DETROIT – February 8 marks one year until the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang South Korea, and metro Detroit is poised to be well-represented.
Ice Dance
Ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani just won back-to-back national championships (2016, 2017) and a silver medal at the 2016 World Championships. The brother-sister duo, known as the Shib Sibs, are clearly focused on competing in their second Winter Olympics.
"With 2018 only a year out, our focus is really on making sure that we take advantage of every opportunity that we have to improve, take advantage of every practice and at the same time really embrace that we're very lucky to be doing what we do together as a family -- it's been a lot of great experiences. We're on the right track, so if we keep going, it'll be a great 2018," Alex Shibutani said.
The Shibutanis competed in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
"2014 was our first Olympics, and we've improved so much since then, so in 2018 we're looking to be the best in the world," Maia Shibutani said. "Excitement. Just that fact that we're one year out. We've been training for our second Olympic Games for so long, that we're feeling really ready to go."
Close competitors of the Shibutanis are Madison Chock and Evan Bates who train at the Novi Ice Arena.
"There's definitely a healthy competition. I think they push us to be better and work harder," Chock said. "Just because seeing them every time we compete with them, it's a new energy and obviously we want to win and they want to win, and so I think with that competitive nature, we both get better quicker than we would if we didn't have them."
Bates is from Ann Arbor. He and Chock formed a partnership in 2011 and this will be their second Olympics. They were the national champions in 2015, in 2016, they were world bronze medalists.
"We have said we want to be on the podium, we've said that in years passed and that hasn't changed," Bates said. "Based on our results at the World Championships, we've been on the podium the last two season, so I think it's a realistic goal."
"We definitely want to push ice dance to keep growing and evolving. I think the sport has come so far, just within in the last four years, and we definitely want to keep that growth and momentum so the sport keeps evolving and improving," Chock said.
The third American ice dance team is Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue. The duo trained at the Detroit Skating Club in West Bloomfield before moving to work under coaches in Montreal, Quebec. Hubbell is from the Lansing area.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White have not announced whether they will compete in another Olympics. During the 2014 Winter Olympics, they became the first American ice dance team to win an Olympic gold medal. They won silver in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.
New figure skaters train in Metro Detroit
Nathan Chen made history at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships by becoming the first figure skater to ever land five quadruple jumps in a single program. He splits his training time between California and the Arctic Edge in Canton. He won the national championship last month and is already eyeing the 2018 Winter Games.
"That's the biggest motivator for me as an athlete. To go the Olympics and stand on top of that podium, it's something that I feel like most--every single athlete dreams about. It's something that I think is totally achievable," Chen said.
Gracie Gold announced Wednesday in a Facebook Live for NBC Olympics that she has started training in Canton. Gold, who competed in 2014 Sochi Games, will be training with Marina Zoueva and Oleg Epstein at the Arctic Edge of Canton.
The figure skater was working with coach Frank Carroll in California before making the switch.
Gold finished fourth at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but did take home a bronze medal for the figure skating team event. Gold won the U.S. National Championships in 2014 and 2016, but placed sixth during this year's national competition.
"I'm really excited to be training there with Maia and Alex Shibutani, which are great friends of mine, and Patrick Chan. I think it's going to be super amazing," Gold said.
Snowboarding
Karly Shorr, of Milford, is one of the Metro Detroiters hoping to get big air in South Korea as part of the U.S. snowboarding team. She placed sixth in Sochi for slopestyle.
"Everybody wants that Olympic medal, it's like, of course I'm going to dream for that, but I'm just going to do my best and step by step, I think that's kind of what I did last time was just little baby steps, you know, think what can I do today for that, not thinking about the big picture so much," Shorr said.
Kyle Mack, of West Bloomfield, Danny Davis, of Highland and Eric Bauchemin, of Grand Blanc, are aiming to be on Team U.S.A. for the games too.
Speedskating
Speedskaters Jessica Kooreman, of Melvindale, and Kelly Gunther, of Clinton Township, are hopefuls for the winter games. Both competed in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
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