If Evan Bates had any doubts about how he would be welcomed at his new training digs, they dissolved in a puddle of water a few minutes after he and partner Madison Chock arrived at Gadbois Center in Montreal late this summer.
"The first day at the rink, we were there at seven in the morning and, you know, it's a whole new world and we're so excited," Bates, warming to his story, said.
"I need to go into the changing rooms and change my clothes," he continued. "And so I just walked around the corner into a shower area to just change my shirt. And then I stepped into the shower and it was an automatic shower, so..."
"He was soaked!" Chock gleefully interjected, reliving the hilarity.
Bates didn't stay wet all morning. Zachary Donohue, his longtime U.S. teammate and one of his new training partners, came to the rescue.
"Zach gave me a shirt to wear for the day," Bates said. "So I mean, that's the good heart that he has, and they all have. They're all great."
When Donohue and ice dance partner Madison Hubbell relocated from Detroit to Montreal soon after the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships, Gadbois students Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France had just won the first of their three World titles. Other teams – from Canada, Spain and Denmark – had flocked to the center to train under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, but Hubbell and Donohue were the first from the U.S.
"They have a lot of really high-level athletes, and yet we are not directly competitive with another U.S. team," Hubbell told NBC Olympics at the time. "So it gives us a sense of pushing each other, being able to support each other without that daily competitive thing."
Fast forward a few seasons, and it's a whole new world. Hubbell and Donohue are firmly, and comfortably, ensconced in Montreal. This summer, the reigning U.S. champions and World silver medalists
welcomed not only two-time World medalists Chock and Bates to their rink, but
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, the reigning Four Continents champions, as well.
"We just felt like going into this new (Olympic) quad, there was either a choice of trying to hole up and be the only American team, hope that we can keep working hard enough, or we could invite the challenge in," Hubbell, who was
undefeated on the Grand Prix circuit this year with Donohue, said.
"That's the way Tessa (Virtue) and Scott (Moir) always approached their career, wanting their competition close to them, using that to push them," she added.
Virtue and Moir ended a two-season competitive break by moving to Montreal in 2016. There, they trained alongside top rivals Papadakis and Cizeron. The Canadian greats won their second individual Olympic gold medal in PyeongChang in February, with the French team taking silver. Hubbell and Donohue placed fourth, just behind bronze medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, who are not competing this season.
"It was motivating to train with Scott, he had such great energy," Donohue said. "I think that Evan is a great, hardworking athlete and very driven. I think that the two of us both having such strong motivation will be very good for each other."
Dubreuil, who won two World silver ice dance medals with husband Lauzon, carefully vets each team that expresses interest in joining the Gadbois group. She and Lauzon discussed the new additions with Hubbell and Donohue prior to accepting them as students.
"We choose people, and not countries," Dubreuil said. "When we agree to work with teams, we take time to make sure they fit with the mentality and values of the school. For us, it's important to maintain a positive energy at the school and between the skaters, so we can keep the culture of excellence going and growing."
After placing ninth at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and fifth in the world, Chock and Bates parted ways with longtime coach Igor Shpilband, who trained them in Novi, Michigan. They arrived in Montreal in August, after spending most of the summer in Colorado Springs, where Chock was rehabbing from ankle surgery.
"We felt so welcomed by Madi and Zach, and
Kaitlin and Jean-Luc," Chock said. "They all messaged us before we came. They asked me how I was doing after my surgery. I couldn't feel more welcomed into the school, they've been so wonderful."
"Marie and Patch (Lauzon) preach that (the training group) is a team," Bates said. "And I think in figure skating, we don't have that very often. It's not really a team sport, but in that rink, that training environment, they've made it into a team sport. I think that's kind of part of the recipe for their success."
Chock and Bates, third in the U.S. behind Hubbell and Donohue, and the Shibutanis last season, seek to explore new styles under their Gadbois coaches while still enhancing their technical elements.
"Igor has been my only dance coach," Chock said. "He instills a raw kind of power in his teams. I think for us, refining that is very important, and that's what we're looking to do, while still keeping the energy and power that we skate with."
"I think (Dubreuil and Lauzon) know how to bring out the strong qualities in all of their teams, because really the teams all look very different at the rink," Bates said. "I think with the direction we want to go with our skating, with our music selections, that we'll have our own strong identity and that we'll grow further."
Like Hubbell and Donohue, Hawayek and Baker, 10
th in the world last season, relocated to Montreal from Detroit. They arrived at Gadbois in mid-May. One of their coaches in Detroit, Anjelika Krylova, returned to her native Russia, helping to spur the decision.
"There were a lot of different factors that kind of accumulated together that gave us a sense that it was our time to just have a fresh start, a new perspective, and a new environment," Baker said.
"(Dubreuil and Lauzon) had so many teams making requests, they didn't know for sure if they would have room to take us," Hawayek added.
Dubreuil and Lauzon work with four other coaches – including long-time associates Romain Haguenauer and Pascal Denis – at Gadbois Centre. Specialists with other artistic backgrounds, including ballroom and hip-hop dance, also work at the school.
"We organize a rotation between coaches and skaters to provide the teams with what they want or need at a specific time of the season," Dubreuil said.
An administrative coordinator facilitates paperwork and scheduling.
"We currently have many competitive teams from eight different countries plus five solos looking for partners, so it's a lot of administrative work," Dubreuil said. "To maintain the quality, it's important for us to stay clear and organized, so we hired someone to coordinate all the operations of the school, so we as coaches can focus on our work on the ice."
Hawayek and Baker, who competed at
their first senior Grand Prix Final this season, say the Gadbois coaches are helping them build power and consistency.
"In terms of the way they're trying to develop our skating since we moved, is (to add) a little bit more control," Baker said. "A lot of the time before, when we'd skate we'd have a very energetic and charismatic bounce to the ice in a way, and I think that they're really trying to work on our control and our consistency and just bring a new glide to our skating."
"They know what our strengths are, and they're making us become Kaitlin and Jean-Luc – not Gabby (Papadakis) and Gil (Cizeron), and not Madi and Zach," Hawayek said. "Actually, 'make' is not even the right word. They're helping us to discover everything about ourselves as skaters."
Certainly, Hubbell and Donohue have taken their teammates' presence in stride. The duo opened the season with a solid win at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City, where they gained valuable feedback on their tango rhythm dance and free dance to
Romeo + Juliet, and remained on top of the podium throughout the first half of the season.
"We're honestly using a lot of energy between the three (U.S. teams) in Montreal to kind of motivate and push us," Hubbell said. "We've all got separate journeys that we're on, on top of competing against each other. The coaches make it really easy to keep our heads in the game and focus on our own thing, which leaves us time and energy to support our friends, because that's what they are."
Certainly, Dubreuil has no regrets about expanding the Gadbois school.
"So far, the three U.S. teams are training very well together in this environment," she said. "We hope they all show improvement at U.S. nationals. It will be the judges' job to judge them and rank them. We, as coaches, only want to make them better."
