Episode 1: The Season Begins

[Music] Hello and welcome to Unlaced with Chalk & Bates, part of the Believe Podcast Network. I'm Madison Chalk. And I'm Evan Bates and we're Olympic Ice Dancers for Team USA. This week we're in Finland for our first competition of the season. And we thought we'd start a podcast to document the journey. Yeah, why not? Welcome to the inaugural episode of Unlaced. This podcast is going to be a great way for us to keep an audio journal of this time in our lives, the season leading up to the Olympic Games, and a great way to share more of what life is like as an Olympic figure skater. So this weekend we'll be competing at the Finlandia Trophy. For those who are curious about how the figure skating season works, the Finlandia Trophy is part of what's called the Challenger Series, which is a competition circuit that happens at the beginning of the season before the Grand Prix circuit, which will begin in a few weeks. The Grand Prix circuit culminates in December with the Grand Prix Final. And after that, countries will each have their individual national championships and make their selections for the Olympics. And saying all of that, that puts us right at the beginning of our season. Right. What an exciting time, Maddie. What an exciting time. On the precipice of our Olympic season. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled to. Yeah. So we have been dying to announce our music for this season. So we'll do that on this episode. But first, we wanted to give you some insight on what our competition week will look like. So what does our competition week look like, Evan? Well, Maddie, glad you asked. We can get on the same page here. So we landed yesterday in Helsinki. Today is the first day of practice. We just have one practice today. We have one practice tomorrow. And then we'll be competing this weekend. The rhythm dance on Saturday and the free dance on Sunday. Great. Glad we have the same schedule. Yes. See you there. This is our fifth time to Finland. So we're pretty familiar with this beautiful city and all it has to offer. Finland's a country, but I think everyone is what you mean. Right. I'm sorry. Yes. I was just imagining myself here in Helsinki. The beautiful city of Finland. I love Finland. We love Finland. There's such a beautiful park just right behind the hotel. We usually take long walks while we're here. Long walks in the park. But you know what? Finlandia Trophy was actually our first international competition together ever. 10 years ago. Can you believe it? Sheesh. 10 years. Wow. Time really flies. It doesn't have 10 years. I mean 10 years. 10 years. Good job. You can go to U2. Yeah. Do you have any memories that stick out from that first time? 10 years ago. I don't think I can remember 10 days ago. But 10 years ago. So it was our first competition ever together. And it was actually the first competition for me in like 18 months. Because I had had a memorably gruesome injury the year before. I had my Achilles tendon severed by a skate blade. And it knocked me out for a good year. Maybe that's a story for another episode. But it led me to you. Hey, hey, hey. Yeah. So partner. Hey partner. One of those things in life that you don't necessarily wish for, but looking back. I don't think anyone would ever wish for that ever. But looking back, it's certainly one of those life events that I don't think. I don't think we'd be skating together if it weren't for that incident. So. Yes. Gratitude. Very possible. Gratitude. So much gratitude. But I remember just being so nervous at that event. I hadn't competed in a long time. I had a new partner. Definitely thought we had a great connection. I think we skated well. But I remember being so nervous on practice. I was just like forgetting my steps, forgetting what I was doing. How do I skate again? It's all coming back to you now. You do remember a lot. I really don't remember too much from it. I do remember though. I know I have a few memories. Not so much of the ice and how I felt though. So that's interesting to hear. But it makes sense. You're off the ice for quite some time. Yes. I was. What about you, Maddie? What memory sticks out in your mind from that fateful first competition a decade ago? I remember being here with my parents and your mom. And the first day that we were in town, we took the bus from our hotel and went into the heart of the city. We walked around, saw the sights and how sinky. We took a photo by the boats and the water. And I remember being so tired on the way back that two of us fell asleep on the bus going back to the hotel. And I think one of our parents captured that and I still have that photo. I'd like to see that photo. I don't know that photo. I will show you that photo. It's pretty funny. Okay. Maybe we'll have to post that photo. Yes. I think so. Okay. So that's enough down memory lane, I think, for the time being. Let's talk about our music for the Olympic season. What's our music for the Olympic season, Maddie? Do you want to take the honors? Oh, I will take the honor. Thank you. Let's start with the rhythm dance. And just quickly, for those of you who are new to figure skating, we make two programs every year. The rhythm dance and the free dance. The rhythm dance has a set rhythm every year. So for example, four years ago in Pyongchang, it was Latin. And each team had to make a Latin rhythm dance. This year, the rhythm is hip-hop, which is great because we should see a lot of creativity and fun music selections. So for our rhythm dance this year, we will be skating to Billie Eilish. The one and only. William Eilish. And we're super excited. We wanted to skate to something super current and fresh. And I am a huge Billie Eilish fan as is Evan. I'm a huge Billie Eilish fan too. And with the Olympics, hopefully we have a lot of new viewers to figure skating. And we wanted to skate to something that was current and popular and would resonate