Revisiting this particular controversy

[Aussie Willy]

The Duchesnay's FD from 1988 Olympics was posted on the International Figure Skating Facebook page. So interesting to see it again. The judges were all over the place. But if you were looking at it from just a Program Component point of view these days, you cannot deny the choreography, interpretation and performance level were just amazing because they really captured a mood and feeling that struck such a strong chord with the audience. Not sure about the skating skills though because so much was on two feet, but then there was so much difficulty with the moves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKawuklMDc

[caseyedwards]

Some of the most interesting scoring ever going on here.

Medalists were USSR, USSR, CAN

Then you have D/D with these free skate rankings

4th-USA
5th-UK, France
6th-Canada
8th-Italy
9th-Germany
10th-USSR, Austria, Hungary

[briancoogaert]

The most interesting is that places didn't change from Compulsories to FD, except for 2 teams (PALIARD/COURTOIS and REHÁKOVÁ/HAVRÁNEK).
Aaaaah, ice dance in the 80's !

[berthesghost]

I never understand country hopping. They well out scored the other two Canadian teams. Did they really fear they wouldn't make it out of Canadian nationals? Seems highly unlikely!

[marbri]

According to Wikipedia () they placed 4th at the 1983 and 1984 Canadians. No competition results for 1984-85 season and then first at 1986 French Nationals. So it seems they made the decision to hop over to France after their second year of placing 4th at Canadians. I read elsewhere some time ago that the Canadian Federation criticized their skating so I can see why they thought they´d get more love in voidy France. There seems to have been an honest disagreement about what the rules of ice dance allowed or what ice dance should be.

All that aside I thought they did a great job of coming up with interesting programs for a sibling team.

[berthesghost]

^Thanks

It's hard to tell with wiki, because it says on the nats page that Johnson & Thomas retired after 84 so d&d moved up bronze in 85. I don't know what happened at worlds, but. They did out skate the Garrosinos in Calgary.

It's also hard to tell with the judges. Did the us judge really love them, or was it a ploy to move them up to push someone else down, someone who was a threat to a us team. Hmmm lol

[Vash01]

I think the judges were all over the place because D&D skated a completely different/new style and they did not know what to do with them. Also in ice dance those days a team had to pay their dues before getting high placements. In any case D&D never had top notch basic skating skills, so it was easy to mark them down, no matter how entertaining their performance was. A few years down the road the judges felt comfortable about them winning medals.

[Bronxfan]

I agree that their free program was unusual, but what I consider a major crime is that they did not win the 2nd part of the competition in Calgary - I think they used to call this the Original Set Pattern (??). Their OSP was THE BEST of the night.

[overedge]

It's hard to tell with wiki, because it says on the nats page that Johnson & Thomas retired after 84 so d&d moved up bronze in 85. I don't know what happened at worlds, but. They did out skate the Garrosinos in Calgary.

Canadian ice dance in the 1980s was full of politicks, probably more so than today, and then there were/are the tensions between the larger sections of Skate Canada vs. the smaller sections and how competitions should be structured to make them fair for everyone, tensions between the Anglophone and Francophone factions, etc. etc. Which the Duchesnays, skating out of Quebec and being bilingual, were sort of trapped in the middle of, through no fault of their own.

IIRC the Duchesnays felt that they had been given a pretty clear message that the Garossinos were "the ones" that were going to be pushed for the Calgary Olympics (partly because the Garossinos were from Calgary). Also, at the time Skate Canada, or the CFSA as it was then, was trying to set up a national ice dance training centre in Toronto, and was "encouraging" all the top dance teams to move there. The Duchesnays were training in Ottawa, where their family lived and where they were both attending university, and refused to go to Toronto, which did not make them popular with the CFSA either. So even though skating for France brought along a whole different set of challenges, I think they and their family felt that they would have a better chance of international success with France than with Canada.

[Mafke]

In any case D&D never had top notch basic skating skills, so it was easy to mark them down, no matter how entertaining their performance was.

Really and truly, their being left off the podium in 1988 should not be seen as controversial. As wonderful as they were and as much as I loved them (for the record, a lot) it was still clear that there was a big technical gap between them and the podium teams in 1988. He was carrying her in more ways than one....

[BigB08822]

How do you pronounce their names? I always thought it was Douche-a-nays but the announcer said Douche-A-nees

Pardon my use of the word douche. lol douche is pronounced like doosh

[Aussie Willy]

Really and truly, their being left off the podium in 1988 should not be seen as controversial. As wonderful as they were and as much as I loved them (for the record, a lot) it was still clear that there was a big technical gap between them and the podium teams in 1988. He was carrying her in more ways than one....

He certainly was the stronger of the two. You can see at the end how exhausted he was from that program. Christopher Dean commented with all the crouching he did his legs really suffered during it.

[briancoogaert]

How do you pronounce their names? I always thought it was Douche-a-nays but the announcer said Douche-A-nees

Pardon my use of the word douche. lol douche is pronounced like doosh

LOL, it's a french name : the sound "u" doesn't exist in english.
Anyway, it's definitely more Douche-a-nays than Douche-A-nees !

[taf2002]

where their family lived [/B]and where they were both attending university, and refused to go to Toronto, which did not make them popular with the CFSA either. So even though skating for France brought along a whole different set of challenges, I think they and their family felt that they would have a better chance of international success with France than with Canada.

If they were from Quebec, why did their family live in Ottawa?

[Blair]

If they were from Quebec, why did their family live in Ottawa?

They lived in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau, which is in Quebec, but just over the bridge to Ottawa.

[pollyanna]

I agree that their free program was unusual, but what I consider a major crime is that they did not win the 2nd part of the competition in Calgary - I think they used to call this the Original Set Pattern (??). Their OSP was THE BEST of the night.

It was SO COOL, very unique and inventive. Commentator Toller Cranston loved it as well, calling it "a work of art."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEz1xYVO-aw

[Mevrouw]

Pronounce the 'Du' like "pew" to begin, so then it's "Dew-Shenn-Ay". Syllables are almost equally accented.

I've heard doo-SHANE-ee, doo-SHENN-ee and more.

[Susan M]

Really and truly, their being left off the podium in 1988 should not be seen as controversial.

I agree. Even the judge who placed them highest still only had them 4th (a generous 4th, IMO). Their program was flamboyant and showy for the audience, but judges need to look at other things. Still, the Duchesnay's Calgary performances positioned them really well to move up to become contenders in the next quadrennium. The next year, Dean really worked on improving their skills and pushing them to more difficulty.

what I consider a major crime is that they did not win the 2nd part of the competition in Calgary - I think they used to call this the Original Set Pattern

IMO the dance crime of 88 was Klimova-Ponomarekeno not winning, made to wait their turn behind the painful to watch Besty-Buk.

[CynicElle]

I'd forgotten how cool that free dance was. Thanks for the link!

[Twilight1]

IMHO The Duchesnay's brought the void to ice dance. I loved all of their stuff up to 1991... I thought 1992 was a bust and that is a bummer. WSS just did nothing for me and I thought Usove & Zhulin should have won the silver there. Heck I would have Grishuk & Platov in 3rd over them too.

I liked that they were so original and thought in 1988 they were robbed. Technically speaking, they were not as smooth as B&B, K&P, W&M and A&S but originality, musicality, interpretation they were amazing.