Canadians win historic gold in pairs competition
Canadians Deanna Stellatodudek and Maxime Deschamps captured a historic gold medal in front of their home crowd at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal on Thursday.
Stellato-dudek, Deschamps won the pairs event and the 40-year-old Stellato-dudek became the oldest woman to win a world title in any discipline in the sport’s history.
“This was a pretty incredible experience,” Stellatodudek said. “When I started skating again, I dreamed of being here, but actually being here, is something very different. I couldn’t’ be happier – this is a dream come true.”
The duo is the first Canadian pair to win gold since Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won back-to-back world titles in 2015 and 2016.
Stellato-dudek retired in 2001 but returned in 2016. She was a rising American figure skating star after winning a singles silver medal at the 2000 world junior championship, but retired at 17 due to a chronic hip injury.
The Chicago native revived her career as a pairs skater and in 2019 moved to Montreal to team up with Deschamps with the stated goal of competing at the 2026 Olympics — even if it meant switching nationalities.
The 32-year-old Deschamps of Vaudreuil-dorion, Que., ran through eight different figure skating partners before finding the one that would propel him to a world title.
“This is incredible,” Deschamps said. “I remember being in the stands cheering for the Montreal Canadiens, and now people were cheering for me. This is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, the 2023 world champions, had the highest score of the night at 144.35, but it was not enough to top the Canadians as they took silver with a total score of 217.88. Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took the bronze with a total score of 210.40.