Meagan Duhamel (L) and Eric Radford of Canada skate their pairs short program during Skate Canada International in Kingston on Friday.
MIKE CASSESE/REUTERS
KINGSTON, ONT.
You think dating is a meat market? Try figure skating pairs.
It’s all change-lobsters-and-dance — or, rather not dance, which is of course a completely different kettle of fish, different discipline, albeit with similar issues.
Post-Olympics, the landscape of yoked skating has shifted seismically in Canada.
Anabelle Langlois is out of the mix, via retirement, leaving Cody Hay on speed-dial in his partner search. Craig Buntin — previously joined with Meagan Duhamel after earlier parting company with Valerie Marcoux — has likewise departed the scene.
That stranded Duhamel. But no great hardship there since the 24-year-old had pretty much decided to hang ’em up at the conclusion of last season, after failing to qualify for the Games, the second slot behind national champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison going to Langlois and Hay. And the title-holders aren’t here for Skate Canada because Davison suffered a knee injury whilst practising a jump last week.
Got all that?
But Duhamel had a change of heart over the summer, electing to replace the boy part of her pairs tandem rather than skating off into the sunset with too many goals un-met. So she rousted up a hitherto largely unknown fellow by the name of Eric Radford, who dumped his partner of one-year standing when opportunity knocked, or rang or emailed, whatever.
It’s a career salvaged that Duhamel claims not to have seen coming, until the reality of life-after-skating hit her hard. Finding a stand-in for the much more experienced Buntin suddenly took on urgency.
“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t think I would ever have to,’’ Duhamel said here, prior to launching the 2010-11 Grand Prix season, which began for the newby twobie with Friday afternoon’s short program competition.
“I honestly was not planning to continue skating. At this time last year, I didn’t know if I would make it to the end of the season, let alone dedicate myself another four years.
“Then, when I thought of not skating, when it came down to it I was, like, but that’s all I want to do.”
Helpfully, the two were hardly strangers, skating out of the same club, same coach and purportedly long-time friends.
“We stepped up to each other in so many areas,’’ Duhamel enthuses. “Where I was weak he was strong, where he was strong I was weak, so we really filled each other’s holes.’’
Usefully, they’d also been strong solo skaters in the not-distant past, able to adapt quickly to one another’s style. And there wasn’t much time for adjusting: Teaming up in the late spring and off on their first international assignment, the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany last month, where they placed third.
That was an impressive result. At Skate Canada, they’re sitting fourth behind compatriots Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers.
“I’d heard so many stories about how difficult it was to jell with somebody new,’’ said Duhamel. Yet their conjoining was quite seamless. “I think that comes down to our relationship with each other, which is probably one of our greatest strengths.’’
It’s indeed all about the chemistry and the fit in pairs skating. Only now does Duhamel reveal that there were problems in her previous union with Buntin, which may or may not have been, at some point, off-ice as well as on-ice. On that subject, Duhamel is cagey.
“Craig and I are not involved right now,’’ she says, vaguely. “He’s happily engaged at the moment. We definitely didn’t have a perfect or ideal relationship with one another but we have a great deal of respect for one another.’’
There were so many pressures on the partnership last season, including lingering effects from Duhamel’s physical problems — a stress fracture and bulging back disc, nerve damage in her leg.
“Oh my gosh, last year was just a nightmare all around. I just didn’t want to ever live through that again.
“Experiencing an Olympic season with all that stress, and add injuries on top of it, you see the best of somebody and you see the worst of people. We hit a lot of speed bumps in our three years together, personally and in so many aspects of our skating.’’
After Four Continents, Duhamel took eight weeks off, mentally setting up the transition to retirement. But then she started waking up in the morning without experiencing pain. Venturing to the rink, she rediscovered the pleasure of her sport. “I found a joy in skating that was really missing in the last year or two.’’
She found a new other half, too, in Radford, who jumped at the chance, though it meant disentangling himself from a blindsided partner. “She was not happy,’’ he admits. “It’s like any relationship, like a breakup.’’
Where Buntin had once started from scratch with Duhamel, she’s now doing the same with Radford. Déjà-vu, flipped around.
And if that means luring a skating partner from another female, hey, that’s showbiz.
