DANCING UNDER the MAPLE LEAF
Canadian-born Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen of Denmark had represented his homeland in ice dance since the beginning of their partnership in 2012. Danish citizenship laws are among the strictest in the world and from the outset both understood it would likely be impossible for Fournier-Beaudry to obtain a passport, which is a requirement to compete at an Olympic Games.
Instead, Fournier-Beaudry, 25, and Sørensen, 29, had focused on improving their World placement each season, with the goal of making the top 10. But when they earned an Olympic berth for Denmark with a 13th-place finish at the 2017 World Championships, not being able to go to the Games in PyeongChang brought a disappointment neither had anticipated.
“In the beginning we didn’t talk seriously about going to the Olympics because we never thought we could make it that far,” Sørensen said. “We just focused on our goal until 2017 Worlds when we learned the International Skating Union (ISU) rules permitted us to qualify a spot for Denmark even though we could not go.
“So, when we qualified, obviously it got a little closer to us. We got attached to it in a way that was hard to shake. I contacted the Minister of Culture in Denmark and he pretty much said there is no way, it will never happen. ‘It has never been done before and we don’t make any exceptions for anybody.’”
In the summer of 2017, the couple began discussing an alternate
