By Matteo Morelli
In their second yr as senior opponents, Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier are a younger French group that’s already displaying a singular model 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 replicate on their transition from the junior to the senior discipline.
Loïcia and Théo, this was your second European championships. How do you’re 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 finest within the rhythm dance and we’re blissful. We didn’t do the perfect efficiency however we’re nonetheless blissful. A seventh at Euros is a extremely good end result for us.
Loïcia Demougeot (LD): We attempt to method the occasion with out an excessive amount of stress, displaying what we did in observe.
You are each fairly younger: what age have been you while 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LD: And I began at 5 and a half years outdated. Theo and I began skating collectively after I was fourteen and Theo was fifteen, so it has been a couple of years now.
2015 was the yr you began skating collectively, along with your coaching location in Villard de Lans, France. Have you all the time been ice dancers?
TL: I did plenty of sports activities, however on ice I’ve all the time achieved ice dance.
LD: I additionally solely did ice dance, however with out a accomplice first. Theo is my first accomplice.
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. Could you inform us one thing about it?
TL: We do theatre on ice with a gaggle of fifteen-twenty individuals. It is sort of as if we do ice dance in a gaggle, we attempt to create a extremely particular and unique ballet. There is a Nations Cup every year, nearly an equal of the World Championships, though there are solely few nations participating to it. You may say we’re world champions, however I favor to say that we’re Nations Cup winners. It is a extremely good occasion: this yr it’ll be in Boston, in the identical ice rink the place we did Skate America.
LD: You can do no matter you need on this self-discipline: for instance, you’ll be able to go on the ground, do one thing between individuals. There are usually not so many guidelines. If you fall it’s okay, you’ll be able to go on the ice! It is plenty of enjoyable to do it with different individuals, significantly as a result of we do it with the individuals we practice with.
You did plenty of competitions throughout your junior years, together with successful two silver medals at Junior Grand Prix and qualifying for the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final. What would you say was the perfect second for you throughout these years?
LD: Not the final yr!
TL: When we certified for the finals in Turin, I believe that was the perfect second. Definitely not the final yr, due to Covid we did nothing. But the yr earlier than was the second we acquired found by these watching ice skating.
You then acquired nearly catapulted into your senior profession, and in your second yr as seniors you might have 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 blissful about that. We simply hope to develop increasingly more throughout huge competitions and gather good outcomes. We are blissful we had an opportunity to do our first two Grand Prix this yr.
Thinking about your model, 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 elegance yearly. This yr, we went with Benoît Richaud, which is sweet 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 very well and we’re very proud of that.
Have you bought any long run aims you might be working in direction of?
TL: We need to be in every thing!
LD: We wish to go to the Olympic Games. We simply need to take it step-by-step and see what occurs.
Finally, are there any ice dancers you have a look at and get inspiration from?
TL: Of course Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, for sure. For me personally, Scott Moir was a mannequin, and in addition Nikita Katsalapov: I believe they’ve a method just like mine and I need to hold working to turn out to be nearly as good as them.