Georges Laraque received 12 stitches after his partner's skate slashed his face during practice, Saturday.
Skating a run-through on the eve of their first live performance on Battle of the Blades, Laraque was executing a move with partner Anabelle Langlois when they lost control.
"The move that we do, it might look cool but it's actually quite hard and dangerous," Laraque said in an interview following the incident. "You have to be really careful and do it properly so you don't get hurt."
To do the move, which is called "The Chainsaw," Langlois, who weighs 97 lbs to Laraque's 275, uses her momentum to swing by her arms around her partner's neck. It is a jaw-dropping show-skating move made famous by two-time Olympic bronze medallists Lloyd Eisler and Isabelle Brasseur. Brasseur is also a skater on Battle of the Blades.
"We've done it hundreds of times and nothing ever happened," Laraque said of the trick, which he still plans to perform during Sunday's show.
If you ask the skaters, Saturday's mishap can be chalked up to a wardrobe malfunction. Laraque says his new costume--including a muscle shirt--had been allowing too much friction as Langlois swung around his bare neck. The pair decided to rub moisturizer onto Laraque's neck in an effort to reduce friction.
Things did not go as planned.
"She was turning too fast because of the (moisturizer)," Laraque explained. "The second turn, the grip kind of let go because she was off-balance."
Langlois started to fall--head-first--toward the ice. Laraque leaned forward in a panic and managed to keep his partner from hitting her head. In the process, however, Langlois's skate slashed Laraque across the forehead. The former NHL enforcer, who is not a stranger to receiving cuts and bruises due to sport, says the cut is fairly deep and narrowly missed both his left eye and temple.
When things go wrong during lifts, throws and other moves, the men in pairs figure skating are trained to keep their partners from hitting the ice at all costs. Battle of the Blades is no exception, and Laraque appears to have heeded his training.
"It was the most important thing that nothing happens to her and she's OK. That's all I cared about," he said. "I made Anabelle a promise before we started that I would never drop her and she would never get hurt. I'd rather I get a beating than she does. She's so small."
In the mean time, the duo says they have learned from their mistake and will be making adjustments to Laraque's costume ahead of Sunday's show.
"(The moisturizer) was too slippery, so we know it doesn't work. It was an idea to do it with the muscle shirt. Nobody could have known that she would turn that fast. It's good that it happens today so it doesn't happen tomorrow," Laraque said.
Battle of the Blades airs Sunday on CBC at 8 p.m.
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