Canadian skater Stellato-Dudek aims for gold at 42 in extraordinary comeback story

Jan 15 : In a sport built around youth, Deanna Stellato-Dudek has thrived on standing apart. 

At 42, the Canadian pair skater will make her Olympic debut at the Milano Cortina Games — not as a novelty act or a farewell story, but as a world champion determined to contend for gold, and with no plans to walk away when the Olympics are over.

Stellato-Dudek is an extraordinary comeback story. Once a teen sensation, she retired due to injury only to return 16 years later.  

She became the oldest female world figure skating champion when she and partner Maxime Deschamps won in 2024. 

And now, she aims to become the oldest pair skater to win an Olympic title, at an age when most figure skaters have long since left the competitive ice behind. 

"Because of my age, people say time is ticking for me," Stellato-Dudek said in a recent Olympics.com documentary. "Make no mistake, I'm going to do everything it takes to win, because I want to be Olympic champion. I'm going to do what it takes to become the oldest Olympic champion ever."

Stellato-Dudek captured a world junior silver medal for the United States before a serious hip flexor injury derailed everything when she was 17. She announced her retirement less than a year before the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

"My life was skating full speed ahead for my entire life up until that moment," she said. "Then it was like a slap in the face."

Her mother Ann Stellato remembers the moment.

"I just remember her very sombrely saying, 'I don't think I can do this anymore'," she told Olympics.com.

Stellato-Dudek's dad, who she largely credits for her work ethic, had died when she was 11. She often wonders if she would have walked away from skating as a teen had he still been alive.

She built a career outside