Duhamel/Radford update coaching team - no longer with Gauthier

Yikes, shades of Sale & Pelletier in the summer of 2001 when they parted ways with Richard 9 months before the Olympics.

I'm not going to try to figure out what D/R are trying to do in their last season as competitive skaters with adding John Zimmerman and John Kerr to their team and parting ways with Richard but I guess we'll see how it goes.
 
When the news and release were tweeted out from various sources, Meagan also tweeted: "Julie Marcotte is also still doing our choreography! Her and John worked together on our short"
 
So anyone knows this scenario is only for D/R or is Gauthier 'gone' for all the other pairs too?
 
Interesting. Bummer when one of the coaches is married to the skater - the other is the expendable one no matter what the situation is.

My guess is that bringing in Zimmermann and Kerr is a defence against the French impinging on their niche in pairs. James and Cipres are very close to clean landings for the throw 3-axel, have had better choreo, etc. while having a modern take.
 
skatfan said:
Interesting. Bummer when one of the coaches is married to the skater - the other is the expendable one no matter what the situation is.

My guess is that bringing in Zimmermann and Kerr is a defence against the French impinging on their niche in pairs. James and Cipres are very close to clean landings for the throw 3-axel, have had better choreo, etc. while having a modern take.
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When you put it that way, it's very smart of them.
 
This is also their last season.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/duhamel-radford-coach-fired-1.4153512

Figure skaters Duhamel, Radford turf coach in bold shakeup

'It was now or never' on making change 8 months before PyeongChang Olympics

Some sniplets:

"This will be our last competitive season," the 31-year-old Duhamel continued in a phone interview with The Canadian Press. "It was now or never to try something different. We feel like we need to refresh and reinvigorate our skating to have a chance to stand on that podium at the Olympics.

"This was what needed to be done." Changing things up so close to the Games gave them pause, Duhamel added, but was necessary in order to avoid any "what ifs?"

"We might also end up seventh at the Olympics even though we're making these changes, but it's the risk we needed to take."

Duhamel said the decision to part ways with Gauthier, one of only two coaches she's had over the last 10 years, was tough.

QUESTION: Do all y'all think now that Zimmerman is the hot new thing in Pairs kinda like how MFD was/is in Dance?
 
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I am not sure why, but I was shocked to read this announcement. Although, I do not think they have anything to lose in making this decision and changing things up. Cannot wait to see what this change produces :)
 
kittysk8ts said:
Although, I do not think they have anything to lose in making this decision and changing things up.
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I think that's the key, they really don't have anything to lose at this point after such a poor season last year. So they might as well take a risk. If it works out, then great. If not, they know that they gave it their best shot. I feel for Richard, but this does feel like a very different situation than when Sale & Pelletier left him when they were at the top of their game.

It will be interesting to see how much time they spend with Zimmerman vs. Marcotte. I also think it's a bit curious that they decided to leave Gauthier when they could have looked at going to Zimmerman for a month without leaving Gauthier, so I wonder if they will try to up the time with Zimmerman. I'm glad Marcotte has another Montreal location for them to train, though, or else that could have been very awkward.
 
So is Zimmerman moving to Canada? That seems so unlikely given that he's got a student base in FL.
 
Doggygirl said:
I know that top coaches coach multiple top teams. But given the timing of all this, I wonder how James / Cipres feel about this change? (Hopefully they are just carrying on...)
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Honestly, if Meagan Duhamel's competitiveness rubs off on them, it'll only do them a world of good. They need to become stronger competitors, Meagan is basically forcing them to become them now. :lol:

This season is going to be remembered. :watch:
 
Doggygirl said:
I know that top coaches coach multiple top teams. But given the timing of all this, I wonder how James / Cipres feel about this change? (Hopefully they are just carrying on...)
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I was wondering the same. But this is what happens when a coaching team shows that they can effect meaningful change in they way they have with James/Cipres......
 
Karpenko said:
Honestly, if Meagan Duhamel's competitiveness rubs off on them, it'll only do them a world of good. They need to become stronger competitors, Meagan is basically forcing them to become them now. :lol:

This season is going to be remembered. :watch:
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Great point about the competition. I hope it's an EPIC pair season!!! :respec:
 
This was a shocker, especially since my eyes kept seeing Gauthier but visualizing Bruno.

This will be good for John as Meghan and Eric are immensely hard workers. Not that he doesn't know anything about hard work given his background and working with Moskvina but they bring a different energy to the mix. I think that this will help the French team. I just don't see the coaches in Florida bringing them in if things wouldn't work. Also, I don't really think that this season the French will challenge Meghan and Eric. Not yet but who knows. It could be that Bruno adds a dimension to what's going on in Florida that helps everyone and vise versa.

