#JacksonFamily Interviews Claudio Pietrantonio
Claudio and Alicia Fabbri are the 7th ranked Canadian Jr Ice Dance team. He trains in La Praire, QC and St. Hubert, QC under the watchful eye of Julien Lalonde, Mylene Girard & Lynn McKay. Claudio and Alicia are both recipients of the 2018 Toller Cranston Award!
The Toller Cranston Memorial Fund Athlete Award celebrates Next Gen skaters who display exceptional artistry on ice at the 2018 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships at the Novice and Junior levels.
We got the chance to catch up with Claudio at the beginning of summer to get to know him a little better!
C: Firstly, I’d like to thank you for reaching out to me about this opportunity and for recognizing my achievement in being awarded the Toller Cranston Award.
Quick intro! Tell us a little bit about yourself — where you’re from, when and why you started skating?
C: I just recently turned 21 years old on June 3rd. I was born in Montreal, Quebec and grew up and currently live in Laval, Quebec. I started to skate at the age of 4. My parents wanted me to learn how to skate and enrolled me, along with some cousins, for some skating lessons. After having cried the ENTIRE time for my first couple lessons, I began to enjoy it and decided to stick with skating.
What are some of your hobbies and how do you balance other things in your life with being an elite athlete?
C: Some hobbies of mine that I enjoy are boating, skiing, listening to music, and DJing. I’m also a huge Formula 1 racing fan. It’s obviously not easy balancing my personal leisure time with being an elite athlete, and so it’s important for me that I find the time on weekends when I don’t train to do these things. Hanging out with my friends is also something I enjoy and that is important for me to just wind down to be ready for the next week of intense training.
Tell us a bit about your proudest moment so far in your skating career?
C: Without a shred of doubt, my proudest moment as skater is winning my first international medal. A bronze medal last season at the 2017 ISU JGP Enga/Neumarkt. The rush of excitement and pride that ran through me the second I found out that we had won the bronze was just indescribable. In that moment, I felt as if I had won the competition.
What has been your favourite place to compete?
C: Apart from the obvious reason of having medaled in Italy, another reason why Italy is one of my favourite places to compete is the beautiful arena we were competing in. We were in the mountains with big windows welcoming natural sunlight on the ice and overlooking the incredible mountain scenery. It was simply breathtaking.
I also very much enjoyed competing in Saransk, Russia. Being in Russia to compete was my first time in Europe so the culture shock was inevitable, but cool at the same time. Competing in a beautiful foreign city for the time made the experience that much more memorable and enjoyable.
⚡️ Lightning Round ⚡️
Favorite Animal: Dogs
Favorite Restaurant: Le Vieux Four
Dine In or Take Out? Take-out
Drive or Fly? Fly
Favorite Place to Vacation: Europe
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite TV Show: World of Dance
What does the #JacksonFamily mean to you?
C: Without my Jackson equipment, I simply wouldn’t be able to skate and compete at the level I’m at now. That fact that the #JacksonFamily offers a comprehensive custom program is one of the reasons why Jackson has been my go-to boot since the beginning of my ice dance career.
We won’t skate around the bush here…I’m not the tallest skater and so the fact that the #JacksonFamily are able to help me with this by engineering a custom boot with lifts for me, means a lot. It sends a message to me that Jackson wants to do whatever they possibly can to help the #JacksonFamily achieve their goals.
Claudio’s Rapid Custom Elite 5452s