Ice Dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock Are Social Distancing Together — and Training Over Zoom




Chock says she has felt the urge to be "super" productive, and then felt the complete opposite a short time later.

"It comes in waves," she explains. "I find sometimes I'll be super motivated and I'll clean all over and organize and get things done, and then the next week I'll find myself in a rut."

Like many others around the world, the couple says they are struggling with the distance between them and their loved ones.

"We haven't even seen our families since this whole thing started," Bates says. "We're kind of used to living far away from them at this point, but once the borders closed it just kind of changed something psychologically."

But aside from using their Zoom classes, the couple is relying on video chats with friends — and time with their dogs, Henry and Stella — to keep themselves positive and happy during the chaos of a pandemic.

"I'd say we have a group of four to five friends we've been FaceTiming pretty regularly, video calling with friends and family," Bates says.

Plus, "creating some boundaries and not watching the news all the time and taking some time out" has helped, Chock adds. "We have two amazing dogs, so we hang out with them. They bring us so much joy and give us something to take care of. We look forward to going on walks with them every day."

As of Thursday afternoon, Canada has seen 80,102 cases and 6,030 deaths attributed to coronavirus, according to the New York Times. The United States, meanwhile, has seen more than 1.5 million cases and 93,408 deaths.

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