Skip to content

Daughter helps Okotoks dad at worlds

Figure Skating: Dave Sargent takes silver in Innsbruck
Figureskatingdaveandtalia
Dave Sargent with his daughter Talia at the 2020 Winter World Masters Games in Innsbruck, Austria in January. Talia coached her dad in the ice dance competition. (photo submitted)

OKOTOKS - It pays to accept help from family as you get older.

Okotoks figure skater David Sargent, 60, and his ice dance partner Kelly Clements finished second in the free dance at the 2020 Winter World Masters Games in Innsbruck, Austria in January.

He did it with the assistance of one of the duo’s coaches – his 20-year-old daughter Talia Sargent, a long-time member of the Okotoks Figure Skating Club where she now coaches.

“Oh, I listened to her,” Dave said.

“I can’t see what I am doing right or wrong in the program and with the nerves – your body tends to stand up straighter, your shoulders hunch, you forget to breathe, a coach can see that.”

He called having his daughter help him in Austria a once in lifetime opportunity.

“To be able to have her there, be my coach, and be able to go on this trip together father and daughter…” he said.

Dave and Clements became a duo in November 2018 through his coach at the Wildrose Skating Club in Calgary.

“He asked me if I would be interested in coming out and seeing if we would be a good fit,” Dave said. “Kelly was an accomplished dance skater too and a free skater, so we were a pretty good match.”

He said from height to ability the match was a natural fit.

“You need to be able to have trust with each other – that your partner knows your steps as well as you do,” Dave said.

The pair had previously competed in Lake Placid, New York in 2019 prior to the worlds.

They competed in three events at Innsbruck, taking the silver medal in the free dance.

“We were really happy with how we skated,” Dave said. “We danced to Les Mis. We were more waltzy, but there is one section where the footwork is a little faster. The judges like to see the change in tempo.”

Les Mis just happened to be some of the music Talia skated to when she competed with the Okotoks club.

Dave was a hockey player while growing up in Winnipeg, idolizing Dave Keon and Bobby Orr.

“I switched over to
figure skating when I was about 21 and I enjoyed it and took lessons in Winnipeg,” he said. “I always enjoyed skating.”

It wasn’t Dave’s first trip to a world championship.

He won a gold medal at a world championship in Germany in 2010 and 2012 in the solo freeskate.

He had to switch to dance a few years ago.

“I knew I am not getting younger and I knew at some point my body would not allow me to jump and spin and that happened about 2 ½ years ago when my back, my hips were giving me trouble,” Dave said.

“I had to take about nine months off just to heal up. My doctor told me stop jumping, stop doing the impact kind of sport or I would have no hip at all cartilage wise. And my back was giving me a lot of problems.”

Dave, who turned 60 on Feb. 4, is glad to be at the rink.

“I’m just happy to have a good day some days – now I go out to the rink and I wonder if I am going to be as flexible today,” he said with a chuckle. “But it is keeping me young. When Talia was younger she used to tell people I was 70 or 80.”

Fortunately, Talia is much more precise as a coach.

“I helped them with the practice sessions before the competition and I was there for the competition – just kind of keeping the peace between the partnership sometimes,”  Talia said. “I helped them with their nerves and things – calming them down so they could do their best.”

Talia, an HTA grad now currently studying at Calgary’s St. Mary’s University to become a teacher, said it was tough at times coaching dad.

“It was hard because I didn’t want to tell him he was doing something wrong, because he is my dad,” Talia said. “But he was always really good at listening to my corrections.”

Talia, who competed at a high level with the Okotoks club growing up, is thinking of getting back to competitive skating again.

“I will probably skate senior women’s next year,” Talia said. “I thought I was done with it and ready to coach. But I realized I love skating and I want to keep going.

“Kind of like my dad.”

 

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks