Radford and Duhamel Bring Home Bronze in Olympic Pairs Free Skate Competition

Meagan Duhamel and Eric RadfordMeagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were prepared for what was to be the final appearance in the Olympics for Duhamel. Radford and Duhamel were in third and knew in order to finish in the medals that their next performance would need to be perfectly executed. However, it was that feeling of calmness continued as they hit the dressing room and for Duhamel, she wasn’t sure what that meant.

Duhamel found herself pondering the feeling said to Radford that she is feeling calm and to her surprise, he replied that he too had a sense of calm over their upcoming performance.

It was like a little bit of an epiphany, but we usually are on the same page. It really was right where we needed to be, and we’re both just so happy everything worked out in the best way possible.

It was the German competitors Bruno Massot and Aljono Savchenko who were a threat to see Radford and Duhamel drop to fourth after Duhamel’s hand touched the ice after landing a triple lutz, however on their last skate, they delivered the performance of their careers that saw the duo earning the bronze medal.

The Canadians landed their throw quad perfectly and earned a score of 153.33 and a total score of 230.15 for the Free Skate competition. To win the bronze, the Canadian duo needed to see the Russian duo of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov.

The time spent waiting while the Russians were on the ice was spent leaning on each other. Radford felt they did enough to get the bronze, but for Duhamel, she said, “No, I’m not going to believe it till the marks come up“.

It was at that point that the scores were posted giving Morozov and Tarasova 143.25 and Canada the bronze medal. The result saw Eric Radford and Duhamel screaming for joy, and the ending both had hoped for.

As Radford had been suffering from back-related issues during last year’s Worlds in Helsinki that saw the duo placing seventh, winning bronze was far from a guarantee for the Canadians. As a team, they were in crisis frustrated by their routines, the music choices and choreography. This showed in their results, and clearly, changes were needed.

It meant that the lead up to the Olympics was far from perfect, and it is why, for Duhamel, winning bronze felt like winning gold.

It’s easy to forget the really hard times when you’re in the middle of an incredible time. When I look at how far we’ve come and what we went through last season, what I find really funny is David Pelletier, I talked to him after worlds and he was like, ‘You know what? Coming seventh at worlds could be the best thing to happen to you guys, because you’re going to go into the Olympics under the radar, and that’s when you can hit and surprise everybody’. That’s exactly what happened.

Duhamel has joked earlier winning bronze gave them the full set after, as they were part of the team event that won gold earlier in the week.

For Duhamel, she recalled Sochi saying,

I remember leaving Sochi so disappointed, I remember going outside and seeing my parents and my husband and crying out of disappointment. Today I was like, ‘I don’t care what I do, I refuse to cry because I’m disappointed when I get off the ice.’ And that was really the mission. So for me, I feel like this completes it because I got to have my Olympic moment. That was the only thing I felt was missing in my career.”

Canadian Women’s Hockey Team Moves on to Semi-Finals after win against Team USA

Canadian Ladies celebrate goal against the USA at Pyeongchang2018The Canadian Women’s hockey team are off to the semi-finals after beating the American’s 2-1. Sarah Nurse and Meghan Agosta each scored a goal for Canada. Both players are looking for their 5th Olympic medal in South Korea, and with yesterdays win, they are one step closer.

For Kingston, Ontario’s Genevieve Lacasse, who is Canada’s goaltender, she stopped over 40 shots on net. Coach Laura Schuler commented stating,

“It starts with defence first, and I think our team was committed to that tonight. Today, it was about sticking with the process, and I think our girls did a good job with that.”

Agosta moved into the second all-time scoring position for Canadian women, sitting just behind Hayley Wickenheiser. Canada’s next game will be on Monday as will Team USA.

Author Noah is our American writer who likes to give his own spin on everything Golf & the NHL he covers mainly the US side of the game as Doug covers the Canada. In his time off he can usually be taking to the greens or on the ice playing some hockey