BY SCOTT
HADDOW
Since 2001, Lively's Meagan Duhamel has rocketed up the
national and international figure skating ranks. She took time
out of her busy schedule to chat with Northern Life reporter
Scott Haddow.
    
With her high level of skill and steadfast passion towards
the sport, Duhamel has become one of the top female figure
skaters in the world. She just narrowly missed qualifying for
the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, placing fourth in senior women
at the Canadian National Championships.
    
In 2004, she was 10th in senior women at the Canadian
championships, and followed up with a seventh place finish in
2005. Duhamel has won numerous medals at the national and
international levels. The 21-year-old skater, along with
competitive partner Ryan Arnold, were the first to land
side-by-side triple lutzs in a competition.
    
Duhamel continues to chase her Olympic dream, while
overcoming a serious injury, and wants to represent Canada in
Vancouver in 2010. Her focus is now on singles skating.
    
Recently, Duhamel took time out of her busy schedule to discuss her hopes for 2006-07 and beyond and how skating has impacted her life over the last five years.
SH: Bottom line, for the 2006-07 season, what are you looking to accomplish?
MD: This season I am looking to qualify for the World Team by
finishing in the Top Two at the Canadian Nationals. My ultimate
goal is to represent my country at the 2010 Olympics in
Vancouver. It will take a lot of hard work and commitment but I
know anything is possible, as long as I continue to
believe.
SH: What's your motivation and drive right now?
MD: I have a lot more motivation and drive right now than I
have ever had.
Missing the Olympic Team last year gave me extra determination
to continue to strive towards that goal for 2010. I will not
stop working hard until I get my chance to compete in Vancouver
in 2010.
SH: How important is this season for you?
MD: This skating season is very important to me. It is the post-Olympic season so there have been a lot of changes in skating, as in many other sports - athletes retiring, rule changes, etc. This season is a chance to establish myself as a contender for 2010. I have also chosen to just focus on singles this season and not compete in pairs. This is the first time in a few years that I will get the chance to compete at Nationals as just a ladies competitor.
SH: Missing the past Olympics, considering it was so
close, what kind of effect did this have on you?
MD: Missing the 2006 Olympics was extremely difficult for me. I trained for years just to get the chance to compete in Torino. I also had two opportunities to get there, and to miss both chances was very, very hard. It took a lot of time to get over, because I had lived my whole season for that one competition. At the time, I was so fixated on going to the Olympics, and now, I think back and I can't believe I was even at the Olympic qualifier with a chance to go to the Olympics. That just seems so unreal to me. And I know I will have another chance to go to the Olympics and when that time comes, I will be even more ready to step up and grab it.
SH: What's one key event you're looking forward to
this season and why?
MD: Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to compete yet this season due to an injury so I am looking forward to my first competition, the Canadian Nationals in January. The Canadian's are always an exciting competition and I look forward to improving on my skate from last season.
SH: Will you be doing any skating in Sudbury this
season?
MD: I come home every weekend and I usually find ice somewhere in the Greater Sudbury Area to skate at while I am home. Other than that, I don't have anything planned yet, but as the spring arrives, I am sure I will be participating in some ice shows around Sudbury.
SH: What kind of challenges are you facing this
year?
MD: This season has been full of challenges for me. First,
when the season began I made the difficult choice to quit pairs
and focus on my singles.
This was a huge decision for me because I really loved skating pairs. But I knew that I couldn't keep dividing my attention between the two, or else I would never reach my potential in either one. So for this season, I set the pairs aside. But it is not locked up and there is nothing saying I won't go back in the future if the opportunity arises.
Another huge challenge I have faced this season was a stress fracture, bone marrow edema and nerve damage to my left foot. I was assigned to compete in the Senior Grand Prix series for the first time and had to withdraw from my events in China and France early in November due to my injury. I was off the ice for almost four months, from July until late October. Another challenge has been balancing my school with my skating and dealing with my foot injury.
SH: What has skating taught you?
MD: My skating experiences have taught me so much. I have learned life lessons that I will take with me long after I have packed up my skates. I have learned about dedication, and how if you want to be successful to have to dedicate yourself 110 percent to your goals. I have learned about hard work, and how there are no short cuts in life and that life is not fair. You don't always get what you want, or what you deserve, but it's all right, you just have to take what you can and learn from it.
SH: What has been you biggest sacrifice in sport and
why is it worth it?
MD: The biggest sacrifice I ever made in skating was to move away from home when I was 14 years old. I left my family and my friends and went somewhere where I knew no one. I have lived away from home now off and on for about seven years, and growing up without your family is very difficult. I had a lot of responsibilities that a lot of young teenagers don't have to deal with until much later in their lives. It was also a huge sacrifice on my parents. They had to try and raise a teenager to stay grounded and well balanced, basically over the phone. It was also a sacrifice for them financially because figure skating is very expensive. They both took on extra nighttime jobs to pay for skating and didn't get to live their lives the way I'm sure they dreamed of. I am very lucky to have had such a supportive family who gave me such an amazing opportunity as well as such a close knit group of friends at the rink in Barrie, who were all in the same situation as me.
SH: Away from skating, do you get any free time and
what do you like to do?
MD: I am a full time university student as well as a National Team skater so this doesn't leave me much time. I do come home every weekend though and that's nice to be able to relax and see my family and boyfriend. During the week, if I have free time I like to hang out with my friends, but our life is pretty one-dimensional. We like to have sleepovers and watch movies but usually they are skating movies because we are so obsessed, we also like to work out, well we don't like to, but we have too. And it's nice to have friends to keep you company.
