Sudbury's Meagan Duhamel reflects on her big win at worlds

Up North4:57Northern Ontario figure skaters win gold - again

Northern Ontario figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won gold at the Worlds over the weekend again. We spoke with Danny Duhamel, Meagan's father, for reaction.

Sudbury figure skater Meagan Duhamel says winning gold at the pairs figure skating world championships had its challenges.

This is the second time in a row that Duhamel and Eric Radford skated their way to the top spot.

"Last year, Eric and I had an undefeated season and went into worlds as the overwhelming favourites. And before the world championships, our main rivals from Russia withdrew from the competition," said Duhamel.

"This year we felt like we weren't skating our best and were sick of feeling that way."  That is when the pair started working more intensely every day, said Duhamel.

skated perfect performance

"Last year, we'd achieve every gold we'd ever imagined and beyond dreaming of our careers. Starting this season we were a bit goaless."

Duhamel said in the end, they finally felt like they had skated a perfect performance.

"As soon as the music ended we had no doubt that we had just had the moment of our career and that simple math told us that no other pair team could reach the score that we were going get."

The duo were very well received in Boston said Duhamel.  "It felt like a hometown audience."

Many even held up pictures of their faces in the stands.

"That was hilarious, that was some of the people we train with in Montreal, they had those bobble head faces of us."

Duhamel's father Danny was one of those fans.

"It was absolutely amazing to watch. She had us after about two minutes, a whole section, just about in tears because she was doing so well."

Their program is one of the hardest in the world, said her dad. "They start the program off with a side-by-side triple lutz, nobody else in the world does that."

He reiterated that it can be extremely hard emotionally defending your title.

time off next month

But winning gold doesn't earn any downtime for the pair. Duhamel and her skating partner Eric Radford are now on their way to Japan for a two week tour with Stars On Ice and then in the United States and Canada.

She will take some time next month, says her dad.

"She still hasn't had a honeymoon so they are doing that at the end of May, a year after."