For the past four years, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker have finished fourth or fifth at the U.S. Championships, the nation's most prestigious figure skating event. This year at the
2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Hawayek and Baker enter the competition with one goal in mind.
"We go into training every day to train and to win, and that's what we're going to do at nationals," Baker said on the team's teleconference ahead of this year's U.S. Championships in Detroit. "That doesn't mean that we will or we won't, but we are training ourselves for that."
The 2018 Four Continents champions picked up
this new mentality after they made the move to Montreal last spring to train under coaches Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer.
"The mentality of training to win is something that has been a major influence on the way we look at training and on the next four years," Hawayek said. "In the past, we've been afraid of training to win because, obviously, it's hard to get to the top. But if you never allow yourself to think that you can get there, then you won't be able to get there. Both of us have really changed our mentality to train to win and train to be the best. So that's what we're doing in heading into nationals, and the rest is out of our hands."
With this new approach, Hawayek and Baker won
their first Grand Prix title at NHK Trophy, which, combined with a fourth-place finish at Internationaux de France, earned the team a spot at the Grand Prix Final. They finished sixth in their first trip to the event.
"One of the major points we took from the Grand Prix Final is that it's obviously very important to work on your levels and getting the text book side of scores," Hawayek reflected on their last competition of 2018. "We've also really been working on the quality of our elements. Some elements have changed a little bit to increase the quality and cleanliness of it, while we've worked on increasing the elements of others."
Specifically, the team has focused on enhancing their Tango Romantica.
"It's a very tricky dance," Hawayek acknowledged. "Each key point actually encompasses a lot of steps, so that's what we've been working on, so that no steps fall through the cracks."
"It's trying to find the balance of being competitive with our levels but also really enhancing the (style) of the dance," Baker added. "You have to find what is your strength as a team and what works for you because sometimes, you sacrifice so much in trying to get a key point that you're sacrificing so much GOE (Grade of Execution) because you're so focused."
While it is clear that Hawayek and Baker are determined to put in the work to improve and better themselves, they don't hesitate to show their eagerness to skate on their own terms.
"It's not that we're not a fan of one foot step sequences, but I think from an aspect of creativity and range of what you're able to do it's quite limited," Hawayek said. "There's only so many one foot sequences that you can do and it's hard to be creative just on one foot."
"I love the choreo step," Baker said enthusiastically. "With it being just a GOE base step, you can really just allow yourself to go and feel and dance, as opposed to really structuring your turns properly and making sure that everything's squeaky clean on top of dancing."
This desire to
dance freely and creatively is what makes Hawayek and Baker's style so unique. However, their coaches have taught them that technique is just as important in competition.
"I really like and enjoy to skate free," Baker said. " I think (our coaches) are really keeping that aspect to my skill set, but also helping me place myself in the right spot."
As the ice dance team prepares for the U.S. Championships, they want not just the country, but also the whole world to know what they are capable of.
As Baker put it, "Nationals is a very big stepping stone for us. Our goal now is to really be pushing toward that top tier in the U.S. because then, we're in the top tier in the world."
