Jonathan Hayward
After a disappointing Grand Prix season, two-time Canadian figure skating champion Cynthia Phaneuf is switching coaches.
The 23-year-old skater from Contrecoeur, Que., is moving to Toronto to train with coach Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling club where her choreographer David Wilson is also based. Wilson has shaped Phaneuf's career from the beginning and he is her mentor.
Phaneuf will start on Monday at the club.
Phaneuf was a precocious skater who won the Canadian senior title when she was only 15 years old in 2004. At that event she defeated Joannie Rochette, who went on to win an Olympic bronze medal, and six-time Canadian champion Jennifer Robinson.
The following season, she sparkled internationally while winning the Skate Canada international Grand Prix and finishing second at Skate America.
But injuries and a growth spurt hobbled her performances and she sat on the sidelines for the 2005-06 season to mend.
Over the past few years, she has been making a comeback, and she finally hit her stride when she finished fifth at the world championships in Turin in 2010. She was only 1.08 points away from winning a bronze medal.
"I was waiting for a long time to turn this around," she said.
However, at last year's world championships in Moscow, Phaneuf finished only 13th. And at her two Grand Prix events this year, she finished only seventh at Skate Canada in Mississauga and ninth at the NHK Trophy last weekend in Japan.
Phaneuf has been training with Annie Barabe and Sophie Richard in Montreal since she was a young girl, but she wants to make a change to kick start her career.
Skate Canada chief executive officer William Thompson said it is not out of reach for Phaneuf to follow in the footsteps of Rochette, who was able to move from being a top-10 skater to a top-three medal contender. With the top echelon of female skaters in disarray, there is a huge opportunity for Phaneuf to insert herself into the international picture.
Orser made his mark as a coach with his first student, Yu-Na Kim, whom he guided to win the Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010.
This year, he has attracted a number of new students into his fold, including Javier Fernandez, of Spain. After working with Fernandez for only four months, Orser watched the 20-year-old charismatic skater defeat two world champions, Daisuke Takahashi and Patrick Chan in the short program at Skate Canada earlier this month.
Fernandez finished second overall to Chan after the long program, and has a shot at making the Grand Prix Final in Quebec.
Elena Gedevanishvili of Georgia, who like Phaneuf was a precocious youngster and then had disappointing results, joined Orser last summer, too. He also trains promising young American Christina Gao.