2015-2016: ESTABLISHING THEMSELVES AS “THE TEAM”, WHILE FIGHTING THE CONSEQUENCES OF A CONCUSSION
“ROMAIN, I REALLY DON’T FEEL GOOD”
First thing Romain says when asked about 2015-2016 season and the preparation going into it?
“It was a horrible season!”
You don’t believe him? He’ll repeat it.
“No, but that season was horrible! I mean, it finished well, but… And I am very positive, I think it’s fine all the time, but if I were really honest, it was like that”.
Remember: in the summer of 2015, Gabriella fell during a practice session, hit her head, got a concussion – and needed a couple of months to recover. The coach will get into it – and you’ll understand just how serious this was.
But first, “it was easy to find ideas for the new programs, to build the programs – we found the waltz, we found «To Build a Home», we loved the music and the concept. That was easy, but afterwards…”
Romain stops for a couple of seconds in order to find just the right words to explain the circumstances, to make us relive what happened that disturbing summer.
“The «down» after the previous season happened during the summer. Not in May or in finding the music – but during the summer.
Of course, for Gabriella and Guillaume, «down» is not so down, but, you know, the work was difficult-là. To run the program, to make it work, it was a bit laborious. Not that easy, not like we don’t think – we do it, it’s fun, it’s easy. No, it was not that easy.
And one day, they did a transition or something quite easy, and she fell, or they fell together, and she hurt herself at the head.
And that was on a Friday, it happened on a Friday.
And I remember that, during the weekend, I went in the countryside outside Montreal. And I received a call from Gaby, and she said to me: «Ah, Romain, I really don’t feel good». It was the day after, or two days after the fall.
«I don’t feel good, I can’t…» and, on the phone, while she was talking to me, in a sentence, she reversed the words. Like: «How are you?», and she would say: «You how are». You know? Something like that.
And I said: «But you’re joking…?»
Or she was taking a name, like speaking about someone who doesn’t exist…
«But, Gaby, are you kidding…?», because we joke a lot together.
And she was not. So I said: «My God-là! It’s super serious-là!»
It scared me: someone who didn’t realize she couldn’t pronounce properly”.
Romain’s tone of voice recreates the atmosphere of the conversation – you sense the dimensions of the problem. You sense the worry.
NEUROFEEDBACK, THE ALLY IN GABRIELLA’S RECOVERY
A long process of recovery followed, one that included, in Romain’s words, something innovative, used in Montreal to treat, among other things, concussions, very common at hockey players.
“I don’t remember for how long she didn’t skate, but we took her to a specialist for concussions, a fantastic specialist, a new thing they have in Montreal, something that’s very well-known here, because they treat the hockey players. And you know that in Montreal hockey is a religion.
And so I went with her to the doctor – and they treated her with a screen, she sat in front of a screen, while they rebalanced everything. Because each section of her brain had been affected by the fall – [so they needed to work on the] balance, the speaking, the view. And each time, they would tell us: «We are going to do that, and that – and we are going to come back to the normal». And you could see that after each session, she could walk better, or speak better…”
The therapy Romain Haguenauer refers to is called Neurofeedback and, in short, is used to train the brain for a better, optimal functionality; or, in this case, to assist in the recovery from a brain traumatism. Electrodes are placed on the patient’s head, and the healing process can begin.
Gabriella would continue to visit the clinic until December 2015. “Starting my last week of neurofeedback training at Neuroperforma clinique in Brossard. No more concussions!”, she would state categorically in a twitter post at the end of that very peculiar year.
And in an interview for “Paris Match” she would talk at length about the consequences of the fall, of the concussion itself – “The weeks that followed have been really difficult. I couldn’t leave the house, I needed to lie down, I had lost the sense of balance, I was talking very slowly and reversing the order of words. I couldn’t read, the lines kept mingling in front of my eyes, I had horrible headaches” – but she also talked about the recovery: “The re-education of my brain took almost four months. I ended up seeing a neurofeedback specialist who told me the connections between my neurons had been really affected. I didn’t expect the damage to be so bad. Even today [April 2016], I have trouble concentrating and I get tired very quickly. […] I believe it will take years for me to fully recover from this episode”.
