Eric Radford and Vanessa James to compete in pairs together for Canada

[Gris]

That response is bad.

Soon after he learned she was pregnant, he realized he was going to need a Plan B? This is misogynistic.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

That response is bad.

Soon after he learned she was pregnant, he realized he was going to need a Plan B? This is misogynistic.

To me it was more than just that. He stated that she moved away to a different city, started a coaching school, had no desire to return to competition and expressed an interest to expand her family. You cherrypicked one thing out of five statements he said.

Geesh

 

[4rkidz]

Rosie diManno weighs in https://www.thestar.com/sports/skat...g-and-medal-hungry-skate-canada-is-ok-with-it

Well now I’m definitely on team Eric lol .. seriously though gossip and crap aside, I believe this pair were the strongest in their former pair teams so I can imagine this team has the potential to be amazing. I also think competition is good for all concerned so undoubtedly will help raise the bar of pairs skating at a time it is needed.

 

[tony]

The part for me is not about motherhood, it is that the two of them are completely contradicting each other. Did Eric inform Meaghan, or not? Whom to believe?

I don't think there's any confusion about what Eric just put out that they kept their plans hush-hush until April 2 when Vanessa was released from France. They obviously had this in mind and that's why they started looking into it. He told Meagan after the fact of them going through this process, knowing full-well if France granted a release that this would happen.

I'm also a little bit baffled about Radford's reply to this, trying to spin this into Duhamel not being sure about skating on tours. They were absolutely confirmed for SOI Japan until they were told they could not travel there - it wasn't a case of them making a last-minute decision about that or about SOI Canada/USA (if it took place this fall). They were a yes.

His line about the idea of skating with Vanessa came from Meagan being pregnant in 2019 is BS, IMO, and this is coming from someone who knows him. Take the first paragraph about 'not even knowing we would move forward until April 2'. Duhamel was committed to a year of shows, she didn't speak about anything regarding expanding her family, and even competed on Battle of the Blades with the intensity and drive to end up winning the whole thing. This isn't someone who was ho-hum about her skating future, and Radford is the last person that needs to be told that.

So, the facts that do match up are that they in fact did have several shows lined up throughout this year, they were not allowed to go to SOI Japan, and that he didn't tell Meagan anything until two weeks ago when he had already gone through a process with Vanessa (and obviously Skate Canada) to see if this pairing could happen.

 

[MacMadame]

Did I strike a nerve?

Pro-tip: when insulting someone, be sure to use spell check otherwise you risk coming off as an idiot.

Pro-tip: it's possible to come off as an idiot even with perfect spelling.

With an extremely limited number of exceptions, everyone who posts on FSU is essentially anonymous.

I am pretty sure anyone who wanted to could figure out who I am in real life just from my user name. Nothing on the internet is anonymous.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Where was all the fuss when Laurence brought Nikolaj to Canada knocking down other Canadian dance teams? Stuff like this happens. I like Evelyn and Trennt a lot but train, train, train. Who says Justine Brasseur doesn’t have a new partner this summer coming in second at Canadian Nats?

There’s more than just two pairs on the Canadian Pairs circuit.

 

[wickedwitch]

I don't get why Eric doesn't just come out and say he'd prefer to skate with Vanessa. While I'd still feel badly for Meagan, I would totally understand his perspective. But all this BS about Meagan's pregnancy is making him look like a misogynistic coward.

 

[maatTheViking]

Nothing on the internet is anonymous.

assuming people can't find out who you are is really naive. You have to do a lot of work to be truly un-doxxable.

(but I also agree there is a difference between venting about things to people who are not involved with your personal life, and venting as a well known blue-checkmark twitter about a person who will certainly read it.)

 

[tony]

I don't get why Eric doesn't just come out and say he'd prefer to skate with Vanessa.

From reading both sides and seeing how the biggest points do match up, I think this is simply what it comes down to and now he is pulling reasons out that make little to no sense.

He obviously sees a revitalization of his career and opportunities with Vanessa, but I doubt he was expecting the almost 100% negativity on Twitter coming his way (first by association with Vanessa and now through his own quotes). I'm not sure if he's going to get the opportunity he initially was imagining, and who knows if the Olympics were even that opportunity he was thinking of.

 

[skatingguy]

Where was all the fuss when Laurence brought Nikolaj to Canada knocking down other Canadian dance teams? Stuff like this happens. I like Evelyn and Trennt a lot but train, train, train. Who says Justine Brasseur doesn’t have a new partner this summer coming in second at Canadian Nats?

