Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha train to win. They train mainly to reduce the imponderables.
If their success is only measured by their satisfaction, they had to remove a load of pressure from their shoulders to skate up to their expectations. Now, they are masters of their destiny more than ever before.
The two athletes from the South Shore have been skating together for more than a decade. Earlier in the fall, they won two Grand Prix medals. The first in front of family and friends, in Mississauga, Ontario, and the second in Sheffield, England. Twice they were able to bite into the bronze. A few days ago they won silver at the National Championships.
Their main objective is to continue this momentum in 2023. Three days after Christmas Eve, the duo returned to work at the Gadbois Recreational Complex, at the Montreal Ice Academy. In the stands, Lagha talks with a French skater. Cell phone in hand, he is waiting for his partner. Lajoie shows up, a few minutes later, wearing the creamy white coat of the Canadian delegation from the last Olympic Games. The duo had finished 13e in ice dancing in Beijing.
The two athletes settled in the cafeteria to chat, an hour and a half before the start of their training.
Retouch after retouch
Lajoie and Lagha are mastering their program better and better. They keep the same all year round. “At the end of the season, it starts to be interesting, because you know him so well that you can add details,” explains the 22-year-old skater, a year younger than her alter ego.
So running the same program every day isn’t redundant? “No, instinctively replies Lagha, leaning back in his chair, because there is always something to improve. It’s like a painting that you always want to touch up,” he says, mimicking the movement of the brush.
Their sport is complex of perfection, repetitions and details. The idea being to reduce at all costs the risks of having to improvise in competition. “Especially with two, specifies Lajoie. If I add something and he doesn’t know it, I can’t tell him in full performance. It adds stress, because everything is planned and you have to do it like that. »
Still, the best way to improvise is to prepare.
The more you train, the more you reduce the risk of disaster in competition. The better prepared you are, the less stress will impact your performance.
Zachary Lagha
That’s why the two Olympians constantly consult their coaches on the players’ bench at the end of each programme. During their short breaks, if they don’t have their water bottle in hand, they are riveted to the tablet that filmed them.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha
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” To improve, you have to change. So to be perfect, you often have to change,” Winston Churchill once said, probably leaning on his gold-headed cane.
Lajoie and Lagha have evolved. They have certainly changed since their debut, but they have decided this season to no longer seek perfection at all costs.
We leave ourselves a little more loose. This relaxation allows us to skate better.
Zachary Lagha
Their success on the international scene bears witness to this.
Leaning on the table and sitting at the end of her chair, Lajoie speaks of maturity. “Our coach told us not to try to be perfect. We’re both great perfectionists and making mini-mistakes really gets us. Now it’s much healthier. »
According to Lajoie, she and her teammate are currently “the best version” of themselves. “We also know that we will continue to grow,” she admits.
How can they come to such a conclusion? “It’s thanks to the fact that we give ourselves a little more room for error,” adds the redhead. If something doesn’t work, we don’t make a big deal out of it. She believes the duo have found a “comfortable, healthier and more enjoyable” way to work.
The most recent performance of skaters can be explained by this new way of approaching their sport. “We are following our plan, assures Lagha. This is what we had set ourselves as a goal. And so far, everything has been achieved for the start of the season. »
Beyond the medals, the two skaters only seek to be proud of themselves. There is no reward that can outweigh the satisfaction of leaving everything on the ice. According to Lagha, all smiles looking at her friend, “when you’re in competition, you skate well, you have a good score and you’re going to untie your skates to go back to the room knowing that it went well, it ‘is the best feeling in the world “.