With some big names in Canadian figure skating gone from competition, Sarnia's Michael Marinaro believes now is the time to move into the international spotlight.
He and his partner Kirsten Moore-Towers are coming off a bronze medal win in Quebec, and a silver medal performance in Helsinki, Finland.
Marinaro recently told CHOK's Sports Show that the pair is ready to embrace being veterans on the squad.
He said they have some lofty goals for this year.
"Right now the goal early in the season is to make the Grand Prix final, which is the top six ranked teams in the world," said Marinaro. "After six Grand Prix events each team does two events and then the top six meet in Vancouver in December, so that's the goal right now."
Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel recently announced their retirement, while Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue have moved on to pro events.
Marinaro said it's important for he and Moore-Towers to mentor some of the younger skaters and lead by example.
"We're definitely looking to step up and take advantage of the opportunity we have here to kind of put our names up there in those categories," said Marinaro. "We're definitely going to try and do everything that we can to lead the team now that we're the veterans on the team. We're going to try and lead by example on and off the ice and be positive role models."
The pair's next competition is November 9-11 in Hiroshima, Japan.