There’s more than just two pairs on the Canadian Pairs circuit.

Isn't Justine Brassseur skating with Zach Daleman?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Isn't Justine Brassseur skating with Zach Daleman?

I think so although I’m never certain who she’s skating with at the moment. LOL

The point is is that there’s more than just Kirsten and Michael to worry about, there are other pairs in Canada vying for an Olympic berth!

Some people we’re making that their point and I’m like change is the only thing that’s constant. I always expect change and the unexpected. (Michelle Kwan gave a graduation speech to a graduating class regarding this topic a few years ago. And I’m always thinking about it. )

 

[Xsktrx]

Isn't Justine Brassseur skating with Zach Daleman?

Yup. Last time we saw them was at Challenge and apparently she was coming off an injury so other than a nice look together we didn’t see enough technically to gauge how they are doing.

 

[rhapsody]

From reading both sides and seeing how the biggest points do match up, I think this is simply what it comes down to and now he is pulling reasons out that make little to no sense.

He obviously sees a revitalization of his career and opportunities with Vanessa, but I doubt he was expecting the almost 100% negativity on Twitter coming his way (first by association with Vanessa and now through his own quotes). I'm not sure if he's going to get the opportunity he initially was imagining, and who knows if the Olympics were even that opportunity he was thinking of.

His backtracking is telling. I was initially on Eric's side when this came out because it seemed like she was just bitter that he was moving on but his excuses since the news came out speak for themselves.

 

[Karen-W]

From reading both sides and seeing how the biggest points do match up, I think this is simply what it comes down to and now he is pulling reasons out that make little to no sense.

He obviously sees a revitalization of his career and opportunities with Vanessa, but I doubt he was expecting the almost 100% negativity on Twitter coming his way (first by association with Vanessa and now through his own quotes). I'm not sure if he's going to get the opportunity he initially was imagining, and who knows if the Olympics were even that opportunity he was thinking of.

I think if they make the Olympic team then there will be plenty of professional opportunities post-Beijing for James/Radford.

At this rate, assuming Canada wants to get the team bronze, they are more likely to swap out their pairs & dance teams than their singles skaters. J/R are certainly going to be competitive enough, I would guess, to challenge the Leftovers, DM/G, K/F and M/K for 2nd or 3rd place in the pairs portion, which is exactly where M-T/M are and a step above W/M; meanwhile dance has two solid top 10 teams in G/P and F-B/S which would be enough to ward off the obvious advantage Japan has in singles and maybe enough to fend off Italy.

And, at a field-depleted Worlds, they might sneak onto the podium for a medal.

Also, they're both classified as returning skaters, so they would be guaranteed GP assignments and, since this is pairs, they aren't likely to be taking spots away from other teams. Now, there might be some Canadian teams who are ticked if J/R get a SkCan host pick, and I can't say I'd blame those teams if that happened. There should be at least 1 host pick available at both IdF and NHK that could go to J/R without screwing a younger Canadian team out of a host pick.

 

[Rukia]

I wanted to give them both the benefit of the doubt in everything and cheer them on, but Radford lost me with this "oh she might want another baby so I should bounce" business.

Not that my opinion means anything ahaha. Oh well, it's made for an entertaining day or so.

 

[Seerek]

At this rate, assuming Canada wants to get the team bronze, they are more likely to swap out their pairs & dance teams than their singles skaters. J/R are certainly going to be competitive enough, I would guess, to challenge the Leftovers, DM/G, K/F and M/K for 2nd or 3rd place in the pairs portion, which is exactly where M-T/M are and a step above W/M;

Peng and Jin are the Leftovers?

 

[quartz]

Heh. Watch Vanessa end up pregnant this summer.

 

[Sparks]

Heh. Watch Vanessa end up pregnant this summer.

<snort>

 

[Karen-W]

Peng and Jin are the Leftovers?

Yes. I'm assuming that China won't ask S/H to compete in the team event, especially since a team medal probably isn't in the cards for them - Japan, Italy and Canada are the ones I'd bet on. I have no idea who Russia will use for the team event but I'd bet good money that they'll swap out their pairs and ladies since those are their two strongest disciplines, and I don't think that any team except S/H could beat Russia's pairs teams in either segment - well, maybe T/M could be beaten as inconsistent as their are at international competitions.

J/R, on paper and from what we saw in those brief clips, are at least capable, like K/F last season, of being top 10 in the world and will certainly be competitive, IMO, with P/J, DM/G, M/K and whichever team the US puts in either segment (I don't see pairs being swapped out but I could be wrong - not that the USFS has any sort of intelligent strategy when it comes to how they/the athletes are picked for the team event).

