Duhamel, Radford hope to repeat dream season
2015 world pairs champions plan throw quadruple lutz for new programs
The 2014-15 season was a dream come true for Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who had long strived to become world pairs champions. Now, the Canadian duo is preparing even more ambitious programs for this season with coaches Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte, Duhamel's husband.
Last week, the skaters were training south of the Saint Lawrence River in Boucherville, about 10 miles from Montreal. This week, they are somewhere else.
"Our main rink in Montreal St. Léonard is being renovated at the moment, and they were (delayed) getting it ready on time," Radford said. "Therefore, we had to find ice elsewhere for August."
Fortunately for Duhamel and Radford, the Montreal area is home to around 100 ice surfaces in many different rinks.
"After winning the world title, we had very little time to relax," Duhamel said. "We competed in the [World Team Trophy] in Japan. From there, we went straight to Stars on Ice in Canada. There were two weeks of rehearsals this time, (because) there were many group numbers, so this took us until mid-May."
The skaters then took two weeks of vacation, but even that was very busy.
"I got married to Bruno; we went to Bermuda and it was wonderful," Duhamel said. "But since then, we have seen each other less than before the marriage, because Eric and I were away all the time."
"Three days after our wedding, we flew to Japan for four shows called Dreams on Ice," she continued. "Afterward, we got our new free program choreographed by [Bruno's sister,] Julie Marcotte. Then, we were off to Japan again for six sold-out shows called Fantasy on Ice. In early July, we had one show in California, and then one in China. Now, in early August, we are finally back at home and just had our first full practice week."
Gauthier does not view the late start to their summer training as a problem.
"Their first competition will only be in October," he said. "They do not need to practice the spins and lifts every day."
"We did perform our new short program in some shows in Asia with all the elements, but without feeling any pressure," Duhamel said.
During a press conference at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai, they said a secret new "trick" was in the works for this season. During the Stars on Ice tour, they decided to post a video revealing what they were referring to: a throw quadruple lutz, an element never performed in competition.
"It is too good to keep secret," Radford said on Facebook.
Duhamel explained that as the throw triple lutz became easier and easier to land, she and Radford wanted to take things up a notch.
"We told Richard we wanted to try it during Stars on Ice and he agreed, and so did Bruno," Radford said. "So, during our shows, we decided to practice it. We learned it in two days without ever having a lesson. Now, it's better than the quad throw salchow was last summer, when we had just learned it. Doing a quad throw is not riskier for us than doing a triple throw."
"The quad is not a super risky element for us," Radford said. "Some other skaters like Haven Denney got injured while they were practicing a quad. We are lucky to have no such problems, but it takes a lot of mental strength to do a quad."
Duhamel and Radford have led the way technically the past several seasons. They already include side-by-side triple lutzes in both of their programs, as well as a throw quad salchow in their free skate. So why push the boundaries even more?
"You have to cater your skating to this system. We add up more points with the two quads, because we want to win," Radford said. "A lot of other teams have added quads now. We think that the Chinese team [Wenjing Sui and Cong Han] is our biggest rival this season. They have quads as well. We will see if the Russian Olympic gold medalists [Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov] have learned new elements."
Gauthier, too, named Sui and Han as the team's biggest rivals for gold this season.
"We expect more competition from the Chinese than Russians, because [Sui and Han] have a throw quad salchow and a quad twist," Gauthier said. "The first four elements in Meagan and Eric's free program are the triple twist, the (side-by-side) triple lutzes and then the two quad throws, back to back. If they can nail these four elements, they collect so many points that it will be very difficult to beat them. Their component scores went up last season and won't go down again."
Of course, Russian pairs -- including Olympic champions Volosozhar and Trankov, Olympic silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, and Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov -- are still formidable forces.
"The music for our new short (is to) Elton John's 'Your Song,' sung by Ewan McGregor from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack," Duhamel said.
The team's free skate is set to Adele's "Hometown Glory."
"Parts of it have vocals, parts are instrumental," Duhamel said. "It is a step up (in terms of) intricate choreography, connection and overall flow, but it becomes more and more challenging to keep improving at our ages."
They are also doing more off-ice training this season.
"We have worked with our acting coach Cathérine Pinard, who also works with ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron here in Montreal," Radford said. "She is very good with emotions and feelings. She taught us, for example, to sing the music during our practice."
The world champions will debut their programs at the Autumn International Classic in Barrie, Ontario, Oct. 13-15, two weeks before their first Grand Prix assignment at Skate Canada.
"Like last year, we have time to prepare our programs, and we like that," Duhamel said. "We hope for a season which is as successful as the last one was."
