World Figure Skating Championships: Home favourites Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps roar into first with career-best short program
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps wowed the Canadian crowd in Montreal, as reigning world champs Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi placed second.
Figure Skating
It was the moment that Montreal-based Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps had been waiting for all season.
The Canadian pairs team delivered in it, too, skating to a career-best 77.48 short program on Wednesday (20 March) at the World Figure Skating Championships to take the lead over reigning world champions Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi of Japan, who registered a 73.53.
Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii are third at 72.88.
It was an especially emotional performance for Deschamps, who grew up in Montreal and attended NHL hockey games in the very Bell Centre that they are competing in. Stellato-Dudek will look to become the oldest woman to win a world title - in any discipline - Thursday (21 March) evening in the free skate.
The 40-year-old took a 16-year break from the sport before returning in 2016.
The duo were solid across their biggest elements on Wednesday afternoon, opening with a massive triple twist before hitting side-by-side triple toe-loops. Their throw triple loop came midway through the program, Stellato-Dudek throwing her arms behind her as she hit the landing.
She would be doing much the same a minute later when they finished, the arena brought to life - and to its feet - with their stirring skate.
"To have the support from the fans in the stands today was really incredible; today was a real privilege," Deschamps said. Added Stellato-Dudek: "It's important to acknowledge the pressure. This is our home crowd, and this is where Max is from.
She laughed: "Many of my friends don't watch figure skating, so I wanted to skate well so they thought I was cool."
The Japanese, who had shined just prior to the Canadians, were steady in their return to the world stage after a year in which Kihara has struggled with a back injury. They missed the Grand Prix Series and the Japanese Championships, in December.
Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (72.10) and Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia (72.02) round out the top five.
Miura/Kihara, Conti/ Macii shine after season of struggles
While Stellato-Dudek's comeback story has garnered headlines, the other two top-three finishers have navigated their own challenges over 2023-24, namely Kihara and his aforementioned back injury.
The 2023 world champions returned to international competition last month at Four Continents, finishing second to the Canadians by some eight points. Their 73.53 is still seven points shy of their personal best (an 80.72 at Worlds last year), but seven points north of their effort in Shanghai.
"Coming back from an injury, the message we were trying to portray is that we went down to rock bottom but that we are trying to come up," Kihara said via an interpreter. "Since Four Continents... I have no anxiety about my back injury, so I have been able to do a lot of repetition. It's all been about repetition."
Much like the Canadians, Miura/Kihara went from strength to strength in their short program, called only for a quarter-rotation under (Miura) on their side-by-side triple toes.
After a breakout 2022-23 season that culminated with a world bronze medal, the Italians Conti/Macii have been met with struggles this year, including sinking to sixth-place finish at the European Championships in January as defending champions. It served as a wake-up call, they say.
"It was mental stuff," Macii confirmed to reporters. "After a very bad Europeans we sat down and said, 'OK let's start again.'"
"We worked with our mental coach; worked with him on the ice," Macii said. "We started again from zero. We wanted to build our confidence around what we can do and what we can achieve. We hope that we fixed the problems that we had so that we can start the next season stronger and focused."
They'll look to finish this one strong, too. The pairs free skate is set for Thursday evening at 18:10 Montreal time (EDT, GMT -4).