2020-21 Canadian Pairs News & Updates

[thvu]

Duhamel’s posts about this are way more entertaining than anything she ever put on the ice.

This truly is the off season now.

 

[manhn]

I LOVE Duhamel. I am Duhamel. I conduct my life like Duhamel. I am not effortless about anything. You will see my effort, my sweat. I don't have much interest in people who are effortlessly whatever.

 

[hoptoad]

I LOVE Duhamel. I am Duhamel. I conduct my life like Duhamel. I am not effortless about anything. You will see my effort, my sweat. I don't have much interest in people who are effortlessly whatever.

More power to you and to her. I mostly feel tired watching her. I find her inspiring, but imagine she would be exhausting in person.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I don't understand why some are thinking that Evenly & Trennt's Olympic spot is being taken away from them. What about Matte & Ferland? Brasseur & Daleman? Don't they get a chance to go out and compete for their Olympic dream??? So many skaters/teams have secured Olympic spots and never seen the inside of an Olympic ice arena as nothing in this life is guaranteed. They should use this as a positive and keep striving to get better and up their technical difficulty.

Of course there will be other teams fighting for the second spot. But multiple teams retired after Virtue/Moir announced their comeback, because while, before the announcement, five teams had a shot at the third spot, barring disaster, V/M, W/P, and G/P were going to the 2018 Olympics, and the competition was for Four Continents and, maybe, post-Olympic Worlds. And they said "no thanks." If -- big if -- the J/R pair really takes off and Skate Canada puts politik behind them, then the young teams may call it a day, because, at best, they'd be going to the 2026 Olympics with no Olympic experience.

 

[Colonel Green]

If -- big if -- the J/R pair really takes off and Skate Canada puts politik behind them, then the young teams may call it a day, because, at best, they'd be going to the 2026 Olympics with no Olympic experience.

Other than Walsh/Michaud, none of the younger teams had a very realistic chance of going to the Olympics in 2022 already, so I don't think this is a comparable situation to what definitely happened with ice dance.

 

[Orm Irian]

But didn't people see Vanessa posting on IG in full support of Morgan when all of this came out and consistently posted in support of him even when more details became public? That kind of shows you where her head was at.

That said, she's not the one who committed the crimes. However, if people want to feel icky about her for enabling and supporting him after information became public, then I don't blame them either.

I’ve followed Vanessa on Instagram for several years now and I don’t recall her ever posting anything that explicitly addressed the matter one way or another. There was one piece of generic inspo guff she posted that a lot of people interpreted as being in support of him, and she got a lot of backlash for it and took it down quickly, but it was the sort of thing she’s always posted a lot of anyway. Since the news broke her social media has been rather a concerted project of establishing herself as an independent individual in the public eye. She hasn’t mentioned him or their coaches by name or referred directly to them in any way. She didn’t even make a post for their retirement, and when she posts action photos from her skating career, even in stories, he’s cropped out of them as far as possible. I wouldn’t speculate as to what legal advice she’s had, but the PR advice has been - I will say ‘functional’.

If she is reviving her career, though, she’s going to have to address it sooner or later. Radford brings the PR burden of having switched partners in a way that hurt Meagan; Vanessa brings the burden that a former partner was a sex criminal whom she didn’t speak out against; they’ll have to speak to both in public if they want acceptance as a team. With SafeSport sanctions having been applied against the three coaches involved, there may be more legal space for her to do so.

 

[yfbg722]

More power to you and to her. I mostly feel tired watching her. I find her inspiring, but imagine she would be exhausting in person.

She was my daughter's room mate at the Grand Prix final in Quebec and I can tell you she was nothing but kind and supportive.

 

[VGThuy]

I’ve followed Vanessa on Instagram for several years now and I don’t recall her ever posting anything that explicitly addressed the matter one way or another. There was one piece of generic inspo guff she posted that a lot of people interpreted as being in support of him, and she got a lot of backlash for it and took it down quickly, but it was the sort of thing she’s always posted a lot of anyway. Since the news broke her social media has been rather a concerted project of establishing herself as an independent individual in the public eye. She hasn’t mentioned him or their coaches by name or referred directly to them in any way. She didn’t even make a post for their retirement, and when she posts action photos from her skating career, even in stories, he’s cropped out of them as far as possible. I wouldn’t speculate as to what legal advice she’s had, but the PR advice has been - I will say ‘functional’.

