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 Salé and Pelletier compete at the 2002 Grand Prix Final | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1977-04-21)April 21, 1977 (age 48) |
| Height | 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) |
Spouses | |
| Figure skating career | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Partner | David Pelletier |
| Skating club | CPA St-Leonard |
| Retired | 2002 |
Jamie Rae Salé (born April 21, 1977) is aCanadian former competitive pair skater. With her former husbandDavid Pelletier, she is the2002 Olympic Champion and2001 World Champion. The Olympic gold medals of Salé and Pelletier were shared with the Russian pairElena Berezhnaya andAnton Sikharulidze after the2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal.
Salé was born inCalgary,Alberta.[citation needed] She grew up in a bungalow inRed Deer. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she was separated from her brother.[1]
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Salé competed first as a singles skater, winning the novice bronze medal and placing eighth in junior ladies at the Canadian Championships. In 1994, Salé won the short program and finished with the bronze medal in the junior event at the Canadian Championships. That same year, she achieved her biggest success to date by winning the senior bronze medal with her pairs partner,Jason Turner. They were named to the 1994 Canadian Olympic team and placed 12th at theLillehammer Olympics. They placed 16th at the 1994 World Championships inChiba, Japan, but ended their partnership that August.
Salé returned to singles skating. She placed fifth at the 1995 Canadian Championships, but struggled with injuries which caused her to withdraw from the 1997 Championships. Salé returned in 1998 and skated a strong short program, but was only able to land one of five planned triples in her long program and placed sixth.
Salé had a tryout withDavid Pelletier in the summer of 1996, but it did not lead to a partnership. After her moderate success in singles, she decided to give pairs one last shot. Coach Richard Gaulthier, who was helping Pelletier find a partner, suggested Salé. He and Pelletier went toEdmonton in February 1998 to try out with Salé again. "The first time we grabbed hands, it was just great," said Pelletier, and by the next month Salé had moved toMontréal to skate with Pelletier.
TheCanadian Figure Skating Association invited the pair to compete atSkate Canada, where they placed second in the short program – ahead of reigning Canadian ChampionsKristy Sargeant andKris Wirtz – and third in the long program to win the bronze medal. Because of their success, they were invited to the NHK Trophy in Japan and won another bronze medal.
Their fall successes made them favorites for the Canadian title, but they struggled technically and finished second. The silver medal earned them a spot on theFour Continents and World team, but Pelletier's back pain forced the pair to withdraw from both competitions. They spent two months off the ice recuperating.
In the summer of 1999, Gaulthier enlisted the help ofLori Nichol, a successful Canadian choreographer who was known for her work withMichelle Kwan. She created a playful tango piece for their short program, and, after a suggestion from coach Marijane Stong, set their long program to music from the movieLove Story.
They won several competitions with this program. At the 1999 Skate America competition, they defeated the reigning and two-time world champions and Olympic silver medalistsElena Berezhnaya andAnton Sikharulidze by winning both the short and long programs. At their secondGrand Prix event, Nations Cup, they finished second to RussiansMaria Petrova andAlexei Tikhonov. With these solid results they went into the Grand Prix Final with high hopes and even higher expectations. However, several errors in both programs landed them in fifth place.
They competed at the 2000Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Salé's hometown of Calgary. They skated a strong short program but exceeded even their own expectations by skating a nearly flawless long program, earning five 6.0 marks in presentation – the first for a pair at the championships. They also captured another 6.0 and the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships inOsaka, Japan.
Expectations mounted before the 2000 World Championships in Nice, France. There, Salé had a major error on a spin in the short program, and they were placed third. During the long program, she again struggled, this time with her jumps, and they placed fourth overall.
Salé and Pelletier returned to Lori Nichol for their 2000–01 programs. She choreographed a jazzy short to "Come Rain or Come Shine" and a dramatic, mature long to Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde." They returned to Skate America and Skate Canada that fall, winning both over Shen/Zhao and Berezhnaia/Sikharulidze, respectively. Berezhnaia/Sikharulidze then defeated them atTrophée Lalique.
