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

allezfred

In A Fake Snowball Fight
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On FSU, we never needed cv to think about things you don't think are really that deep.
The idea that Radford was clever enough to put together a scheme where he could make Meagan look bad by cyberhynotising her into posting a certain way on her own social media accounts is one of the more batshit crazy things I have heard in connection with this whole saga. And that is saying something. :lol:

It’s also hugely insulting to Duhamel to say that she is naive enough for that to work.
 

misskarne

Handy Emergency Backup Mode
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Just a question - How much do you think the issues of Vanessa's previous partner and coaching staff will be mentioned with regards to Vanessa and Eric as they begin to compete?
I think Skate Canada is going to shove it as far under the rug as they can get - and I think Skate Canada is also betting the house on the Olympic audience not being as generally knowledgeable as the regular skating audience. (I also think we're going to see a lot of playing up of "look how amazing and diverse we are! A gay man and a black woman!" I wonder if they apologized to Asher Hill yet?)

You can see it in the slimy wording of that CBC article where they make it sound like James found out in September last year when Cipres was charged.
 

kwanfan1818

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It took nothing more than giving her a half truth, having her find out the rest, which was inevitable, and having her respond. Hardly rocket science.

Of course, he may have been stupid enough to think that she would never respond, but her history shows otherwise, and he should know that better than anyone: she doesn't keep things to herself. I don't think she should have to, but it comes with inevitable blowback.
 

MacMadame

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It took nothing more than giving her a half truth, having her find out the rest, which was inevitable, and having her respond. Hardly rocket science.

Of course, he may have been stupid enough to think that she would never respond, but her history shows otherwise, and he should know that better than anyone: she doesn't keep things to herself. I don't think she should have to, but it comes with inevitable blowback.
But you are assuming that Radford thought Duhamel would have an issue with any of it. I am pretty sure that Radford was only seeing things from his POV and therefore was shocked by the reaction.
 

becca

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It took nothing more than giving her a half truth, having her find out the rest, which was inevitable, and having her respond. Hardly rocket science.

Of course, he may have been stupid enough to think that she would never respond, but her history shows otherwise, and he should know that better than anyone: she doesn't keep things to herself. I don't think she should have to, but it comes with inevitable blowback.
And maybe the reason he was giving her half truths is because he feared she would act this way. Maybe he didn’t want to play her straight because he was afraid of a scene? Maybe he feared any break up would bring drama.

Meghan is an adult. She has people in her life she could have vented to about this. I think venting is needed. She didn’t have to bring the public into it.

And there was no need to be because Eric’s initial announcement didn’t insult her in anyway.

Meghan is an adult who decided to make this all public to blame Eric for the blowback she is going to get for that choice.

Even if he was a jerk even if he handled it wrong. She and she alone is responsible for her reaction. And she has to face those consequences.

Elena I was what a decade younger than her and she handled it better.

Evan’s Bates old partner she handled it better.

Trankov’s old partner Maria she handled it with class.

This is the nature of the sport and yes it’s sucks people have the right to leave for better partners if they want.
 

kwanfan1818

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But you are assuming that Radford thought Duhamel would have an issue with any of it. I am pretty sure that Radford was only seeing things from his POV and therefore was shocked by the reaction.
Then why didn't he tell her the whole truth, but, instead, only get a blessing from her for a half-truth, if he was so sure that she'd be fine with his POV?
 

MacMadame

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Then why didn't he tell her the whole truth, but, instead, only get a blessing from her for a half-truth, if he was so sure that she'd be fine with his POV?
I can think of many reasons including that he didn't think those details were important.
 

kwanfan1818

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I can think of many reasons including that he didn't think those details were important.
"I wanted to dump you as a professional partner for the last two years, and for the last couple of months, James and I have been training in secret with your sister-in-law and presenting this as 'just having a little fun'" are the types of details he thought weren't important? If so, he has the emotional intelligence of a brick.
 

tony

Throwing the (rule)book at them
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I think there are several different possibilities as to why Radford didn't say anything, and I don't know the official answer to this one, so note that this is my opinion based on what we do know.

First, I think the ultimate goal was getting to skate for the chance at the Olympics next year. While Eric tiptoed around that and mentions that he was considering pro opportunities with Vanessa, I do know that they were looking into getting released from France in late 2020, shortly after BOTB. If he had just wanted to skate in shows with her, I think he would've dropped Meagan then and there and not even done the SOI Japan thing that was still on their schedule at that time. Because, IMO, that's a logical chain of events if that was indeed the goal.