 

[puglover]

Well, we are - what 10 months - out from an Olympics and it has been a dreadful year for competitive athletes here in Canada so if some teams are disappointed to hear the way just got more difficult - I can't really blame them. I think Eric has mishandled this completely - from what I understand. If he and Vanessa were training together and asking for her release and there had been an understanding previously with Meagan, he should have made darn good and sure she knew what was happening before it became public. Now - he seems to be determined to try to excuse himself and it makes him sound worse. For many skating fans, Vanessa is somewhat tainted by the behaviour of her former partner and I think part of the reason people feel that way is that there has been so little acknowledgement of wrongdoing from any of them. Eric spoke quite frankly in their book about suffering from depression and kind of losing his way and it seemed Meagan was patient and there for him. I feel for her now.

 

[Coco]

I do believe him that he didn't know she was getting her release until it happened. I think that sudden unexpected opportunity changed a lot for him. They were probably helping to go to worlds in 2023 or something, then BAM.

 

[Excidra]

The shade!!

Is thick, Hunty

Megan is ready to drag Eric for points.

I think this new pairing has a lot of promise and has the markings of Aliona and Bruno. Both skaters are extremely strong and talented skater. A season or two under their belt and watch out skating world.

 

[dds262]

Has anyone considered that Vanessa has not won an Olympic medal, and skating with Eric AND possibly for team Canada gives her the best chance of achieving this? Possibly she approached Eric with the proposition that if he skate competitively with her through the Olympics, she would commit to x amount of show skating with him? That would be more in his lane of wanting to support himself financially with show skating. They would each get what they wanted. Unfortunately Meagan was ”collateral damage”.....I feel for her, but knowing her determination, she will succeed in whatever she sets her mind to.

 

[Lemonade20]

Whether you're Team Eric or Team Meagan, this is sad. They had a good run and this isn't something I expected to see on full blast for the world.

 

[overedge]

Dave was quick to clarify he has not spoken to Meagan about it.

suuuure he hasn't. If Meagan sends him unsolicited emails or texts, he can truthfully say he hasn't spoken to her. If she sends emails or texts to someone else who then shares the information with him, he can still truthfully say he hasn't spoken to her. But he can still share that information with the world.

This is like the book about Harry and Meghan (the other Meghan). The authors of that book and H&M both said that H&M weren't interviewed for the book. But there were descriptions of events in there that only H&M would have known about. So it was pretty obvious that they fed the information to a friend or friends, who then passed it along to the authors. It's called "plausible deniability".

 

[Vagabond]

If either @SHARPIE or @Prancer worked for Twitter, she would be telling Duhamel and Radford to move their discussion to Private Messages.

 

[Xsktrx]

Whether you're Team Eric or Team Meagan, this is sad. They had a good run and this isn't something I expected to see on full blast for the world.

Agree. By the time Nationals comes around Canadian fans will have forgotten the Meagan issue and will be happily cheering Vanessa and Eric on and should they end up representing Canada at the Olympics then the fans will be cheering even louder. Such is the nature of sports.

 

[overedge]

Agree. By the time Nationals comes around Canadian fans will have forgotten the Meagan issue and will be happily cheering Vanessa and Eric on and should they end up representing Canada at the Olympics then the fans will be cheering even louder. Such is the nature of sports.

Not all Canadian fans will have forgotten. Especially the reasons why Vanessa's previous partnership ended.

 

[tony]

suuuure he hasn't. If Meagan sends him unsolicited emails or texts, he can truthfully say he hasn't spoken to her. If she sends emails or texts to someone else who then shares the information with him, he can still truthfully say he hasn't spoken to her. But he can still share that information with the world.

This is like the book about Harry and Meghan (the other Meghan). The authors of that book and H&M both said that H&M weren't interviewed for the book. But there were descriptions of events in there that only H&M would have known about. So it was pretty obvious that they fed the information to a friend or friends, who then passed it along to the authors. It's called "plausible deniability".

I have talked to Meagan and relayed what she has said earlier (and Eric even ended up saying the same thing in his response), and I've known her a hell of a lot longer than Dave Lease has. All that gossipy stuff he put up earlier 100% did not come from her, but I'm fascinated to know who is spilling the beans about catty stuff like house parties. Someone within his circle is really angry, especially about Vanessa unfollowing Jonathan

 

[overedge]

I don't put any stock in anonymous Internet posters saying they have talked to someone.