Marie-Jade Lauriault

Marie-Jade Lauriault (born 10 November 1996) is a Canadian-French ice dancer who currently represents Canada with her partner and husband Romain Le Gac, in which capacity she is the 2022 Skate America bronze medalist.

Lauriault and Le Gac initially represented his birth country of France upon partnering in 2014, winning four silver medals at the French Championships and a national junior title, and representing France at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Internationally they won four Challenger medals, including gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, before switching to represent Canada in the summer of 2021.

Personal life

Marie-Jade Lauriault was born on 10 November 1996 in Laval, Quebec. She married Le Gac in December 2015. As of August 2016, she is studying psychology. She became a French citizen in December 2017.

Career

Early years

Lauriault started skating in 2001. At the age of eight, she began taking ice dancing lessons taught by Pascal Denis and was soon paired with Pierre-Richard Chiasson. Lauriault/Chiasson placed eighth at the novice level at the 2013 Canadian Championships.

2014–15 season: Debut of Lauriault/Le Gac

In July 2014, Lauriault was paired with French skater Romain Le Gac, who had just moved to Canada. The two decided to represent France. They are coached by Romain Haguenauer, Patrice Lauzon, Pascal Denis, and Marie-France Dubreuil in Montreal.

Lauriault/Le Gac competed on the senior level in the 2014–15 season. They won silver at the Open d'Andorra and finished ninth at the 2014 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb before taking silver at the French Championships.

2015–16 season: International junior season

Lauriault/Le Gac decided to compete on the junior level in 2015–16. They won two medals on the Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series — silver in Linz, Austria and gold in Logroño, Spain. Their results gave them a spot at the JGP Final in Barcelona, where they finished fifth.

In February 2016, Lauriault/Le Gac won gold at the French Junior Championships ahead of Abachkina/ Thauron. In March, they represented France at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, and won a small bronze medal after placing third in the short dance. They finished eighth overall. Over eight days in April, they skated in ten ice shows in France.

2016–17 season: Grand Prix, European and World debuts

Returning to the senior ranks for the pre-Olympic season, Lauriault/Le Gac placed fifth at the 2016 CS Autumn Classic International. They were then invited to make their senior Grand Prix debut, finishing sixth at both the 2016 NHK Trophy and the 2017 Internationaux de France.

After winning silver at the French championships for the second time at the senior level, Lauriault/Le Gac made their European Championship debut at the 2017 edition in Ostrava, coming twelfth. They won gold at the Cup of Nice before making their World Championship debut in Helsinki, finishing twenty-first in the rhythm dance and thereby narrowly missing the cut for the free dance. They were also invited to participate as part of Team France at the World Team Trophy, finishing sixth among dance teams while France also came sixth overall.

2017–18 season: Pyeongchang Olympics

Sixth at the Autumn Classic to start the season, Lauriault/Le Gac were eighth at both the 2017 NHK Trophy and the 2017 Rostelecom Cup on the Grand Prix. They won silver at the French championships for the third time and, as a result, were named to the French team for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. They finished twelfth at the 2018 European Championships shortly afterward.

French national champions Papadakis/ Cizeron declined to participate in the Olympic team event, allowing Lauriault/Le Gac to do so. They finished sixth in the rhythm dance segment, but Team France was tenth among ten teams after the first round and did not advance to the free portion of the competition. They then participated in the ice dance event, qualifying to the free dance and finishing seventeenth in their Olympic debut. Lauriault/Le Gac finished the season with a thirteenth-place finish at the post-Olympic World Championships in Milan.

2018–19 season: Challenger medals

Lauriault/Le Gac won two medals on the Challenger series to begin the season, taking the bronze at both the 2018 CS Finlandia Trophy and the 2018 CS Inge Solar Memorial. On the Grand Prix, they finished fourth at the 2018 Skate Canada International, 6.65 points behind bronze medalists Gilles/ Poirier of Canada. They were then sixth on home ice at the 2018 Internationaux de France.

French national silver medalists once again, Lauriault/Le Gac were tenth at the 2019 European Championships and fourteenth at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama.

2019–20 season: Struggles

After a bronze medal win at the 2019 CS Autumn Classic International, Lauriault/Le Gac struggled in the early going, coming eighth at both the 2019 Skate America and the 2019 Internationaux de France. They won gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, their first Challenger title, but came fourth at the French championships and thus did not make the European Championship team. They were assigned to compete at the 2020 World Championships, to be held in Montreal near their training center, but the event was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021–22 season: Switch to Canada

After not competing at all during the COVID-plagued 2020–21 season, Lauriault and Le Gac announced on June 6, 2021, that they would henceforth be representing her birth country of Canada. Lauriault would later say that it had been a difficult decision but that "with the pandemic, we certainly realized that we are very much at home in Canada, that our life is there. We felt that more and more as the years progressed, and Romain has established himself there as well. It is also complicated with me studying and Romain working in Canada."

After competing domestically in the fall, Lauriault/Le Gac qualified for the 2022 Canadian Championships, held without an audience in Ottawa due to the spread of the Omicron variant. They finished fifth in their first appearance at the Canadian nationals, with Lauriault saying, "it wasn't perfect, but it was what we were hoping for." Their result earned them an assignment to the 2022 Four Continents Championships in Tallinn. Competing at Four Continents, their first international event in two years, they were fifth after the rhythm dance but dropped to sixth when Lauriault fell on her twizzles in the free dance. Despite the "technical error", she insisted afterward, "it was a great experience today; these are still good memories."

2022–23 season: First Grand Prix medal

Beginning the season at the 2022 CS U.S. Classic, Lauriault/Le Gac finished in fourth place, 3.36 points behind American bronze medalists McNamara/ Spiridonov. Given two Grand Prix assignments representing Canada for the first time, they competed first at the 2022 Skate America and won the bronze medal, their first Grand Prix medal. Le Gac said afterward that it was a significant competition for them because they had not competed on the Grand Prix since 2019, while Lauriault called it a "life-changing experience." They then appeared at the 2022 Skate Canada International the following weekend, setting new personal bests and finishing in fifth place.

Lauriault/Le Gac won the gold medal at the 2022–23 Skate Canada Challenge to qualify to the 2023 Canadian Championships. Lauriault said of the reception of their ''The Pink Panther'' program, "we've put so much work into our choreography this year, and we are pleased people are enjoying it as much as we enjoy performing it."

Programs

(with Le Gac)

Competitive highlights

''GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix''

With Le Gac

For Canada

For France

With Chiasson

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauriault, Marie-Jade
1996 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Laval, Quebec
French female ice dancers
Canadian female ice dancers
Canadian emigrants to France
Naturalized citizens of France
Figure skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Olympic figure skaters of France