- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
Skating your best is a noble goal, but perhaps it's a luxury for people who are both skating their best *and* winning medals. It reminds me of Meagan Duhamel, who in 2016 proclaimed that this season, her goal was to "have fun." I suspect she and Eric Radford were feeling triumphant, unstoppable, a bit arrogant (?), as they had just won a second gold medal for pairs at the world championships. But at the 2017 Worlds, they placed 7th, with a fall, shaky landings on a few jumps, and out-of-sync spins. You could see the disappointment on their faces. But why should they be disappointed? After all, didn't they achieve their goal of having fun?
A few months later, Meagan and Eric fired their coach. She talked about their poor results and needing a change. She also talked about the concrete results that she wanted, and made it clear that 7th place was definitely not good enough.
"If we didn’t make these changes we’ll probably find ourselves in seventh place at the Olympics. By going ahead and making these changes, we’re giving ourselves a chance to improve and reach the podium," said Duhamel. "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."
At the 2018 Olympics, they got a gold team medal for Canada and a bronze individual medal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgu2CCmCOcA
even though she might not have said it out right, "having fun" most likely meant skating their best and letting the chips fall where they may, whether that means a medal or not. not skating well is in no way shape or form fun.
there should be another thread on this stuff, like the mental-physical aspect of skating and what makes a strong competitor.