What do figure skating and wrestling have in common? Aside from the individual competition aspect, we weren’t quite sure. To find out, we reached out to experts: Manitoba Winter Games athletes Silas Piche, a wrestler from Winnipeg, and Isabela Cabral, an East figure skater. Here’s what they had to say!

What’s the most advanced move you can do in your sport? Could you describe it?

Silas: Probably a really high back throw. You grab behind their back and around their waist, then lift and throw them over your shoulder.

Isabela: Probably double jumps. It’s a jump where you rotate twice in the air before landing.

What’s something you wish people knew about your sport?

Silas: That it’s really fun and you learn a lot from it. There’s also a lot of skill involved.

Isabela: Probably how the scoring works, because it would make more sense to people if they understood it better.

How long have you been competing?

Silas: I’ve been wrestling for two years, but I’ve also been doing jiu-jitsu for three years.

Isabela: I’ve been competing since around grade 5 or 6, and I am now in grade 11.

Have you ever watched figure skating or wrestling?

Silas: I’ve watched figure skating once during the Olympics. I was watching with my sisters. I think it would be really hard to do figure skating because it’s very technical and takes a lot of skill.

Isabela: I’ve only watched it here at the Manitoba Games, and I think I would probably do pretty bad.

Do you think anything from wrestling could help you with figure skating and vice versa?

Silas: I feel like balance would definitely help. That would probably translate well to figure skating, but maybe not too much.