Just a few hours after the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Saitama, Japan, Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, along with their coach, Drew Meekins, sat down at a local coffee shop to take stock of their future on the ice.
The Colorado Springs-based pairs team had just completed a whirlwind first season together, which didn't include any ISU Grand Prix Series events, but did conclude with a bronze medal at the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships and respectable finishes at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships and World Championships.
Goal setting dominated the "debriefing," with Kam, 18, at the time, O'Shea, 32, and Meekins setting objectives for the seasons leading up to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
"The three-year goal is to make the Olympics," O'Shea said. "Then we backtrack and find everything we can do along the way to make that goal as realistic as possible, which this year includes medaling at both Grand Prix, making the Grand Prix Final, qualifying for Four Continents and Worlds, and scoring 200 [points] fairly consistently by the end of the season.
"Those are lofty goals, but achievable goals, we think, and when we set goals, we want them to be somewhat difficult to achieve," he added. "If you set goals that are easy to achieve, you are not pushing yourself and it doesn't feel quite as good when you do achieve them."
Kam and O'Shea make their Grand Prix Series debut this weekend at Grand Prix de France in Angers, France. Two weeks later they are scheduled to compete at Grand Prix Espoo in Espoo, Finland.
It is their second trip to Espoo this season. They kicked off their campaign there in early October with a win at Finlandia Trophy, part of the ISU Challenger Series. There, solid side-by-side triple Salchows and strong lifts helped them defeat several more experienced teams with a score of 182.07.
"Excitement and a little nervous," O'Shea said of how he and Kam describe feeling heading into their first full season together. "It will be a lot of fun. We are enjoying the process of growing through all of the competitions. The first one we went out and did pretty well, scored pretty well with some mistakes."
Meekins, who directs the overall pairs program at the Broadmoor World Arena, thinks this season feels much less rushed in terms of preparation, programs, music and costumes.
"That said, we are still just 13 months into their partnership," Meekins said. "There is still a lot of newness to this team. For example, they have already competed at a World Championships, but this will be their first Grand Prix. I think if you take a wide lens and consider that this is a team that's 13 months old, they have made incredible progress. We feel confident and optimistic about where they are in their journey in terms of their long-term goals."
With only one competition under their belt so far this season, Kam and O'Shea are already attempting to show progress in improving their technical package, as well as their performance quality.
Last season, they didn't have a throw triple. At Finlandia, they attempted three: Kam landed one, stayed on her feet on another and fell once.
"It's something where we're happy to know that element is one we land [in practice] every single day," O'Shea said. "It's no longer something we are trying to get, it's something we're trying to perfect."
Another area of enhanced difficulty is in the team's side-by-side jumps. They gained strong scores for their Salchows in each program at Finlandia but fell on their triple toe loop-double Axel sequence in the free skate.
"We put (triple toe-double toe) in last year right before Worlds and that was the element we actually ended up doing really well," Kam said. "I think the combo is actually harder this season. We added the double Axel to the end instead of the double toes."
Making sure their elements receive the highest credit possible is another area of emphasis. In Espoo, the team received Level 3s for the death spiral, spins and step sequence in their short program, which O'Shea calls unacceptable.
"Those are points that were just thrown away," he said. "That's something we've worked on a lot since coming home – paying attention to the details throughout that process, staying in the moment, along with performing. We also need to clean up our practices at events."
The team chose the classic "East of Eden" for their short program, while returning to music from the
Nocturnal Animals by Abel Korzeniowski for their free skate. The program, O'Shea said, is completely different than last season except for the music.
Their goal is to continue cultivating their personal connection on the ice.
"We both lean on each other," O'Shea said. "Sure, I have more experience, but Ellie brings a lot to the table as well. I think in every partnership you have to find what works as a team, not just what worked for me in the past. We are doing better with that. It's kind of like a rope. Drew, Ellie and I are each an individual strand, but if you weave it together in a braid, all of a sudden it's much stronger than it was independently."
Kam, who often talks about her mental challenges in terms of competing, said she and O'Shea continue to "work out the kinks" and keep an open mind about everything.
"I'm still learning things that I didn't know about me a year ago," Kam said. "Just taking one step at a time is a really big thing for us right now."
For Meekins, Kam and O'Shea are doing everything necessary to achieve championship-level success.
"Frankly, one of the things that has made their journey successful thus far is that they have this organic connection when they skate together," Meekins said. "When you watch them skate, I think you are left with this strong feeling of joy that they have for skating and the joy and passion that they have for skating together.
"So what we've tried to focus on is making that connection even stronger, make it unique and special for the audience and judges and everyone watching, but at the same time up the content, to help them take it to the next level on all fronts."
Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea take the ice at a Grand Prix for the first time tomorrow. Follow live on the Grand Prix Series Competition Central.
