Journal Staff
Sarnia’s Michael Marinaro and his partner Kirsten Moore-Towers earned their ticket to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games with a gold-medal performance at the National Figure Skating Championships in Ottawa on the weekend.
It was a third straight Canadian pairs title for Marinaro and Moore-Towers, of St. Catharines, Ont.
Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee announced the official Olympic figure skating team Sunday, with Marinaro and Moore-Towers representing Canada in pairs, along with Vanessa James and Eric Radford.
"It wasn’t perfect, but definitely leaps and bounds ahead of what we’ve done this season. Our goal was to go to Beijing as Canadian champions,” Moore-Towers said of their performance at Nationals.
Marinaro, who got his start with the Point Edward Skating Club, told The Journal last year that this is likely the final season for the duo, who finished 11th at the 2018 games in Pyongchang.
Selection was based on international results and scores from the past two seasons and at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, Skate Canada said.
Team Canada earned Olympic quotas through skaters’ placements at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships this past March.
Figure skating is one of Canada’s most successful sports at the Olympic Winter Games, with 29 Olympic medals, six of them gold.
