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Documentary gives fly-on-the-wall look at some of Canada's top skaters

By: Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013 at 10:22 AM | Comments: 0

TORONTO - Judy Holm is a longtime figure skating fan.

Until her husband Michael McNamara saw the skaters up close on the ice, he had more of a take-or-leave-it attitude toward the sport.

She and McNamara followed Canada's top figure skaters over the course of nearly a year for the documentary "Ice, Sweat and Tears," which premiers Thursday on CBC's "Doc Zone." And what started as a labour of love for Holm ultimately became a passion project for both.

"When we make a doc, because you spend so much time not only shooting with (the subjects) but looking at their images over and over again as you edit the story, you really kind of start to develop a personal relationship with them," McNamara said. "From then on, forever, they're kind of like your kids."

Their kids in this case are two-time world champion Patrick Chan, Olympic gold medallists and two-time world ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Canadian pairs medallists Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers.

Chan and Virtue and Moir will be gunning for gold at the world championships next week in London, Ont.

"It is difficult to watch them compete now," Holm said on their attachment to the skaters.

"We're holding our breath, we're on the edge of our seats, we're really concerned for them," added McNamara. "You really develop a personal connection with them which is really kind of fun, but can be exhausting as well."

The documentary follows the athletes over the course of nearly a year, beginning with Skate Canada's high performance camp in the fall of 2011.

The aim was to present a fly-on-the-wall perspective of what goes into being one of the world's best skaters.

"I want somebody to see what I see, the incredible athleticism of it," Holm said. "Sometimes people get caught up in the crazy costumes, and God knows the Russian skaters from time to time have provided us with fodder in the crazy costumes. We wanted (viewers) to get past that and see the incredible athleticism of what they do."

"Ice, Sweat and Tears" mixes interviews and skating footage, plus sport science, to present a close-up look at a sport four-time world champion Kurt Browning compares to "a jungle gym with no rules on a slippery surface."

Of the science of skating: viewers learn that while a hockey shift lasts on average about 25 seconds, a figure skater's long program is four-and-a-half minutes.

The air time for a quad jump, viewers are told, is .65 seconds. Skaters leap about 23 inches off the ice, approximately the same height a basketball player needs to jump to dunk a ball. Skaters land on one foot on a three-millimetre wide blade.

Chan, in the film, compares the quad to "trying to juggle while standing on a balance beam on top of the CN Tower... It's a mix of multiple co-ordinating movements and timing."

McNamara and Holm strapped high definition cameras to the skaters' heads, wrists, ankles, and chests to "get a sense of what the relationship is on the ice and how fast they're moving and just what the dynamics are," said McNamara, a Gemini Award winner. "It's something you don't get a sense of unless you're right there on the ice with them."

While McNamara and Holm hope the film produces some figure skating converts, they also hope its well-received by the sport's faithful fans, to which they also pay tribute in "Ice, Sweat and Tears."

"They're kind of like Deadheads (Grateful Dead fans)," McNamara said laughing. "They follow them from concert to concert. They're really devoted to it and they really do a lot of research on the minutiae of the lives of the skaters, their routines and careers. We thought it was kind of fascinating that there is this kind of level of love and devotion.

"Certainly there are fans in other sports who are devoted and obsessive, but the skating fans are really an interesting breed."

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