The worst fears of figure skating fans were confirmed late on March 11. The Montreal World Cup is canceled a week before its scheduled start. This decision was made by the leadership of the province of Quebec.
Authorities took such a step as part of preventive measures to curb the spread of coronavirus in Canada. Quebec Minister of Health Daniel McCann announced the cancellation of the main start in figure skating at a specially convened press conference on the epidemic of a new disease.
Competitions in the framework of the World Cup were to be held at the Bell Center Montreal arena from March 18 to March 21, after which the first award ceremony from the International Skating Union (ISU) was scheduled for the next day. Montreal was supposed to take the championship of the world in figure skating for the first time since 1932.
Talk about a possible cancellation of the main start of the season has been going on for the past few days, since then the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Canada has begun to grow steadily. As of March 10, the number of cases in the country was close to one hundred. Nine of them were considered cured. On March 8, the first resident of Canada died from complications associated with COVID-19.
On the morning of March 11, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Lego, admitted that the world championship in figure skating would not take place at the previously indicated time.
“There is a chance that the tournament will be canceled. Today we must be able to make an official statement, ”TASS quoted him as saying with reference to TSN.
Almost immediately, ISU issued a statement stating that at that time he had not yet received any instructions from the Quebec Ministry of Health and was continuing to prepare for the competition. However, the hope of the fans that the tournament would still take place did not last long.
Commenting on the decision of the Quebec government, ISU noted that it is not considering moving the World Cup to another place or at a later date in the framework of the current season. The organization will discuss the possibility of holding competitions in 2020, but not earlier than October. When the final decision is made, the ISU was not informed.
Earlier in Canada, the women's world hockey championship was already canceled. It was supposed to be held from March 31 to April 10 in the cities of Halifax and Truro in the province of Nova Scotia. The Council of the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the cancellation of the competition on March 7th. At the same time, another major tournament entrusted to Canada - the women's world curling championship - did not fall under the restrictions of the authorities and should begin on March 14 in the city of St. George in British Columbia.
In the history of figure skating, this is not the first time that the World Cup has been canceled. Competitions did not take place from 1915 to 1921 because of the First World War and from 1940 to 1946 because of the Second World War. In 1961, the competition did not take place due to the crash of an airplane in Belgium, on which the US team was heading to the championship in Prague. In 2011, the Tokyo tournament was initially canceled due to a devastating earthquake in Japan, but then the ISU moved the World Cup to Moscow.
Russian figure skater Denis Khodykin expressed disappointment at the fact that he would not be able to perform at the World Cup for the first time in his career together with his partner Daria Pavlyuchenko.
“Actually very strange. Yes, we understand that the World Cup attracts mainly spectators from Japan. But at the same time, thermal imagers stood at the recent World Junior Championships. Football is played without spectators, but it is played anyway. Even in the same Italy. And then it was canceled ... Perhaps our sport is not as spectacular as football, but the World Cup is only once a year. It’s sad, but what to do is a pandemic. At the same time, the show on March 29 in Moscow will take place. And two times. I sincerely do not understand what the difference is between the situation in Russia and Canada, ”said Sport24 athlete.
Now the figure skating season can be considered completed. The next major competitions with the participation of the stars of this sport will take place no earlier than autumn, when the Challenger series tournaments and Grand Prix stages are usually held. If this year the World Cup does not take place, then the next tournament will be held in Stockholm in 2021, and quotas for the Olympic Games in Beijing will be drawn on it.