Jamie and David's skating relationship became official on March 10,1998. Before then, however, they had tried out together in 1996. Unfortunately, they tried elements on the first day that lead Jamie to pull a muscle in her landing leg, and therefore she was unable to continue through the try-out successfully. As she bluntly stated "It was...the worst experience I have ever had,". However, Jamie had a high hopes that David would say yes to the partnership. More time passed before Jamie was able to get in contact with David to find out his final decision, and when she did find the answer, it wasn't what she was hoping for. "Deep down, I knew I could never be a world champion in singles. I knew pair skating was what I really loved, what I was born to do. But what am I going to do? I said to myself, I just can't quit! I've got to try something." As of that moment in time, David did not want to skate with the 'Queen of the West'. However, in February of Jamie heard that David was retiring and getting married, she gave it one last chance and called him again. Jamie felt that this was her final chance to skate with David. There might have been times in the last 2 years that she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't chase after David again, but but now she was scared to loose the opportunity. She was unsure if he wanted to another try-out, but this time, Pelletier was all for it. David was known to have a hot temper, and the only pairs coach in Montreal, Richard Gouthier, didn't want to have anything to do with him because of this. "I knew of Richard," David says. "and I knew how he ran his school. But I also knew that's what I needed. I needed somebody to control me, somebody who would not let me do this kind of stuff." Richard agreed to caoch them, with some conditions with David's temper. David had to agree to where if he got so mad and was kicking the ice and swearing, he would have to leave the rink for the rest of the day. Richard said about David skating with another partner, " Well the only one I see in Canada you can skate with is Jamie. I don't know if she'll want to move out here." This try out was going to be in Edmonton, it all sounded right, and Richard agreed to having Jamie's pairs coach, Jan Ullmark, there watching. The decisions were made, and David and Richard got on a plane to Edmonton. The first time they skated together, they were kids just excited about trying it all out. The second time was the charm for them. "It was the signature on the contract" ~ Jamie Sale. All the elements came together, the first time around the rink, everything was just there for them both. David and Richard returned home to Montreal, and Jamie anxiously awaited the call back. "I remember getting off the phone, and being like, Oh my God, he said yes! And I remember thinking, my dream is coming true. And it just flashes by you, right like that." Jamie was on her way to Quebec to skate her dream. When Jamie got to Montreal, she had heard about David's temper and she wasn't going to put with it, and neither was Richard. "I had heard when he was in Boucherville we was very aggressive and loud, and sometimes mean. But he knew when he started skated with me he couldn't get away with that. If he didn't treat me well I'd be on the first plane home. Because I won't take that. To me, it just makes the girls get pushed down even more. And they start to lose their confidence." Richard saw that Jamie wasn't going to put up with his crap, and she turned his attitude around soon after they began skating together. The exercises and Jamie and Richard not putting up with his anger problems, sooned turned David around. Their first year together was a trying one. David got married that same summer Jamie came to skate with him, and it was hard on Jamie being away from home. Being in a country where people mostly speak french, she only knew hello and goodbye. "I came with 3 bags and my skates." Skating with David, also had its up and downs the first year and a half. "Some days he could be himself and we have fun. But it wasn't very often. Because the first year and a half with his wife and everything-there's just too many things that made everybody feel uncomfortable." Having his wife at the rink watching them, was hard for Richard to coach them. Eventually he had to tell David to ask his wife not to come down and watch the practices. At the end of competitions, Jamie would go one way and David the other. In their first year together, they got two international assignments and won the bronze at both events. Everything was running smoothly, until the morning before 1999 Worlds, when David couldn't get out of bed do to a herniated disk in his back . During his recovery time, David skated his choregraphy and such, and that's when Lori Nichol came forward with 'Love Story'. Soon 'Love Story' became Jamie and David's lives off the ice. David and his wife separated and tried out being a couple both on and off the ice. "It took a long time before we really wanted tobe a couple. And we wanted to be good together earlier but it just wasn't good at all, because obviously he got married for love. He was healing. And I had been dating a guy and we broke up. I was healing. We needed to support each other, but we still weren't really good to be together. Now, we really love each other for the the right reasons. But in the beginning it just was.....it was fun. And were were skating well, so it just took off. That's another thing, we had the chemistry. But I think it really was the for the skating in the beginning. I'm not sauing that I ddin't care for him, but obviously skating had a big part in it. And it didn't make our skating better, but it made me happy." Their coach said of the program 'Love Story,' "People would say 'oh they are such great actors.' That was no acting. The whole thing was real. And looking into your girlfriend's eyes is one of those situations where pretending and not pretending makes a difference." That was the good part of it. The bad side was that if the the relationship ended, it could mean the end of the pair. -Continued- -About Jamie and David- -Home- |