Jenna McCorkell and Kevin Van Der Perrenâs bumpy ride through the season
June 3, 2010
By Mireille Geurts
Photos © Absolute Skating, Ageha,
Vera Alexandrova, Jenna McCorkell, Caroline Paré
The
season 2009-2010 was a long awaited season in figure skating because
the Olympic Games 2010 would take place. Although there are World
Championships every year, the Olympic Games are something special.
The occurrence of the event every 4 years makes it a cycle, a goal
to work towards, often with a big desire to be present to achieve
the highlight of oneâs career. Therefore, going to the Olympic Games
usually comes with a lot of excitement and apprehension. In some
cases it also comes with the Olympic Committee of the skaterâs country,
the media in said country or even just from within oneself.
This couple has had to handle both. Kevin Van Der Perren, competing at his third Olympics alreadyâa feat not many athletes even manage nor imagine - and his wife Jenna McCorkell who would be going to her very first Olympics and was hoping it would be everything she dreamed of.
The
preceding months were not exactly considered ideal. Kevinâs first
competition of the season, the Finlandia Trophy, ended in a struggle
to even finish his program. He experienced a big fall and as it
looked to the spectators, he was contemplating finishing his program
or leaving the ice. âNo,â said Kevin in denial, âIt wasnât me at
all. It was the referee!!! I took a big fall and it was indeed on
my injured hip, so they were very worried and wanted me to withdraw!
Last year I already had to do that. I really didnât want that this
time, so I begged if I could please finish!â With that in mind,
one can say the actual result doesnât even really matter.
Jennaâs start of the season in Finland went a little better than
Kevinâs, she ended up 5th.
âIt
was a good score for first competition and also to be top 5 and
get world ranking points was a bonus hehe. After that I had a real
busy season, I got an unexpected invite for Cup of Russia. Heard
that only 4 days before and got thrown in the deep end. Had such
problems getting a VISA, because I was on a British passport, in
Belgium, trying to get a Russian - VISA and that made it so complicated.
It was quite an interesting competition for her. âI had a pretty
bad short program there. I wasnât at my best at all. I think I was
really unprepared; then I got my personal best score in the free.
I had a really good one so I was pretty pleased with that.â
Kevin thinks back to Cup of Russia. âThis went a little better [than Finlandia], although still no triple axel.â We saw several in training though. âYeah in training, thatâs no problem. I did them in Finland too in training. Itâs the pressure of the competition.â
Kevin does work with a mental coach. âThat helps a lot. It makes me a lot less nervous before the competition. It is just knowing that if I do really bad and feel bad about that, I can talk to him and he can help me with it. Unfortunately, he canât go with me to the Olympics. There is no accreditation possible for him, after all the officials have gotten theirs.â
Jenna: âRight after that we had shows in Germany; in Ingolstadt.
From that show on we went to Canada, for Skate Canada.â
Kevin: âSkate Canada was a total mess! Impossible! Dortmund went
luckily a little betterâstill not what it should be, but much better.
I did three axels; one in the short and two in the free, so that
is decent. â
In Dortmund was the NRW Trophy, where he came 3th, versus 11th at
Skate Canada, it is quite clear why Kevin quickly skips over that
competition.
âFor the rest of the time we did a lot of shows. Those all did go
okayâ laughs Kevin â but yeah then there is no pressureâ.
Jenna
first had British Nationals, before the NRW Trophy. After that the
couple flew to England to appear in some shows. Kevin got sick right
after Dortmund and then the virus hopped over to Jenna.
âI will never do that again, that was really too much, 6 weekends
in a row having no rest.
I got the flu right after but it got really bad. Had a bad throat
and couldnât even swallow. By Christmas I got antibiotics because
it had developed into a chest and throat infection. After 7 days
of antibiotics and New Years, I went to Austria for a training camp
with choreographer Shanette Folle. I finished the antibiotics on
a Sunday and the camp started on Monday so I started to train full
out. Tuesday I felt bad again. Wednesday I stayed in my bed. Couldnât
swallow again, fever, it felt like someone was sticking a knife
in my throat. Spent the rest of my time in Austria in bed again.â
Okay, not really the way you want to spend a training camp, but her troubles werenât over yet.
âI came back in Belgium and went to the Belgian Olympic committee to see Kevinâs doctor and he said that I had to take another batch of antibiotics. I took them right through âtil the Wednesday before the European Champs. Thursday I tried to skate again, and felt like I had a little bit of strength back and could do some jumps again. I skated one practice on Thursday and on Friday. Saturday I skated none.
Then
travelled to Tallinn and gradually started to practice there. I
felt a little bit better until my antibiotics finished on the Wednesday.
On Thursday I started coughing again. I went to the doctor and he
suggested I withdraw, but I really didnât want to and I was thinking
it is just the short program; three jumping passes and a few elements.
If I can get through the first three jumps, I will make it through,
so I tried. It ended up being the best skateâprobably because I
was focusing on just making it through. The free program would be
a completely different ballgame. I didnât think it would make sense
to withdraw, so I just did the best I could do in that situation.
It wasnât exactly what I can do, but I am happy I tried it. I had
to take another set of antibiotics afterward though.
It is the European Championships after all, you want to do everything you can to try to compete.â
The marks for Jenna in Tallinn surprised us actually; we had expected
them to be higher. Kevin: âthat is because they downgraded a lot
of the jumps and okay, not all were fully rotated, but ALL of them?
They even downgraded the triple flip! Actually, my opinion is that
they should rule in favor of the skater when there is doubt of under
rotation.â
Kevin skated a complete new Free Program in Tallinn and we wondered
why he changed the program he skated at Skate Canada, since he got
good marks and it looked really great.
âBecause the judges let me know it was fine now, but if something
[an element] wouldnât work out, it would totally fall apart. So,
I choose some music everybody knows âRobin Hood- and put together
a new program with Yuri. I only got the costume the Tuesday before
the competition.â
Jenna jokingly adds âI only know to what program he is going to
skate when I see the costumes he has with, when we unpack our suitcases
in our hotel room.â
Yuri is Yuri Bureiko, Jennaâs long-time coach, now also Kevinâs, even though he only last season changed from Vera Vandecaveye to Silvie de Rijcke. The decision to change had to do with problems with the choreographer [Guiseppe Arena] who was acquired to create Kevinâs programs this season.
âOhh, I donât even know where to start. For one, he canât even
skate. Two, he wanted me to skate to classical musicâreal classical
music. The costumes he designed for meâthe short program was black
pants with a red scarf. The arguments I had with him turned into
arguments with Silvie. He had told the BIOC that even if I missed
all my jumps, I would still medal. With Silvie, herself, I had no
problems at all, but sheâd defend his arguments. I felt the irritations
shift and I wanted to stay friends with her, so thought it would
be better to cut our professional ties.â
And
how is it, training with Yuri now?
âThat is easy, he thinks the same way about skating as I doâ
Yuri by the way, now coach of both was accredited
at the Olympics via the Belgian team according to Jenna.
âVia the British they could only offer it to him after the Pairs
event and then I would be there all alone the time before.â
The weeks in between Europeans and Olympics for her were spent âjust trying to get healthy again and relax and be sensible about practicingâ. For Kevin however, things were entirely different.
Preceding to the Olympics the pressure only built. The media started to think Kevin could medal, while he himself was very aware that in this field, that would be an impossible feat. âI can skate two great programs and be very happy with that, and in an ideal scenario, reach my goal and end up in the top 10 and then I still come home and only get to hear I didnât medal. How on earth can I still be happy with what I do then?â
Jenna, very contradictory, had the opposite, very supportive press.
âI donât know. They have always been that way. I only see articles
stating how proud they are I will be there. The situation here is
Belgium is so weird; itâs like the polar opposite. They have always
been that wayâvery supportive. They never run me down. I can only
hope that stays that way!â â laughs.
âIt
is upsetting to see Kevin like this. On a good day, all is fine,
but on a bad day he is so unmotivated and the stuff in the newspapers
is ridiculous.â
And then the Olympics Games itself. Kevin skated a phenomenal short
program. On Night of a Bald Mountain , in his "old" skeleton
costume, he nailed all his planned jumps: a beautiful triple flip-triple
toe combination, triple axel and triple loop.
His overjoyed face afterwards was worth a million and the judges
rewarded his clean performance with 72.90 points. His long program
unfortunately didnât go so well, the planned jumps did not want
to work out and that took the wind a little out of the program,
even though his flying sit spin was awarded level 4 and he landed
a clean 3 Salchow/3 toe in his Robin Hood program.
For Jenna it was hard what to expect for the Olympics, âother people
are competing there than usual, like no Valentina Marchei, no Viktoria
Helgesson.. so I had no expectations aside just trying to skate
my best.â
And
unfortunately that did not happen. She had a disastrous short program.
She fell on her combination, missing it entirely, all in all this
lead to very low marks and she didnât make it to the long program.
A real pity.
So, does this mean dreams shattered?? Maybe for a little while.
Should they be?? Heck no. If anything, these two have shown that
they never give up, displaying their true fighter spirits, which
is what makes up a real athlete and thus true Olympians! As Jenna
put it herself
âTo not qualify was the worst feeling, but I will have other challenges
in my life, itâs how you deal and overcome them that is the important
thing. My confidence was knocked but I am feeling physically much
better so I just want to go to Worldâs and try and improve on my
scores and position from last season.â
If anybody proved those words true value, it was this couple. At said World Championships in Torino, Kevin skated a satisfying short program with a clean quad but a stumble on the Axel, sadly on the day he learned his grandfather had just passed away from an heart attack. 2 days later he opened his free with a breathtaking 4-3-3 combination, an amazing accomplishment. He was completely overwhelmed after the program, falling to his knees, earning with all of that, an 8th place.
Jenna skated a clean short and a blinder of a free program, earning
not only a lifetime best free program score, but also a career best
overall score.
â 'This was one of my best skates, it felt so good to be out there!
This will hopefully set the record straight!'â
And that it surely did. For Jenna and Kevin!
This was a rocky season to say the least. Many ups and downs, living through them all, showing the true athlete spirit this couple has. Something they will both keep showing us. At least for one more season!!
As made very clear in the article
we previously published, this couple does not only compete.
If you missed it, check out all about their showy side there
and keep an eye on AS for updates on the most recent Ice Fantillusion
show!