 
Canadian pair Marie-France Dubreuil, left, and Patrice Lauzon perform in the ice dancing free dance program at the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo Friday, March 23, 2007. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Vincent Thian
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Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil felt a little bit lighter Tuesday. After a celebrated 13-year career, the Canadian ice dancers retired from competitive figure skating, moving on from a path they felt had become more work than it was worth. "It's like we're lifting a weight off our shoulders to finally have that decision made and move on to our future plans," Lauzon said in a phone interview from Montreal. "It's kind of great, actually, because we've been thinking about this for a year now." The pair began their on-ice partnership in 1995 before going on to win two silver medals at the world figure skating championships in 2006 and '07 and five Canadian national championships. Lauzon and Dubreuil, both 32, were known for their romance-laced programs, which were helped by their off-ice relationship - they plan to marry in August. They also brought a heightened level of athleticism to ice dancing, with their difficult lifts. They had a complete team helping them do it - coaches, a personal trainer and a sport psychologist. They began considering retirement in 2006, a season that included a silver medal at the world championships and successes at the Canadian championships and Four Continents, but also featured an unlucky streak of injuries. A terrible fall in the original dance forced their withdrawal at the Turin Olympics that year and left Dubreuil with an injured right hip and lower back, and she later hurt her right knee and ankle. The rough season gave them pause to consider quitting. But with the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and the chance to compete at home hovering on the horizon, they soldiered on. "After the Turin games, we probably would've let it go right away," Lauzon said. "But having the Games in Canada is very attractive, it's quite amazing to do the Games in your own country." But they wound up having a difficult season. "It was very hard for us to train, and we barely made it to the end of the season ... mentally it was very, very tough," Lauzon said. "What we didn't like about it was the training part. Eight hours a day of training, you have to dedicate your whole life to it. It was really hard for us at the end to be able to go on the ice every day and work in our little bubble ... "We were getting very tired of it." So Dubreuil and Lauzon took last season off from competitive skating. "We thought maybe a year off would make us miss it and want to come back for the Games, but no. Right now we feel like we're ready for the pro circuit and we don't want to go back to training that hard." Lauzon said they don't regret missing out on skating in the Olympics on home ice, even though that's what kept them going. "I figure if we went to an Olympic Games, it would be to win," he said. "And for that, you have to train really, really hard, and we don't think right now that we'd be able to do that, so what's why we made this decision." They're still working hard. They've just returned from doing 60 shows in four months with Stars on Ice, a touring figure skating show. Lauzon says they didn't anticipate how much they would enjoy professional skating. "We've competed our whole life and we always said we might tour for a year or two for money, but we didn't think we were going to like it," Lauzon said. "But it was a lot of fun, we made a lot of friends, and we saw beautiful places." The pair is also doing a bit of coaching and some choreography for other skaters. And they're enjoying having more free time to explore while on the road. "When we were competing, you could only see the hotels and the ice, but now we can spend quality time together and actually have a real life." And the pressure's finally off. "You get to perform four or five times a week in front of great crowds, and there's no judges to judge you, there's a lot less tension and a lot less pressure," said Lauzon. "It's like you take what we felt before and you take all the negative out of it, and there you have it, you're able to perform the way you want to and have great friends with you at the same time."
他们说一年的休息没有换回对比赛的激情，他们不会为不能在家门口参加冬奥会而感到遗憾。
很遗憾～ |
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