With that in mind, Eric simply kept hushed about everything until he was 100% sure that he would be able to proceed with the chance at The Olympics. As soon as he knew it, the cat was out of the bag and he gave Meagan all the details of what had fallen into place. Now, I don't necessarily blame him for making sure he had everything in line before doing so. But if we are to believe everything he said in his narrative, then there are just inconsistencies that, IMO, seem phrased to sound like all the reasons why he did it when it's really just that he sees career opportunities with Vanessa and took advantage of them and doesn't want to look bad. Also fine- but it is what it is. And I'm still curious if this partnership actually would've moved forward if the France release was no until after Beijing, but we won't ever know that one.

But this whole manipulative, three steps ahead, he knew Meagan was going to share her side of the story thing is way off-base. More than anything, I think he was assuring his own goal was possible and forgetting about Meagan and everyone else in general until he absolutely had to say something about it.

We've already seen how split down the middle people are about this. The pass I am giving Duhamel about her iOS statement, as Asher Hill tried to shade, is that she really was left out until two weeks ago and then with the announcements and press Eric got, it would naturally raise a few questions about why Meagan was no longer involved (ie. she's off to have another baby, she doesn't want to skate, she's the one that broke it off, or whatever).
 

Willin

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2,598
I think Skate Canada is going to shove it as far under the rug as they can get - and I think Skate Canada is also betting the house on the Olympic audience not being as generally knowledgeable as the regular skating audience. (I also think we're going to see a lot of playing up of "look how amazing and diverse we are! A gay man and a black woman!" I wonder if they apologized to Asher Hill yet?)


You can see it in the slimy wording of that CBC article where they make it sound like James found out in September last year when Cipres was charged.
TBH based on the quality and type of North American commentating somehow I doubt Skate Canada has to do anything to sweep it under the rug. The Canadian commentators are very nice and try to avoid all controversy. On the American side I think Johnny or Tara might bring it up during the GP since they don't always shy away from controversy during competitions watched mostly by fans, but during the Olympics Tara and Johnny have a much different style aimed at the non-skating fan. Somehow I also don't think articles about skating will bring it up given how much of a non-story non-competition controversies are in our media coverage of skating is over here.
 

orbitz

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10,490
Oh, yes as long as he only sends pictures of his penis to one child, that is much better.
Apparently you must think so since you typed it out in plain black letters for everyone on this board to read. I certainly didn't type that idea. My post was simply correct one fact about the case. Anything else you read into it is your issue to deal with.
 

Vagabond

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25,385
TBH based on the quality and type of North American commentating somehow I doubt Skate Canada has to do anything to sweep it under the rug. The Canadian commentators are very nice and try to avoid all controversy. On the American side I think Johnny or Tara might bring it up during the GP since they don't always shy away from controversy during competitions watched mostly by fans, but during the Olympics Tara and Johnny have a much different style aimed at the non-skating fan. Somehow I also don't think articles about skating will bring it up given how much of a non-story non-competition controversies are in our media coverage of skating is over here.
I don't think that the casual American fans watching the Grand Prix are really going to care about some retired Canadian Pair skater getting all :drama: over this. They might care about Vanessa James, but then again, maybe more as a skater going back to compete for her native country than as the former partner of someone who sent a sext to minors.
 

tony

Throwing the (rule)book at them
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Regarding the commentators: I'm sure the Canadian broadcast teams will skate around it and say Vanessa's career was cut short/forced into early retirement because of legal issues surrounding her ex-partner, and that she and Eric gave each other a newfound chance at a goal-- or simply that Radford came out of retirement in hopes of getting her to her goal ;)

Terry Gannon has generally explained things regarding skating controversies at the beginning of telecasts, and he also opened a gymnastics event with the news of the coach that had hanged himself. Skating Twitter is just going to blow up on Johnny and/or Tara for not taking a stand on national broadcast television (they already hate everything he does even when he's complimentary towards Hanyu), so we all know what is in store. Johnny will surely be called an enabler, be told to die, be told that he approves of behaviors simply because he doesn't want to get involved, etc.
 

starrynight

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Honestly, the team of Duhamel/Radford was a competitive vehicle designed to get results - which they certainly did.

But they weren't a team with a special emotional connection or close friendship.

They've been retired for 3 years and haven't skated together for 2 years.

Why would Radford have to forgo his goals just for a handful of possible shows in the distant future? A full schedule of packed out international and domestic shows will be a while off yet. And the demand for a team is reasonably short-lived. Unless a special show persona has developed, old competitors lose their appeal a couple of Olympic cycles post competition.

The whole basis on which the Duhamel/Radford partnership was formed has dramatically changed and is nothing like what it once was. If Eric wants more out of skating than what this new situation can provide, that's his right.