GETTING READY FOR COMPETITIONS
And if there is any good in something that terrible, that disruptive, the always-positive Romain Haguenauer can – and will – find it.
“When they finally came back [on the ice, for their training], this problem erased what happened the year before. The fact that they had become, from nowhere, World champions.
So it was a bad thing [what happened], but I think it saved their season.
Because if it hadn’t happened, I think the Grand Prix season wouldn’t have been well. The work was not [good]. We will never know, but I think it wouldn’t have been easy”.
Getting ready for the major competitions of the season, Europeans and Worlds, wasn’t easy either – and it was the team of coaches’ job to find a way to navigate through the difficulties brought by the concussion itself and the long delay in training.
“You need to compete at least once before Europeans – so we have to do Nationals”, Romain told Gabriella and Guillaume. With all the risks that came with such an early exposure of their work.
“In December, they were ready, but really at the limit.
The short dance was very difficult, because, starting this season, every compulsory dance they have done, it was always for the first time. Because they had been juniors [until very recently], compared to a lot of the other teams: after a few years [on senior stage] you have already done all the compulsory dances. While for them, it was always new, they needed to learn those steps from zero.
Nationals, it was not a problem to win, but, you know, it was on TV, people critique a lot, which is normal…
And we went to the Europeans, and nobody really saw them before that”.
ALL EYES ON THEM
Remember, they were coming to Bratislava, in January 2016, as the European champions en titre. And with all the buzz last season, with all their difficulties off-season, this particular event was going to be a challenge.
Romain relives it with a smile. Better put, he relives it with the ease given by the way things unfolded (we all know the end of that) and with the pride his students were able to overcome everything and shine again.
But first, there’s that: a peculiar practice session, spreading different kinds of feelings – opposite even – among those watching.
“So we arrive from Canada to Bratislava – and, at the first practice, they were the only ones on the ice. No one in that group showed up, because it can happen sometimes…
So they were like the only ones to train, and everybody!, all the judges, the competitors, everybody was looking at them! Watching them!
Because of what had happened the previous season.
And, you know, the first practice… they were not ready, it was their first competition of the season”.
The coach bursts into laughter: “They skated so bad! I told them: «Ok, it’s good» – but it was not good. For them, I mean. And I said to Marie [on a low voice]: «Marie, it’s going to be difficult here. But, it’s ok, we will work, they’ll come back, we’ll see, the goal is the World Championships…»
And, finally, on the short dance, they did well for where they were at the moment, and they were second [behind Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte – n.b.].
But they skated the free dance fantastic! They were able to bring their magic at the good moment-là, for the free dance”.
Romain is talking on a soft, warm voice now – and it’s so easy to see: he really cares for them.
“Actually, it’s the first time I saw the free dance at Europeans that I said: Ok, this program is going to work! Because before, even though it was done, and I loved that program, I’ve never seen it [as it was meant to].
And at the Europeans, because of the situation, because it was difficult, because they knew they were not ready, compared to the others, they knew that everyone wanted to kill them [laughing], well, not everyone, but… they connected for the free dance and they were able to deliver for the first time this free dance like we wanted it, like it was supposed to! Never in practice had they done that.
And afterwards it was very easy for Worlds – and, at Worlds, they were amazing!”.
Simple as that – and no need for more. A line to summarize the triumph at 2016 Worlds, after the triumph at 2016 Europeans. And a scene in the Kiss and Cry in Boston: Romain’s hand on his heart, eyes thrilled at his students, at Marie-France, while seeing the scores.
The coach will only add this: “In Boston, the short dance was fantastic as well – we worked a lot on it between the Europeans and Worlds, we changed it like a hundred times, we also changed the costumes, and we found the good [version of SD] before Worlds”.
At the end of the season, there was no doubt about it: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron had won the Wimbledon as well. [Remember Romain’s metaphor?]
And the chorus of discording/worrying/disturbing voices finally fell silent.