Figure skating: Canadian Olympians Duhamel, Radford dump coach
Meagan Duhamel pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts.
The question is a simple one: Why would the Canadian figure skater and pairs partner Eric Radford — world champions in both 2015 and 2016 — fire their coach just eight months before the 2018 Olympics?
“At the end of the day,” Duhamel begins, choosing her words carefully, “what Eric and I have been doing isn’t working anymore and we needed to make some changes.”
And that’s exactly what they’ve done, announcing Friday they’re parting ways with Richard Gauthier in a both surprising and bold shakeup that will see two new faces added to their backroom staff when prep- arations for the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, intensify over the summer.
“This will be our last competitive season,” the 31-year-old Duhamel continued in an interview. “It was now or never to try something different. We feel like we need to refresh and reinvigorate our skating to have a chance to stand on that podium at the Olympics. “This was what needed to be done.” Following those back-to-back world golds, Duhamel and Radford, 32, finished seventh this past season after the latter suffered a herniated disc in his back that caused numbness and a loss of control in his right hip.
But Duhamel said the problems ran much deeper than the injury as the pair, which finished seventh at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, struggled most of the year.
“Our poor results and poor skates this season were because we didn’t deliver,” she said. “It’s our own fault. It was not our coaching team’s fault, but it is something we thought long and hard about. I think Eric’s injury at the world championships was the accumulation of a terrible season that just all shattered right there in that moment.”
Bruno Marcotte, who is Duhamel’s husband and worked alongside Gauthier, remains in the fold as head coach.
Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., are also bringing John Zimmerman on board to support Marcotte, while John Kerr is joining the team alongside fellow choreographer Julie Marcotte.
“Meagan and I thank Richard from the bottom of hearts for all he has done for us,” Radford said in a statement. “His influence in our lives will extend far beyond the arena. This was an extremely difficult decision but now we will concentrate and focus on the important upcoming season.”