Artistry, Quad Salchow are goals for the season
Wesley Chiu began his third senior Grand Prix season at Skate America in October. He spoke to AnythingGOEs about his new programs and goals for the season.
Last January, Wesley became the Canadian men’s champion for the first time. “I think it was evident last year, after winning, that it really helped my confidence,” Wesley shared. “I’m just really trying to build off that. At the same time, it’s a brand new season, so things are obviously going to feel a little bit weird at the beginning. I’m hopefully building off each competition, and not putting too much pressure on myself [about] being national champion.”
Wesley had an ankle injury at the beginning of the off-season, which impacted his training. “The injury is completely healed now, so that’s good, but now it’s more just getting the reps in, trying to find my confidence back, because I wasn’t able to really jump that much for most of the summer. I definitely felt a little bit behind, but slowly I am getting back.”
“I did get my long program quite late, I think, mid-July, so I’m just trying to really work on that, make that program feel like mine. Even running that program, the pacing of it’s quite different, working with a new choreographer. So we’re still trying to get the reps in, and letting it develop.”
New Programs
Wesley’s Free Skate features two pieces by Ludovico Einaudi, “Nuvole Bianche” and “Experience”.
“There’s no set story that the music is telling you. I worked with Shae Lynn Bourne for this one, and we came up with the concept of feeling a little vulnerable and not being accepted for who you are at the beginning. There are moments of chaos and frustration with a little bit of, I guess, lost feeling to it. Then the music picks up towards the end. It gets a little more dramatic, that’s when you sort of accept yourself for who you are, and don’t care what other people think.”
This was Wesley’s first time working with Shae Lynn Bourne.
“It was such a cool experience. I was in California for a full week just creating this program. And it was so cool just to watch her on her own coming up with all these cool ideas. I think the biggest thing was the story and the emotions behind that story. We were really trying to figure out different movements that would translate those feelings.”
“She’s really particular about the details, and the different steps,” he added. “She was an ice dancer, and it was cool just to get some insight, her perspective on skating in general. It’s still something that I’m working on mastering, but it’s cool to learn something new and push myself in the artistic side.”
The vulnerability in Wesley’s free program is a contrast with his martial short program to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. He liked the idea of a classical program of the kind that used to be more common in figure skating.
“Last season I saw a couple of skaters getting more Russian-style music [and I wanted] something in the same category, but not quite. I bounced that idea off of [choreographer] Joey Russell, and Joey brought me 1812 Overture. I listened to it, and I wasn’t too sold on it at first, but I really loved that last half… where it is sort of upbeat and victorious. I really love that. So I really wanted to try to make something work with that.”
He also incorporated the idea of a sword fight in the step sequence. “It starts as more of the battle and the chaos, and then, towards the end, it’s definitely more of a victorious sort of atmosphere.”
Consistency as a goal
Wesley’s goals for this season don’t focus too much on placements, “because those are a little bit hard to control. But I’m just trying to improve my consistency with these programs, trying to build the artistic score. The content that I’m doing is not too different from last year, with the addition of the quad salchow. We’re trying to add the quad salchow in while trying to maintain consistency.”
Wesley has only landed the quad salchow successfully in competition once, at the 2023 Cranberry Cup, but he’s aware that having a second quad in his arsenal will be important to challenge for higher placements. “Obviously, we want to focus on more of a quality program,” he emphasized, “instead of pushing a bunch of technical, but you’ve got to have a balance of both. So I think that’s going to be the focus for the season.”
At Skate America, Wesley popped his quad salchow into a triple at the start of the free skate, but landed a quad-toe triple-toe combination, and had only one major mistake. It was a big improvement from his pop-filled program at Nebelhorn, and hopefully puts him on the right track heading to his second Grand Prix, Cup of China.
With an ankle injury, Wesley had a less active off-season, but he still tried to have some fun. “I tried to go outside as much as possible. The weather was really nice in Vancouver. I rode my bike, and I followed the NHL. They were in their playoffs all the way up to June, so that was cool. And just being in Vancouver, it’s such a nice city. The mountains are really close, so it’s nice to just go off and spend time in nature every once in a while.”
Wesley is a new hockey fan, supporting the Vancouver Canucks. “Actually, I didn’t really enjoy hockey that much when I was younger. I think it was when COVID lockdown was happening and there wasn’t really much to do except for training at home. The next thing that was on TV was the playoffs. It was sort of an isolated atmosphere, but I guess that was the first time I got into it. And yeah, a few of my friends are also into it at the rink, so it’s cool just to talk about that and follow along for fun.”
Wesley is assigned to compete at the GP Cup of China in late November.