If she is reviving her career, though, she’s going to have to address it sooner or later. Radford brings the PR burden of having switched partners in a way that hurt Meagan; Vanessa brings the burden that a former partner was a sex criminal whom she didn’t speak out against; they’ll have to speak to both in public if they want acceptance as a team. With SafeSport sanctions having been applied against the three coaches involved, there may be more legal space for her to do so.

I remember reading something similar to what aka_gerbil posted in this thread:

The posts people are talking about were made by Vanessa and then very quickly deleted.

I saw them and they were in support of Morgan in this situation.

 

[Xsktrx]

Other than Walsh/Michaud, none of the younger teams had a very realistic chance of going to the Olympics in 2022 already, so I don't think this is a comparable situation to what definitely happened with ice dance.

I agree. Realistically the teams in Canada with serious 2022 Olympic potential were of course MTM, W/M, Matte/Ferland and Stellato/Deschamps. The others are either too young or too newly formed. None of the newer teams have the past success or international reputation to pull off a 1-2 year partnership and rise to the level needed to be top 2 by 2022. As for Matte/Ferland and Stellato/Deschamps they need to seriously up their games to catch W/M or they’ll need some other factor such as a huge collapse at Nationals, injury or illness to attain that second spot. I doubt we will see too many of the younger or newly formed pairs necessarily pack it in after these Olympics but more likely the older ones will have to do some soul-searching as to whether they have it in them for another four years of training.

 

[Vase]

Skate Canada announced the partnership of Vanessa and Eric

 

[Lemonade20]

Yup, it's official now!

Skate Canada / Patinage Canada

Vanessa James and Eric Radford to compete in pairs together https://skatecanada.ca/2021/04/vanessa-james-and-eric-radford-to-compete-in-pairs-together/

www.facebook.com

 

[Colonel Green]

I will restate my amazement at the Canadian pairs thread being where all the action is this (non-)season — we’re maintaining the ratio of having as many pages as the other three disciplines combined.

And with this news, it’s shaping up to be the most hard-feelings event at next nationals.

 

[Sylvia]

Skate Canada announced the partnership of Vanessa and Eric

Link to the GSD news thread with links to the press release/CBC article & interview video/first practice clips: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-compete-in-pairs-together-for-canada.108254/

I will restate my amazement at the Canadian pairs thread being where all the action is this (non-)season — we’re maintaining the ratio of having as many pages as the other three disciplines combined.

Time to start the 2021-22 Canadian Pairs news & updates thread?

 

[yfbg722]

Skate Canada announced the partnership of Vanessa and Eric

I see Julie Marcotte is their coach. That has to sting a little for Meagan too.

 

[Vase]

Yes and by watching the clips, I’m sure pressure for MTM and WM. I think between them it could be if they can handle the pressure of this new team.

 

[honey]

I see Julie Marcotte is their coach. That has to sting a little for Meagan too.

Meagan does not seem thrilled (see her response to this tweet).

https://twitter.com/skatinglesson/status/1384890363693969411?s=21

 

[Orm Irian]

I see Julie Marcotte is their coach. That has to sting a little for Meagan too.

What's the connection to Meagan?

 

[Lil Sarah]

What's the connection to Meagan?

Julie Marcotte is her sister-in-law (her husband is Bruno)

 

[Orm Irian]

Julie Marcotte is her sister-in-law (her husband is Bruno)

....personally I wouldn't be pouting about my sister-in-law getting paid work in her field in the middle if a global pandemic that's ruined millions of careers worldwide, even if it did hurt my feefees, but maybe priorities are different in the skating world.

 

[tony]

....personally I wouldn't be pouting about my sister-in-law getting paid work in her field in the middle if a global ********* that's ruined millions of careers worldwide, even if it did hurt my feefees, but maybe things are different in the skating world.

