Fire And Ice

There's a kick in the pants, and then there's this.
When Anabelle Langlois was feeling down in the dumps during the summer, seriously pondering whether there was still a place for her among the best in Canadian pairs skating, a former world champion told Langlois exactly what she needed to hear.
About as bluntly as you can put it.
“Barb Underhill told me I had to get the bitch inside of me back,” said Langlois, 25, of Hull, Que. “That’s what she thought I lost. It kind of shocked me in the beginning when she said that, but I know what she meant.
“I needed to get that fire going again.”
The fire was back this week in Halifax. And, not coinicidentally, Langlois is going back to the world figure skating championships after she and Cody Hay of Grande Prairie, Alta., achieved the necessary third-place finish to make the Canadian world team. They actually finished second in today's free skate final, but wound up third overall behind new Canadian champs Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, and three-time (and now former) pair kings Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin.
Langlois went to worlds three times with former partner Patrice Archetto, their best finish being fifth in 2003 in Washington, D.C. But last season was just like starting over for her, as she teamed up with Hay, who was just up from the junior ranks (they became friends when both were training at the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton).
While they finished fourth at last year's Canadians in Ottawa — a fine start for a new team — Langlois said she felt herself paying too much time worrying about how Hay would adapt to the senior ranks.
“I think I tried to shelter him and, in the end, I forgot how I wanted to be in competition,” said Langlois. “I almost stopped after last year because I felt so uncomfortable by the end of the year. Not because of him, but in competition, I felt so out of place.
“But people would tell me, you’re a great pairs skater, one of Canada’s best. It would make me cry when they’d say that because I didn’t feel it anymore.”
Even Hay noticed the change.
“When I was training with Anabelle and she was skating with Patrice, that’s something I always noticed about Anabelle,” said Hay, 23. “She always had a fire inside. She was the one that was driving.
“When I started skating with her, I was so new and she felt like she had to lead me along. She kind of let that (fire) go and was more nurturing. She was trying to bring me along easily. But this summer, it started to come back after her talk with Barb. It was less ‘you can do it, you’re going to work through it,’ and more ‘you’re going to do this.’ ”
The old Anabelle was back this week. And now Hay gets to enjoy a new experience — the world championships in Tokyo.
“This was our goal and we’re both really excited about it,” he said.