maybe with a younger audience. And so Billie Eilish is just awesome. She's fierce. She loves animals. She loves the office. We love the office. We love animals. I feel like we just have a lot in common. I feel like we would be friends. I hope we would be friends. She's really young and hip, though. Maybe we're too old for her. No, she has an older brother, Phineas, I think. Oh, Phineas, yes. That's more our demographic, age-wise. But I feel like she's a good person. Yeah. What she did at the Met Gala this year. I love that. Yes. Oscar De La Renta. Oscar De La Renta and how she agreed. She kind of proposed that he stopped using real fur in his fashion. And he agreed and she encouraged all fashion designers to follow suit. And she just seems like a good egg. Yes. Really, really good values, good morals. And what a voice. What a voice. Phineas. Phineas. Phineas. Phineas. I mean, I'm sure she's responsible. I mean, it's a duo. Yeah, no, it's a duo. Yeah. We're a duo. We understand that that's like a team. Yes. I think the music is so cool. Are we speaking? Are we the same? This is the same time. Oh, man. Oh, man. Okay. But yes, seriously, their music is fantastic. So many layers and nuances. And I think in a way, it's perfect for skating because it gives us so many options to dance on and to really enhance our movements to all of those layers in the music. And also, I just wanted to point out, like, for you to be portraying such a strong female role, I think is-- Yes. I love it. And something that we'd love to put on the ice, you know, and it's authentic because that's who you are. You know, and it's something I think it's great for young people in general, but especially young girls to look up to. I'm incredibly inspired by Billie Eilish. Her lyrics really are empowering. And I hope that resonates with a lot of young girls, like it does for myself as well. And not just young girls, women everywhere. This isn't the first rhythm dance we made this year. In fact, we started with another rhythm dance. We-- An entirely different program that we trained all summer. But then when we went to Champs Camp in August, we decided to go in a different direction. So just quickly, Champs Camp is a camp that takes place for Team USA athletes who will be on the Grand Prix circuit. It's a place where we debut our new programs with no audiences, but just judges and officials who give us feedback on the new programs. And to make a long story short, when we showed our rhythm dance, our old rhythm dance, our feedback wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be. So we decided to scrap it and go in a new direction. The Billie Eilish program is new. It's about a month old, but I think we did a good job getting ready for Finlandia Trophy. I think we did too. Good job. With the time we had, I think we did well. To be honest, we managed. It was a bit stressful at times, but I am so happy that we did it. I think this program really fits our personalities better. It's something I think that can feel fresh throughout the entire season as we keep developing it. Agreed. I agree. Nice. Okay, so for the free dance. Yes. Okay. Here we go. This year for the free dance, we will be skating to Draft Punk. Yes. As you can tell, we are so pumped for this program. It's a concept that we've been working on for about a year and a half. We actually picked this music before the pandemic even started. Yes. Way back when in our past lives, pre-economic lives. It seems longer than a year and a half ago, but. So we are calling this program "contact." The concept is, "Madi is an alien and I'm an astronaut." We meet again. a planet in outer space. Planet ice. And really the message of the program that we want to convey is about acceptance. It's about learning to love someone who is different than you are. Someone who maybe doesn't look like you, maybe doesn't speak your language, isn't from the same place, or even the same planet maybe. And another layer to this program is the aspect of contact. After the pandemic, we all learned for the first time what it feels like to be truly isolated. From one another. And an essential part of being human is to experience contact. Being able to hug your loved ones, your friends, hold hands with your partner. I mean, we could sit and hug each other all day because we were quarantined together. Yeah, but still, I mean, we were, we were still, you know, far away from our families for a long time. And I feel like so many people just had that experience of being isolated and not being able to just, you know, do other persons. Yeah, and do things that we took for granted previously. So we wanted to incorporate that into the new freelance because it's just, we feel like it's so relatable for so many people. Yes. So we're obviously really excited to debut these programs this weekend. We have a sneak peek that we'll be posting to our Instagrams. That's chocolate zero two spelled CH-O-C-K-O-L-A-T-E. And Evan underscore baits. Make sure to check it out. It's a clip that was filmed and edited by Jordan Cowan from Onice Perspectives. Who is incredible. We also want to especially thank the coaches and the choreographers who've worked so closely with us on these new programs. Marie-France-Dubriel, Sam Schwinard, and Sarah Steben. Among others. It really takes a full team. It does. And we're lucky to work with the full team. Yes. Of experts. I think that's what makes a program so special is everyone puts a little something of themselves into it and then you create something that couldn't have otherwise been created by just one or two brains. Well said. Thank you. I think we've got to go to practice now. Oh yeah. What time is it? Time to get the bus. So that's all for this week. Thank you so much for listening to our first episode of Unlaced with Chalkin Bates. Make sure you subscribe for future episodes and we will talk to you soon. Right on cue. That's our alarm to go to the bus. Bye everyone.