Yet weren't you at the forefront of trying to get people to go sign the petition about Worlds and constantly bringing up why nothing should be happening these days? Now you are worried about ruined careers and people getting paid?

I think the connection would sting for a lot of people.

 

[Lemonade20]

Yet weren't you at the forefront of trying to get people to go sign the petition about Worlds and constantly bringing up why nothing should be happening these days? Now you are worried about ruined careers and people getting paid?

I think the connection would sting for a lot of people.

Exactly.

 

[Spikefan]

So, are provincials in August televised?

 

[skategal]

Just goes to show that everyone has a SIL or BIL that they don’t always get along with.

 

[RoseRed]

So, are provincials in August televised?

Normally there's a Dailymotion stream.

 

[mackiecat]

So in 2017, D&R and Luba and Dylan got Canada 3 spots for the Olympics. Was it fair that Luba and Dylan didn’t get to go ( especially when he was injured just prior to Canadians)? Was everyone posting this injustice? No, this is a sport!

 

[honey]

So in 2017, D&R and Luba and Dylan got Canada 3 spots for the Olympics. Was it fair that Luba and Dylan didn’t get to go ( especially when he was injured just prior to Canadians)? Was everyone posting this injustice? No, this is a sport!

For the most part no, no one was screaming injustice. But I can think of a few posters who were trying to make it seem like it was .

I should specify, this was mostly coming from people who so vehemently despise KMT that they couldn’t see the MT/M 2018 Olympic berth as anything other than a travesty.

My view on the current situation is that nobody has their Olympic spots in pen. While certain things were expected, this is a sport as @mackiecat said. And the best should go to the games. But I also see how some teams may feel upset by this news. Hopefully it will only spur them on to train even harder and battle it out all season.

I also think Eric has every right to partner with whoever he wants to. He did in a way that has caused pain for his former partner though and that makes me sad. I think it would have been a tough pill to swallow for Meagan even if he had done this as delicately as possible. But the way it sounds like it went down does seem particularly harsh.

That said, I think Eric and Vanessa will make a good match and I’m interested to see how they progress.

 

[Rafter]

I’m assuming that James and Radford will be a one and done (as in one year) team because of their ages. It will be interesting to see how Radford manages, stamina-wise.

As for Duhamel, it’s a bit much how she’s airing her/their dirty laundry on social media. Seems a bit....immature to me. I get that she’s upset. She sounds blindsided and she’s out future earnings. But isn’t Eric allowed to do whatever he wants to do? He’s not obligated to her and she was
never going to come back to competition. He also lost some earnings too while she had a baby.

The Julie Marcotte thing certainly adds an interesting twist.

 

[Lemonade20]

I’m assuming that James and Radford will be a one and done (as in one year) team because of their ages. It will be interesting to see how Radford manages, stamina-wise.

As for Duhamel, it’s a bit much how she’s airing her/their dirty laundry on social media. Seems a bit....immature to me. I get that she’s upset. She sounds blindsided and she’s out future earnings. But isn’t Eric allowed to do whatever he wants to do? He’s not obligated to her and she was
never going to come back to competition. He also lost some earnings too while she had a baby.

The Julie Marcotte thing certainly adds an interesting twist.

I agree, I can see them doing this for a short while. They're both elite talented skaters and I'm excited to see how they do.

 

[Rafter]

As for the comments about J/R stealing a spot from Walsh/Michaud. I don’t get this mindset. It’s the Olympic Games. The best skaters/teams should be sent. If Walsh/Michaud are good enough, they will get the second spot.

 

[Xsktrx]

As for the comments about J/R stealing a spot from Walsh/Michaud. I don’t get this mindset. It’s the Olympic Games. The best skaters/teams should be sent. If Walsh/Michaud are good enough, they will get the second spot.

Agree. And if Walsh/Michaud aren’t strong enough together they either look for a better match going forward to get there or they stay together because the friendship/partnership is more important to them but that’s not for everyone.