Stellato-Dudek on victory: “This weighs much more heavily”
It still wasn’t perfect Vincent Friend medley free skate for Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps as he doubled their planned side-by-side triple Salchows and then made another mistake on their final lift.
But the achievement provided new impetus for the former world champions, who finished in fifth place at the World Cup to end the 2024-2025 season.
“This [Skate Canada] has a lot more weight because it is the Olympic year,” Stellato-Dudek said. “And because last year was so difficult for us. If we show a fraction of what we can do in practice, it feels very good.”
Despite their assured spot at the Grand Prix Final, the team heads to the Challenger Series of the Warsaw Cup event later this month (November 19-23).
“We must continue… [stop making] those mistakes that we saw,” Deschamps said. Stellato-Dudek added, “We need to get that out of the way.”
It’s a fifth Grand Prix medal for reigning world silver medalists Hase/Volodin, as he suffered a slip in their side-by-side combination jumps and then a terrifying fall for Hase during their triple flip.
“We are not completely satisfied with our performance; we had two big mistakes,” Hase said. “But with the rest of the elements we were very happy and we showed what we wanted, which was conditioning. We skated with full speed until the end.”
It was a triumphant bronze medal for Kam and O’Shea after he had to undergo surgery on a broken foot that he had competed in last year’s World Cup, missing some three months, while she missed another month due to a concussion.
“It was a tough offseason for us,” O’Shea said. “To ensure we are on the right track as we continue to grow each competition, we are pleased to be able to perform as we did today.”
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