Talented singers, gifted dancers, and skilled acrobats are usually the type of artists whose performances go viral. But this time? It’s a figure skating performance.
Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès are French pair skaters that you’re going to want to keep your eye on during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. However, back in 2015-2016, it was unclear if the pair was going to continuing skating at all.
The talented skaters were a bit discouraged after ending their 2015-2016 season on a low note. Come the 2016-2017 season. However, all of that changed. Thanks to a coaching and environment change, James and Ciprès won a medal at the 2017 World Team Trophy.
“It was a different season for us,” said 26-year-old Ciprès told Golden Skate. “We changed our team and we started many things from scratch and changed a lot, like our programs and our ways to work. We had a good season after all. We are happy with what we achieved, like the podium finish at the Trophee de France, and we finally were able to get on to the podium at Europeans with a strong performance. The World Championships weren’t as good, but we still had a much higher score than last year. So it was a good season for us.”
The pair skaters are set to be one of the most hard-to-beat skaters in Pyeongchang this coming Olympic season.
“I think we changed places for next year,” James, 29, added. “Next year, instead of fighting trying to move up, we are already in a different group now, at a different level. So we’re starting right where we need to be to be at the top for the Olympics. It’s cool.”
The pair finished in sixth, fifth, and fourth over the course of a few competitions a few years back. This was when they began to question if they should move forward and continue with skating. However, all of this changed when they saw John Zimmerman, a U.S. pair skater, perform.
“I saw John Zimmerman skating before with Kyoko and he was very athletic, very strong, really innovative lifts and transitions and I was like – I think he can do it,” she observed. “I didn’t know he had a team in the beginning, I just asked him and he said he has a team set up and he was willing and we would be the priority. He had some teams, but they are younger teams and he has no direct senior-level competitors, so it was like the jackpot.”
Together, Zimmerman and a former ice dancer John Kerr created a routine to The Weeknd’s “Earned It” for them to perform. The routine was so impressive that it has since been viewed over 5 million times.
The song is from the “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack and had a sultry routine to match. The duo’s costumes were both inspired by the movie as well; Ciprès was wearing a black two-piece with zippers, while James had a black slashed skirt with a belt and sequins. The routine earned them a bronze medal at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships.
The success of that performance has changed their minds completely. Both James and Ciprès are now focused on their next goal — the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.
“The goal are the Olympics. Maybe win, maybe touch a medal, we will see,” Ciprès said.
The incredibly talented, mind-boggling, and sensual routine below has since been viewed over 5 million times. Be sure to keep your eyes on these two during the upcoming Olympics.
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