The pair was again successful at the 2001 Canadian Championships inWinnipeg, but did not earn the string of 6.0s that "Love Story" had brought them the previous year. They went on to win again at Four Continents inSalt Lake City, the site for the2002 Olympics, and revived "Love Story" to win the Grand Prix Final – despite Salé missing the side by side triple toe loop in all three phases of the competition.
The 2001 World Championships were held inVancouver, and Salé and Pelletier entered as heavy favorites. Trouble on the side by side jumps landed them in third place in the short program, but the team was placed first in the long program despite Salé singling a side-by-side double axel. They were the first Canadian pair to win Worlds sinceIsabelle Brasseur andLloyd Eisler in 1993, and the first pair to win at a Worlds held in Canada sinceBarbara Underhill andPaul Martini in 1984. They would later win theLou Marsh Trophy as outstanding Canadian athlete in 2001.
Salé and Pelletier again had early success in the 2001–02 season, winning both Skate America and Skate Canada with their new long program to "Adagio Sostenuto" byRachmaninoff, nicknamed "Orchid" for its flower theme.
The Grand Prix Final, held inKitchener, Ontario, was important because it was the only chance to test their programs against the top contenders before the Olympics. Despite a rough performance of "Orchid" in the first long program, Salé and Pelletier once again won the event, skating a clean performance of "Love Story" for their second long program. They headed into the 2002 Canadian Championships inHamilton, Ontario with confidence, having defeated Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, their biggest rivals. They were able to win the title despite missing several elements in the long program, and the performance increased talks that they would revert to "Love Story" for the Olympic Games.
Despite several silvers and bronzes, Canada had only won two Olympic gold medals in figure skating, in 1948 and 1960.[citation needed] Salé and Pelletier skated their short program well, only to trip and fall on their closing pose. Because the fall was not on an element, it did not receive a deduction.[citation needed] They placed second behind Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.[2]
In the long program, Salé and Pelletier had no obvious mistakes. Berezhnaya and Sikharludize, meanwhile, skated a more difficult program in which Sikharulidze had a minor step out on a jump element before quickly regaining unison with his partner. Four judges placed Salé and Pelletier first, while five had Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze as the winners, with the Canadians receiving higher technical scores and the Russians higher presentation scores. This result spurred an outcry from the North American media, who emphasized Sikharulidze's stepout[3][4] while ignoring that Salé and Pelletier had fallen in the short program and not received a deduction.[citation needed] The commentators received criticism for failing to mention Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze's strengths, with some observers stating that the Russians had performed a more challenging program with greater speed, more interweaving moves and transitions, and less distance between the partners.[5][3][6][7][8][9]
The day after the competition, the French judgeMarie-Reine Le Gougne admitted she had been pressured into awarding the long program to the Russians in exchange for a first-place vote for the French ice dancing team ofMarina Anissina andGwendal Peizerat, and ajudging controversy quickly blew up. The scandal ultimately resulted in the suspension of several judges and officials, and Le Gougne's vote was discarded, leaving the long program a tie. Salé and Pelletier were awarded gold medals in a special ceremony later in the week.
The controversy resulted in several changes to the judging system. Initially, anonymous judging was incorporated to "relieve outside pressure" from judges by separating their names from their marks so pressurers could not know whether the judge had acted as they wished. After two years of this system, theCode of Points was implemented and began use in the Grand Prix season of 2003–04, and full usage for all 2004–05 competitions and thereafter.[citation needed]
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After the Olympics, Salé and Pelletier turned professional and began touring North America withStars on Ice, a figure skating show.
In 2006, Salé and Pelletier served as commentators onOlympic Ice, which aired onUSA Network during the2006 Winter Olympics.
