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

MANCHESTER, England :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.

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