{"id":11671,"date":"2018-07-09T22:45:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T02:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=11671"},"modified":"2018-08-30T08:47:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T12:47:05","slug":"interview-with-meagan-duhamel-and-eric-radford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2018\/07\/09\/interview-with-meagan-duhamel-and-eric-radford\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Francesca S., Figure Skating Evolution\u00a0(@fs_evolution<\/a>)
\nHeader photo by Robin Ritoss<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal, two World Championship titles and seven Canadian National titles. Those are just some of the extraordinary athletic achievements of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford. On April 25, the pair, who have competed together since 2010, announced that they would hang up their competitive skates and seek out new ventures in and out of the sport.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Francesca, of Figure Skating Evolution (@fs_evolution<\/a>), a contributor to Figure Skaters Online, caught up with Meagan and Eric on July 2 in Montreal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Figure Skaters Online (FSO): <\/strong>Congratulations on the ending of a fantastic career, culminating at the 2018 Olympics with a bronze medal in the individual event and a gold medal in the team event. Looking back, what are your favorite memories from your competitive career? What are you most proud of?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meagan: <\/strong>One of my favorite memories is when we won our first national title in 2012. Nationals in Canada is a really big competition, I would put it on par with the World Championships, and winning it for the first time was like an \u2018aha\u2019 moment for us. It was the breakthrough that led us to our big results at the international level and it was the first time we had one of our great skates under pressure. It made us realize we could really do it and challenge for titles and changed the game of our career.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eric: <\/strong>Another obvious one is Boston Worlds 2016 [their second World title]. It was exciting winning our first world title, but heading into that competition everyone was expecting it to happen, whereas in 2016 it was unexpected. To have one of our cleanest and best skates of our career in that moment, in that crowd, under those circumstances, was just one of those magical moments that every athletes dreams of having.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

FSO: <\/strong>How different are your feelings about the two medals in PyeongChang? How did it feel to share team gold with the other team Canada veterans and friends of many years vs. earn your individual medal in such a close competition?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meagan: <\/strong>Our plans were to be on the podium twice. We knew realistically that in the individual event our chance was likely to be the bronze medal, given the status that the German and the Chinese team had going into the Olympics. The bronze medal in the individual event has more depth to it as it\u2019s our medal and represents everything we went through ourselves on our personal journey together. It feels like gold to me and it\u2019s the one I hold the closest and cherish, but the experience of being part of team Canada and winning that gold medal, as well as the silver medal in Sochi, is unique and different. It may not be the medal I dreamt of winning as a child, but the team aspect was really special, shared with the people we grew up skating with. Most of them were on the team when we took silver in Sochi, so to take that and turn it into gold was really cool.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FSO:<\/strong> What were your favorite programs to perform?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eric:\u00a0<\/strong>One of my favorite programs was \u201cConcierto de Aranjuez\u201d, the short program in our second season together (2011-2012). When I go back and I watch it, it was really intricate and complex, we executed it really well a lot of times, it had a great style, feeling and character.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meagan<\/strong>: I think we were underscored in it because we weren\u2019t a top team at the time, and I feel like if we had the same program as a top team the scores would have been different. For me, also La Boh\u00e8me<\/em>, the short program at 2013 Worlds, is special. It was a high-energy, dynamic program that we skated cleanly almost the entire season. It was the program that pushed us onto the next level, to win medals at the World championships. And it was a program that really stood out in the field back then, as no one was doing that upbeat style for the short program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>That year a new rule came out that there would be a bonus for putting elements after the halfway point, so when we choreographed it we put the side-by-side triple Lutz at the halfway point. Then it was clarified that only singles would get the bonus. We had already choreographed the program and it worked with the music, so we kept it like that. We didn\u2019t need to do it, but felt like we could, looking back was kind of a silly risk to take, but we did it the whole season and it worked. Unfortunately we didn\u2019t get any reward\u2026 the same for the other short program Eric was talking about, where we ended with a throw. Those programs were interesting; back then, we were trying to make them as difficult as possible because that\u2019s how we thought we were going to get a good transition and choreography mark, so we packed our programs to the point where they lacked flow because they were too difficult for us to do. Eventually we simplified our programs and the scores went higher, isn\u2019t that odd\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FSO: <\/strong>What were your favorite elements? <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eric<\/strong>: When we started hitting the side-by-side triple Lutz, it was something new and exciting for everybody including us. At practice, there was always a cool energy knowing that we were doing something that other people weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meagan:<\/strong> \u2026and then it got sad when people got used to it and nobody at our rink clapped anymore, and I thought: ‘Eric must have doubled\u2026’, so we had to find new things to be excited about. We also had our side-by-side spins well choreographed into our programs, so they would come at a change of music, always at center ice. We had good side-by-side spins and tried to highlight that, we always got a big response from the crowd, on a unique element to have a response for, and I always got excited.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FSO: <\/strong>What are you best off-ice memories together? Any stories or adventures to share?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eric: <\/strong>Meagan and\u00a0<\/span>I went to vacation in Bermuda once when we started skating together, which was really fun. We scootered around the island. We also played a lot of uker, a Canadian card game, but it\u2019s funny because when Meagan and I are on the same team we never win.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meagan:<\/strong> We\u2019ve traveled a lot. We\u2019ve often incorporated touristy stuff into traveling for skating. One year, we went to a Grand Prix in France and we went there a whole week early. We went to Disneyland Paris. We also went once with Bruno (Marcotte) to Tokyo Disney World when we were in Japan. We always found time when we were at an event for skating, to make it a fun trip and unique experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FSO: <\/strong>Now something about your partner: what\u2019s\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n