Early career Salé competed first as a singles skater, winning the novice bronze medal and placing eighth in junior ladies at the Canadian Championships. In 1994, Salé won the short program and finished with the bronze medal in the junior event at the Canadian Championships. That same year, she achieved her biggest success to date by winning the senior bronze medal with her pairs partner,
Jason Turner. They were named to the 1994 Canadian Olympic team and placed 12th at the
Lillehammer Olympics. They placed 16th at the 1994 World Championships in
Chiba, Japan, but ended their partnership that August. Salé returned to singles skating. She placed fifth at the 1995 Canadian Championships, but struggled with injuries which caused her to withdraw from the 1997 Championships. Salé returned in 1998 and skated a strong short program, but was only able to land one of five planned triples in her long program and placed sixth.
Return to pair skating Salé had a tryout with
David Pelletier in the summer of 1996, but it did not lead to a partnership. After her moderate success in singles, she decided to give pairs one last shot. Coach Richard Gaulthier, who was helping Pelletier find a partner, suggested Salé. He and Pelletier went to
Edmonton in February 1998 to try out with Salé again. "The first time we grabbed hands, it was just great," said Pelletier, and by the next month Salé had moved to
Montréal to skate with Pelletier. The
Canadian Figure Skating Association invited the pair to compete at
Skate Canada, where they placed second in the short program – ahead of reigning Canadian Champions
Kristy Sargeant and
Kris Wirtz – and third in the long program to win the bronze medal. Because of their success, they were invited to the NHK Trophy in Japan and won another bronze medal. Their fall successes made them favorites for the Canadian title, but they struggled technically and finished second. The silver medal earned them a spot on the
Four Continents and World team, but Pelletier's back pain forced the pair to withdraw from both competitions. They spent two months off the ice recuperating.
1999–2000 In the summer of 1999, Gaulthier enlisted the help of
Lori Nichol, a successful Canadian choreographer who was known for her work with
Michelle Kwan. She created a playful tango piece for their short program, and, after a suggestion from coach Marijane Stong, set their long program to music from the movie
Love Story. They won several competitions with this program. At the 1999 Skate America competition, they defeated the reigning and two-time world champions and Olympic silver medalists
Elena Berezhnaya and
Anton Sikharulidze by winning both the short and long programs. At their second
Grand Prix event, Nations Cup, they finished second to Russians
Maria Petrova and
Alexei Tikhonov. With these solid results they went into the Grand Prix Final with high hopes and even higher expectations. However, several errors in both programs landed them in fifth place. They competed at the 2000
Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Salé's hometown of Calgary. They skated a strong short program but exceeded even their own expectations by skating a nearly flawless long program, earning five 6.0 marks in presentation – the first for a pair at the championships. They also captured another 6.0 and the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships in
Osaka, Japan. Expectations mounted before the 2000 World Championships in Nice, France. There, Salé had a major error on a spin in the short program, and they were placed third. During the long program, she again struggled, this time with her jumps, and they placed fourth overall.
2000–2001 season Salé and Pelletier returned to Lori Nichol for their 2000–01 programs. She choreographed a jazzy short to "Come Rain or Come Shine" and a dramatic, mature long to Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde." They returned to Skate America and Skate Canada that fall, winning both over Shen/Zhao and Berezhnaia/Sikharulidze, respectively. Berezhnaia/Sikharulidze then defeated them at
Trophée Lalique. The pair was again successful at the 2001 Canadian Championships in
Winnipeg, but did not earn the string of 6.0s that "Love Story" had brought them the previous year. They went on to win again at Four Continents in
Salt Lake City, the site for the
2002 Olympics, and revived "Love Story" to win the Grand Prix Final – despite Salé missing the side by side triple toe loop in all three phases of the competition. The 2001 World Championships were held in
Vancouver, and Salé and Pelletier entered as heavy favorites. Trouble on the side by side jumps landed them in third place in the short program, but the team was placed first in the long program despite Salé singling a side-by-side double axel. They were the first Canadian pair to win Worlds since
Isabelle Brasseur and
Lloyd Eisler in 1993, and the first pair to win at a Worlds held in Canada since
Barbara Underhill and
Paul Martini in 1984. They would later win the
Lou Marsh Trophy as outstanding Canadian athlete in 2001.
2002 Winter Olympics Salé and Pelletier again had early success in the 2001–02 season, winning both Skate America and Skate Canada with their new long program to "Adagio Sostenuto" by
Rachmaninoff, nicknamed "Orchid" for its flower theme. The Grand Prix Final, held in
Kitchener, Ontario, was important because it was the only chance to test their programs against the top contenders before the Olympics. Despite a rough performance of "Orchid" in the first long program, Salé and Pelletier once again won the event, skating a clean performance of "Love Story" for their second long program. They headed into the 2002 Canadian Championships in
Hamilton, Ontario with confidence, having defeated Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, their biggest rivals. They were able to win the title despite missing several elements in the long program, and the performance increased talks that they would revert to "Love Story" for the Olympic Games. Despite several silvers and bronzes, Canada had only won two Olympic gold medals in figure skating, in 1948 and 1960. Salé and Pelletier skated their short program well, only to trip and fall on their closing pose. Because the fall was not on an element, it did not receive a deduction. They placed second behind Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. In the long program, Salé and Pelletier had no obvious mistakes. Berezhnaya and Sikharludize, meanwhile, skated a more difficult program in which Sikharulidze had a minor step out on a jump element before quickly regaining unison with his partner. Four judges placed Salé and Pelletier first, while five had Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze as the winners, with the Canadians receiving higher technical scores and the Russians higher presentation scores. This result spurred an outcry from the North American media, who emphasized Sikharulidze's stepout while ignoring that Salé and Pelletier had fallen in the short program and not received a deduction. The commentators received criticism for failing to mention Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze's strengths, with some observers stating that the Russians had performed a more challenging program with greater speed, more interweaving moves and transitions, and less distance between the partners. The day after the competition, the French judge
Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted she had been pressured into awarding the long program to the Russians in exchange for a first-place vote for the French ice dancing team of
Marina Anissina and
Gwendal Peizerat, and a
judging controversy quickly blew up. The scandal ultimately resulted in the suspension of several judges and officials, and Le Gougne's vote was discarded, leaving the long program a tie. Salé and Pelletier were awarded gold medals in a special ceremony later in the week. The controversy resulted in several changes to the judging system. Initially, anonymous judging was incorporated to "relieve outside pressure" from judges by separating their names from their marks so pressurers could not know whether the judge had acted as they wished. After two years of this system, the
Code of Points was implemented and began use in the Grand Prix season of 2003–04, and full usage for all 2004–05 competitions and thereafter.
Since Salt Lake City After the Olympics, Salé and Pelletier turned professional and began touring North America with
Stars on Ice, a figure skating show. In 2006, Salé and Pelletier served as commentators on
Olympic Ice, which aired on
USA Network during the
2006 Winter Olympics. Salé and Pelletier were inducted into the
Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 2008. They were inducted into the
Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame on March 26, 2009. In October 2009, Salé began competing on the
first season of the
CBC's
Battle of the Blades. She was partnered with
Craig Simpson, lead analyst for
Hockey Night in Canada and a former professional hockey player. The two had known each other for years through Edmonton’s skating scene. They won the competition in November 2009. In 2010, Salé competed on the
second season of
Battle of the Blades, this time paired with
Theoren Fleury. She returned in 2013 as a judge on the show's
fourth season. == Personal life ==