And trying to equate elite sports with real world jobs of us just sitting in chairs answering emails like worker-bots, just isn't a correct analogy. In terms of sports, there just isn't anything about it that is equal opportunity in any sense. It's just the brutal nature of winners and losers. And show skating is still very demanding, especially when teams have to get out on ice with current skaters ... see Zagitova doing shows with the current ladies.
 
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kwanfan1818

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I'm not suggesting three-steps ahead: it was a single piece of bait, and, IMO, he was a coward who was trying to look and feel good and avoid having any real conversation with Duhamel. Based on all of the crap he's dropping now, it adds up to not saying to her, not the press, not to his buds,
  • You've centered a lot of decisions around your family in the past couple of years (marriage, baby, move to new rink in another province), which is your right, without my input
  • Looking at it from that perspective, I've felt more distanced, and I've thought about my family's future
  • For the last few months, I've been working with someone who will make our partnership central.
  • I'm telling you now because all of the ducks are in a row for an announcement of us as a competitive partnership, and I don't want you taken unaware.
Then Julie Marcotte could have had the discussion with her, that she is going to coach the pair in Quebec.

She's getting all kind of pushback for telling her side on social media. I don't understand why he gets a pass telling the press his side of the story.

ETA:
Why would Radford have to forgo his goals just for a handful of possible shows in the distant future? And the demand for a team is reasonably short-lived. Unless a special show persona has developed, old competitors lose their appeal a couple of Olympic cycles post competition.
Tell that to Navka, Totmianina/Marinin, Yagudin, and a lot of other skaters who are still in demand. And D/R had contracts for this past February, in Japan, where the money is great.

I don't think he should have to forgo his newfound goals at all. I think he owed Duhamel an honest conversation, which he didn't seem to have.
 
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tony

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Honestly, the team of Duhamel/Radford was a competitive vehicle designed to get results - which they certainly did.

But they weren't a team with a special emotional connection or close friendship.
You like to jump into threads with very matter-of-fact statements, but you are wrong here. They had an extremely close friendship for a very long time, many years before they even started skating together. They still were close in the post-2018 years- I guarantee you much closer than 95% of the other teams we've seen over the years.
They've been retired for 3 years and haven't skated together for 2 years.

Why would Radford have to forgo his goals just for a handful of possible shows in the distant future? And the demand for a team is reasonably short-lived. Unless a special show persona has developed, old competitors lose their appeal a couple of Olympic cycles post competition.
Radford was done with eligible skating in 2018. It's not like these were his goals until he saw an opportunity with Vanessa, which is fine that things changed. But don't make it sound like he's been sitting out 3 years with nothing to do desperately waiting to get back to competition. He wasn't. He had other things he was focusing on, both inside and outside the rink.
 

becca

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"I wanted to dump you as a professional partner for the last two years, and for the last couple of months, James and I have been training in secret with your sister-in-law and presenting this as 'just having a little fun'" are the types of details he thought weren't important? If so, he has the emotional intelligence of a brick.
Why does he have to tell her I wanted to dump you for two years how do we even know that? And even if true why does he have to say it all. Honestly that is needlessly cruel. We don’t owe people all our head thoughts .


  • You've centered a lot of decisions around your family in the past couple of years (marriage, baby, move to new rink), which is your right, without my input
  • Looking at it from that perspective, I've felt more distanced, and I've thought about my family's future
  • For the last few months, I've working with someone who will make our partnership central.
  • I'm telling you now because all of the ducks are in a row for an announcement of us as a competitive partnership, and I don't want you taken unaware.
Then Julie Marcotte could have had the discussion with her, that she is going to coach the pair in Quebec.

She's getting all kind of pushback for telling her side on social media. I don't understand why he gets a pass telling the press his side of the story.
Meghan is the one who made it public! She put him in a position where he felt he needed to defend himself.

I agree that Eric could have said things the way you said them. He didn’t handle the break up well although we weren’t there for the convo.

But his actions were private and Meghan could have addressed them privately. I didn’t like the way you treated me.

if someone starts attacking you in public you may get a very public response. At this point the guy is defending himself.
 

kwanfan1818

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Why does he have to tell her I wanted to dump you for two years how do we even know that?
It's in the Bev Smith article: he wanted to dump her for James to skate together in shows, before going back to competition was a gleam in their eyes.
 

starrynight

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Tell that to Navka, Totmianina/Marinin, Yagudin, and a lot of other skaters who are still in demand. And D/R had contracts for this past February, in Japan, where the money is great.