Salé and Pelletier were inducted into theSkate Canada Hall of Fame in 2008.[10] They were inducted into theCanadian Olympic Hall of Fame on March 26, 2009.[11]
In October 2009, Salé began competing on thefirst season of theCBC'sBattle of the Blades. She was partnered withCraig Simpson, lead analyst forHockey Night in Canada and a former professional hockey player. The two had known each other for years through Edmonton’s skating scene.[12] They won the competition in November 2009.[13]
In 2010, Salé competed on thesecond season ofBattle of the Blades, this time paired withTheoren Fleury.[14] She returned in 2013 as a judge on the show'sfourth season.[15][16]
Salé and Pelletier became engaged on Christmas Day 2004 at theirEdmonton,Alberta home,[17] and married on December 30, 2005, at theFairmont Banff Springs hotel inBanff, Alberta.[18] Their son was born on September 30, 2007.[19]
On June 4, 2010, it was reported that Salé and Pelletier had decided to divorce, but planned to remain skating partners; they skated together until they retired in 2012.[20][16] In later interviews, Salé stated that they had separated in March 2009, but chose to keep the news private for over a year.[12][16]
On June 21, 2012, in California, Salé married her season 1Battle of the Blades partnerCraig Simpson, who split from his first wife in March 2010.[21][22][23] Salé and Simpson have one daughter, born on July 7, 2013.[24] Through this marriage, Salé is also astepmother to Simpson's three children from his first marriage.[22]
In a November 2019 guest column in theToronto Star, Salé wrote that the end of her marriage with Pelletier and her professional skating career had left her with "feelings of emptiness and discontentment" and she "fell into deep despair." She said that support from friends and family helped her get through her feelings of despair, and an encounter with a life coach inspired her to become a motivational speaker and life coach.[25]
By July 2021, Salé and Simpson were no longer living together, and Salé filed for divorce in 2022. She said that they separated due to Simpson's disagreement with her political views.[1]
Salé andTheo Fleury hostThe Theo & Jamie Show: Fire and Ice, an online program with the Calgary-based conservative media outlet Canadians for Truth.[1] She has compared Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau toAdolf Hitler, promotedconspiracy theories about COVID-19 and theCOVID-19 vaccines,[1] and calledthe use of face masks on children a form of child abuse.[26]
ColumnistGary Mason ofThe Globe and Mail wrote in a November 2022 column: "[Salé] has emerged as an ardentanti-vaxxer who has said putting a mask on a child is 'child abuse.' HerTwitter feed is an endless flow of dubious claims from dubious sources. She happily goes down rabbit holes to share falsehoods about theWorld Economic Forum and the 'Great Reset,' which conspiracists claim is an effort by the global elite to dismantle capitalism and impose radical change on the world."[27]
In May 2022, she shared an image of a fabricated news article that claimed thePfizer COVID-19 vaccine only had a 12% efficacy rate. The image was designed to look like it was fromGlobal News, althoughReuters confirmed with the outlet that there was no such story.[28]
In August 2022, she posted another image of a fabricated news article that claimed Trudeau said climate change was to blame for anger and resentment toward politicians. This time the image was designed to look like it came fromCBC News.Agence France-Presse confirmed with CBC News that the article did not exist.[29]
(with David Pelletier)
| Event | 1998–1999 | 1999–2000 | 2000–2001 | 2001–2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Games | 1st | |||
| World Championships | 4th | 1st | ||
| Four Continents Championships | 1st | 1st | ||
| Grand Prix Final | 5th | 1st | 1st | |
| GPSkate America | 1st | 1st | 1st | |
| GPSkate Canada International | 3rd | 1st | 1st | |
| GPNations Cup | 2nd | |||
| GPTrophée Lalique | 2nd | |||
| GPNHK Trophy | 3rd | |||
| Canadian Championships | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Canadian Open | 1st | |||
| Masters of Figure Skating | 4th |
(with Jason Turner)
| Event | 1991–1992 | 1992–1993 | 1993–1994 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Games | 12th | ||
| World Championships | 16th | ||
| Skate America | 7th | ||
| NHK Trophy | 5th | ||
| Canadian Championships | 1st J. | 4th | 3rd |
(with Pelletier)
2003:
2002:
| Event | 1992–1993 | 1994–1995 | 1996–1997 | 1997–1998 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Junior Championships | 12th | |||
| Canadian Championships | 3rd J. | 5th | WD | 6th |
[Salé/Pelletier's program] was not quite up to the standard set by the Russians in terms of complexity and originality
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
