Figure skating-Defying gravity and time, Stellato-Dudek dares to backflip into history

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MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -Canadian pair Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps will launch their Olympic season this week at the ISU Grand Prix in France, aiming not only for medals but a trio of historic achievements.

“If we were to win Olympic gold, I would be the oldest (female champion in figure skating),” Stellato-Dudek said. “We’d be the oldest combined. And we’d be the first to do the backflip. So, we have three chances to make history.”

At 42, Stellato-Dudek is already rewriting the narrative in figure skating, a sport long dominated by youth. But it is not just her age that is turning heads. 

This season, she and Deschamps have become the first pair in history to incorporate a backflip into their program, a move banned by the International Skating Union until last season, and still rarely attempted.

The idea was hers, born quietly a year ago and met with immediate resistance.

“I mentioned it to Max, and he was super against it,” she told Reuters in an interview on Zoom. “He just thought it was way too dangerous to try.”

Her original concept was launching off Deschamps’ shoulder.

“He said no to that,” she laughed. “Then I was like, ‘what if I jumped off your back?'”

She scoured YouTube and found a video of a father and son executing the move safely in their living room, with the father cupping the son’s foot for takeoff.

Still, Deschamps resisted, until Stellato-Dudek made him a deal.

“I said, ‘can you just humour me? If I call a gymnasium and get us a gymnastics coach (Olympian Rose Woo), and I can’t do the backflip on the first lesson, I’ll give it up’,” said Stellato-Dudek, who did gymnastics for 10 years as a child.

He agreed. She nailed it.

“From that day on, he made a 180, Now he’s all about it,” Stellato-Dudek said.

The backflip is in the footwork sequence of their short program, a deliberate choice to shake up a somewhat monotonous element.

“I thought, how can we spice it up a little bit, especially for Olympic year?” she said. 

Only Ilia Malinin and Adam Siao Him Fa in men’s singles have done backflips since the move was made legal. Stellato-Dudek has not seen a female attempt one since Surya Bonaly famously executed the banned back somersault at the 1998 Olympics. She was docked points.

“I wanted to represent for the women, we can backflip just as good as the guys can,” Stellato-Dudek said. “The girls can play the backflip game.

“Obviously I hadn’t done one in 30 years, but it’s like riding a bike,” she said. “And it’s nowhere near the scariest thing or the hardest thing that we do every day.”

NO PLANS TO STOP

Stellato-Dudek’s return to the sport is already extraordinary. She was a world junior silver medallist as a singles skater but quit due to injury, before launching her comeback 16 years later.

The 2026 Olympics were the target when she and Deschamps, who is 33, teamed up in 2019.

“Maxime said then, ‘We’ll take it year by year.’ And I said, ‘No we won’t. I’ll be there in 2026,'” Stellato-Dudek laughed.

Deschamps, who had skated with eight partners before finding success with Stellato-Dudek, was cautious. 

“If the body one day says ‘It’s enough,’ then it’s enough,” he said. “But she was determined. And it’s the best shape I’ve ever been in. And she’s in the best shape of her life.”

Stellato-Dudek has no plans to stop after the Olympics, either.

“I’m not going to stop skating until I have decided that I’m done, regardless of what other people think a female should or should not be doing at a certain age,” she said. 

“I already left this sport once before my time, so I’m not going to do that again. I will continue to skate until I feel like I have accomplished what I want to accomplish.”

(Reporting by Lori EwingEditing by Christian Radnedge)