Japan never went ahead for any international skaters. And those skaters you mentioned are the ones who have very much focused on show skating - hence their longevity. Navka has her own shows and clearly puts an enormous focus on them.
 

starrynight

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The thing about Duhamel/Radford is that when they were competing, their edge was all about those quad throws. The ones where the entrance would be telegraphed to the extreme (you know the mile long stare arcing the entire rink) and then landed in a squat about an inch off the ice.

At that stage, the technical focus on pairs gave them the edge. It's now all about doing elements well.

So it's not like D/R were one of those really engaging performance teams. I just can't really muster the anguish about them not show skating anymore. They were the very essence of a competition focused team - you know fist pumping elements and tallying the score while not really paying much attention to the music.
 

Cherub721

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NBC will make the call on whether Morgan is brought up. Whenever Coughlin, Fontana or Zimmerman is brought up, Terry gets all serious voice and reads carefully worded statements verbatim. It isn't something Tara and Johnny will be allowed to ad lib about. But gossiping about Megan's reaction, maybe.
 

tony

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Well, yeah. But she (or he) who lives by the nasty iOS press release dies by the nasty iOS press release. C'est la vie! 🤷
I think it's a bit ridiculous to call her 'press release' nasty. It was more factual than anything, and she has every right to share her side which lined up with Eric's side anyways aside from the 'oh yeah, I didn't mention it was in the works' part. This was not the drama that people are trying to push it to be, but I do think Dave Lease was way out of line with his Tweets and stirred the pot.
The thing about Duhamel/Radford is that when they were competing, their edge was all about those quad throws. The ones where the entrance would be telegraphed to the extreme (you know the mile long stare arcing the entire rink) and then landed in a squat about an inch off the ice.

At that stage, the technical focus on pairs gave them the edge. It's now all about doing elements well.

So it's not like D/R were one of those really engaging performance teams. I just can't really muster the anguish about them not show skating anymore. They were the very essence of a competition focused team.
The thing is that you are pushing your own views of their skating and explaining why it was okay to cut the partnership off, including you trying to say they didn't have any kind of personal friendship/relationship. As I said: false. If you personally didn't want to see them show skating, it doesn't make a reasoning as to why he wanted to look elsewhere.
 

VGThuy

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I'm not suggesting three-steps ahead: it was a single piece of bait, and, IMO, he was a coward who was trying to look and feel good and avoid having any real conversation with Duhamel. Based on all of the crap he's dropping now, it adds up to not saying to her, not the press, not to his buds,
  • You've centered a lot of decisions around your family in the past couple of years (marriage, baby, move to new rink in another province), which is your right, without my input
  • Looking at it from that perspective, I've felt more distanced, and I've thought about my family's future
  • For the last few months, I've been working with someone who will make our partnership central.
  • I'm telling you now because all of the ducks are in a row for an announcement of us as a competitive partnership, and I don't want you taken unaware.
Then Julie Marcotte could have had the discussion with her, that she is going to coach the pair in Quebec.

She's getting all kind of pushback for telling her side on social media. I don't understand why he gets a pass telling the press his side of the story.

ETA:

Tell that to Navka, Totmianina/Marinin, Yagudin, and a lot of other skaters who are still in demand. And D/R had contracts for this past February, in Japan, where the money is great.

I don't think he should have to forgo his newfound goals at all. I think he owed Duhamel an honest conversation, which he didn't seem to have.
I agree with you that Duhamel was owed an honest conversation. However, if we’re going to bring up push back she’s getting, then we can bring up how there are militant skating fans on Twitter with their pitchforks ready to burn Eric at the stake thanks to how public this has gotten and how Meagan has been interacting with them while also saying not to direct hate at them on a temporary IG story. I think trying to set her up to make her go public and look negative is really a nutty conspiracy theory and if he was that conniving, then it backfired because he is getting tons of hate on the internet. Add in Vanessa who is public enemy no. 1 right now due to Cipres, and you have people jumping on the hate Radford hate train to get at Vanessa as well. It also paints Meagan as some idiot who is easily manipulated.
 

tony

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I agree with you that Duhamel was owed an honest conversation. However, if we’re going to bring up push back she’s getting, then we can bring up how there are militant skating fans on Twitter with their pitchforks ready to burn Eric at the stake thanks to how public this has gotten and how Meagan has been interacting with them while also saying not to direct hate at them on a temporary IG story.
But to be fair, the people following TSL and/or mad anyways because of the Vanessa association (because that's plenty of them) are not doing anything they wouldn't have done had Meagan stayed completely silent. It's Twitter, it's skating fans that have an opinion on everything and especially on men they hate and/or the women attached to them. Vanessa didn't have a chance from the beginning, and people are pulling stuff from Eric's past (nothing to do with Meagan) to go rip apart, too.
 

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