By Matteo Morelli
Of their second 12 months as senior opponents, Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier are a younger French staff that’s already displaying a singular fashion on the ice. We met with them on the European Championships in Espoo, Finland, the place they shared how they really feel in regards to the present season and mirror on their transition from the junior to the senior subject.
Loïcia and Théo, this was your second European championships. How do you are feeling after skating your programmes and securing a seventh place end on the occasion?
Théo Le Mercier (TL): we really feel fairly good, we did our new season greatest within the rhythm dance and we’re completely happy. We didn’t do the perfect efficiency however we’re nonetheless completely happy. A seventh at Euros is a very good consequence for us.
Loïcia Demougeot (LD): We attempt to strategy the occasion with out an excessive amount of stress, displaying what we did in observe.
You might be each fairly younger: what age had been you if you began to skate?
TL: I used to be three after I put my skates on, I used to be with my father and my brother.
LD: And I began at 5 and a half years previous. Theo and I began skating collectively after I was fourteen and Theo was fifteen, so it has been just a few years now.
2015 was the 12 months you began skating collectively, along with your coaching location in Villard de Lans, France. Have you ever all the time been ice dancers?
TL: I did lots of sports activities, however on ice I’ve all the time carried out ice dance.
LD: I additionally solely did ice dance, however with no companion first. Theo is my first companion.
TL: She is my second!
We perceive you additionally do “ballet sur la glace” or “theatre on ice”, a self-discipline that’s in all probability not very well-known to the broader audiences. May you inform us one thing about it?
TL: We do theatre on ice with a gaggle of fifteen-twenty folks. It’s virtually as if we do ice dance in a gaggle, we attempt to create a very particular and unique ballet. There’s a Nations Cup annually, virtually an equal of the World Championships, though there are solely few international locations collaborating to it. You could possibly say we’re world champions, however I choose to say that we’re Nations Cup winners. It’s a actually good occasion: this 12 months it’ll be in Boston, in the identical ice rink the place we did Skate America.
LD: You are able to do no matter you need on this self-discipline: for instance, you may go on the ground, do one thing between folks. There are usually not so many guidelines. In the event you fall it’s okay, you may go on the ice! It’s lots of enjoyable to do it with different folks, significantly as a result of we do it with the folks we practice with.
You probably did lots of competitions throughout your junior years, together with successful two silver medals at Junior Grand Prix and qualifying for the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Ultimate. What would you say was the perfect second for you throughout these years?
LD: Not the final 12 months!
TL: After we certified for the finals in Turin, I feel that was the perfect second. Positively not the final 12 months, due to Covid we did nothing. However the 12 months earlier than was the second we received found by these watching ice skating.
You then received virtually catapulted into your senior profession, and in your second 12 months as seniors you’ve already collected two fourth locations at each Grand Prix occasions (Skate America and Grand Prix de France).
LD: We had an opportunity to start out our senior profession in a short time, we’re completely happy about that. We simply hope to develop increasingly throughout large competitions and acquire good outcomes. We’re completely happy we had an opportunity to do our first two Grand Prix this 12 months.
Occupied with your fashion, you come throughout as fairly distinctive and with programmes that all the time attempt to deliver one thing revolutionary on the ice.
TL: We all the time attempt to change our programmes and magnificence yearly. This 12 months, we went with Benoît Richaud, which is nice for us as a result of he modified what we do and allowed us to deliver one thing new to the ice and to enhance on issues we couldn’t do earlier than. The programme is working rather well and we’re very pleased with that.
Have you ever received any long run targets you might be working in direction of?
TL: We need to be in the whole lot!
LD: We wish to go to the Olympic Video games. We simply need to take it step-by-step and see what occurs.
Lastly, are there any ice dancers you take a look at and get inspiration from?
TL: In fact Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, unquestionably. For me personally, Scott Moir was a mannequin, and likewise Nikita Katsalapov: I feel they’ve a method much like mine and I need to hold working to turn out to be nearly as good as them.