Demougeot & Le Mercier Mirror and Look Forward
By Matteo Morelli
Of their second yr as senior opponents, Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier are a younger French crew that’s already displaying a singular fashion 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 most effective efficiency however we’re nonetheless blissful. A seventh at Euros is a very good outcome 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 might be each fairly younger: what age had been you if 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 previous. Theo and I began skating collectively after I was fourteen and Theo was fifteen, so it has been a number of years now.
2015 was the yr you began skating collectively, together with your coaching location in Villard de Lans, France. Have you ever all the time been ice dancers?
TL: I did a whole lot of sports activities, however on ice I’ve all the time executed ice dance.
LD: I additionally solely did ice dance, however and not using a companion first. Theo is my first companion.
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. Might you inform us one thing about it?
TL: We do theatre on ice with a gaggle of fifteen-twenty individuals. It’s nearly as if we do ice dance in a gaggle, we attempt to create a very particular and authentic ballet. There’s a Nations Cup every year, nearly an equal of the World Championships, though there are solely few international locations collaborating to it. You may say we’re world champions, however I choose to say that we’re Nations Cup winners. It’s a actually good occasion: this yr it’ll be in Boston, in the identical ice rink the place we did Skate America.
LD: You are able to 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 usually are not so many guidelines. If you happen to fall it’s okay, you’ll be able to go on the ice! It’s a whole lot of enjoyable to do it with different individuals, notably as a result of we do it with the individuals we practice with.
You probably did a whole lot of competitions throughout your junior years, together with profitable two silver medals at Junior Grand Prix and qualifying for the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Last. What would you say was the most effective second for you throughout these years?
LD: Not the final yr!
TL: Once we certified for the finals in Turin, I feel that was the most effective second. Positively not the final yr, due to Covid we did nothing. However the yr earlier than was the second we bought found by these watching ice skating.
You then bought nearly catapulted into your senior profession, and in your second yr as seniors you’ve got already collected two fourth locations at each Grand Prix occasions (Skate America and Grand Prix de France).
LD: We had an opportunity to begin our senior profession in a short time, we’re blissful about that. We simply hope to develop increasingly throughout massive competitions and accumulate good outcomes. We’re blissful we had an opportunity to do our first two Grand Prix this yr.
Occupied with your fashion, you come throughout as fairly distinctive and with programmes that all the time attempt to carry one thing modern on the ice.
TL: We all the time attempt to change our programmes and magnificence yearly. This yr, we went with Benoît Richaud, which is nice for us as a result of he modified what we do and allowed us to carry 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 pleased with that.
Have you ever bought any long run targets you might be working in direction of?
TL: We wish to be in all the things!
LD: We want to go to the Olympic Video games. We simply wish to take it step-by-step and see what occurs.
Lastly, are there any ice dancers you have a look at and get inspiration from?
TL: In fact Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, indisputably. For me personally, Scott Moir was a mannequin, and in addition Nikita Katsalapov: I feel they’ve a method much like mine and I wish to hold working to develop into pretty much as good as them.
