include triple loop jumps in her show programs in the off-season, forcing her to perform the jump time and again under pressure.

"I didn't miss it very often," said Phaneuf, who is including the jump for the first time in her short program.

In a sport where the highest possible score is the key to success, it may seem counterintuitive to some for a skater to focus her attention somewhere else. But Phaneuf doesn't see it that way.

"I'm not going to pay attention to the numbers. I'm going to focus on my performance," she said.

Phaneuf may be on to something. As in everything else in life, if one's attention is focused solely on one area, there is the potential for other things to go by the wayside. For me, performance is the thing. The numbers will determine champions, but they don't always produce "I remember when..." moments.

Tall order

Back to scaling that mountain: what will be required from the Canadian women to make it to the top?

David Wilson, one of the sport's choreography wizards and the man responsible for creating the Olympic gold medal-winning programs of Korea's Yu-Na Kim, has an idea.

"[Figure skating] has become so athletic with the jumps that I think it really requires someone to be as well-rounded as possible," he says. "They need to have a range of movement, flexibility, jumps and spins and have the kind of presentation that connects to the audience."

This can be a tall order to say the least.

"The boys seem to have the 'rock star' thing' and lots of moxy, while more often than not the ladies play it safe," Wilson says. "I wish there were more girls who would try to have a bit more fire.

"All of the great champions had it, and I would like to see it. Otherwise the ladies in an event can have a sameness about them."

This is the first in a series of season previews by CBC Sports figure skating analyst Pj Kwong, who will also look ahead to the men's, pairs and ice dance disciplines over the coming weeks. You can email Pj here and follow her on Twitter @skatingpj.

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