If nothing else, and this is going off topic but how awesome to see skaters post competition doing so well as coaches? It's great honestly. Sylvia, John and John deserve success and they are bringing it to their skaters.

I am going to preface this by saying, i'm aware that as a fan, my POV only has 2% of the story at best. I don't think both halves of that pair are in it for the long haul. To me, Eric looks exhausted of the whole bit. Meghan is truly type A, which to someone that likes being motivated is great. Still, after a while, when you are just exhausted, truly exhausted, you need a break which isn't an option. I sure hope that John Kerr can influence a more appropriate music and theme selection than in the past AND help Meghan with her acting, emotion and posture. They need to be smoothed out badly. Also, i'm praying no more weird ass choreographic lifts where he yanks and carries her around.

This change could spell trouble for the Chinese though. Sui better damn well be practicing a LOT of solo triple Sal's this summer...
 
OMG! What?! This seems like a April Fool's Day joke! Now, I totally expected some pairs to beat a retreat to Florida after JohnZ/JohnK and crew's huge success with James/Cipres and with choreo for Savchenko/Massot. I mean Sav/Mas's programs and J/C's programs have been the talk of the skating world for the entire past season. Four of the absolute best pairs programs that were on full display at Euros especially! And again, everyone was talking about the excitement surrounding the Euros event, and chiefly about the programs of J/C and Sav/Mas, as well as J/C's boffo showing which was sooo exciting that it put T/M's 80s crap 'music' program to shame. And you better believe that even Sui/Han's fp to Bridge Over Troubled Water was surely inspired by what Kerr and crew did for J/C with Disturbed's rendition of The Sound of Silence.

But a coaching split of this nature?! Meagan obviously isn't about to split with her husband, so she has to bring him along? How is this going to work out? Are D/R going to train full or part time in Florida? Bejesus! I do hope this change in some way means that Gauthier has been planning to retire anyway! There are not enough details provided in this article. And I mean, I totally DO NOT want to see the wonderful dynamic that J/C had largely to themselves destroyed with too many other pairs teams trying to edge their way into the picture to have some of that boffo choreo success rub off on them too! That's my major initial reaction to this news. Isn't this coming season supposed to be Duhamel/Radford's swan song anyway? And what was all that gossip about Meagan wishing to try singles again? Is it because two Canadian women finally landed on the World podium again, this time in unprecedented fashion?

I hope that JohnZ respectfully discussed this with J/C before agreeing to the arrangement! :eek: I recall that Kirsten M-T sought out Meagan D for her approval prior to making the switch to Gauthier/Marcotte a few seasons ago.

And seriously, exactly what is going to become of the other Canadian teams and international teams who were in the Gauthier/Marcotte camp? Again, is Gauthier retiring or is he going to take over with the other teams? Or are Gauthier/ Marcotte still going to coach the other teams and the switch arrangement only involves Duhamel/Radford?

Another thing too: I want to see American pairs going to John Z, not established international pairs trying to grab some of the magic that came into its own with JohnZ finally putting some finishing touches on his vision for creating a successful pairs training center. John has worked diligently and hard to gather a great team of coaches and last year they landed a talented pair team in J/C who just needed some good guidance and a bit of more oomph to take them to the next level! Unfortunately, Denney/Frazier did not seem to understand JohnZ's motivation for bringing in Ingo Steuer. It was not so that D/F and/or interfering parent could decide to leave him and take Steuer with them. And how did that work out? It didn't even get off the ground before Haven experienced that near career-ending injury!

I wonder how J/C feel about this? I'm sure they will be publicly cool with it, but D/R are direct competitors now especially since D/R will be trying to make it back on the podium, and the podium is where J/C would like to find themselves too next season! As far as I'm concerned, it is Marissa/Mervin who need to head to JohnZ's camp, not Duhamel/Radford! What does John Kerr need with Julie Marcotte? I thought Julie Marcotte always prided herself on working alone. Once again, seemingly it's because Julie is Meagan's sister-in-law that there wasn't a clean break made from her. If D/R just wanted to get choreo from John Kerr, why did they need to switch coaching relationships? What are they expecting JohnZ and crew to do for them? Jeremy Barrett is a huge part of the creative team, but he's dealing with some serious personal issues with his wife's illness and the birth of their son, so I'm sure it's not certain when he will be back at the rink.

I figured we wouldn't get out of this summer without some kind of shizz hitting the fan, because that's always a must in the world of figure skating. :watch:
 
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