Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps go from hunters to hunted in upcoming figure skating season

With gold medals freshly around their necks, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps didn't miss a step during the figure skating off-season.

The Canadian pairs team leapt to the top at the world championship in Montreal where Stellato-Dudek became the oldest woman to win a world title last March.

But making figure skating history wasn't enough — the 41-year-old has set her razor-sharp focus on lifting Olympic gold.

"There really has been no break, no time to reflect," Stellato-Dudek said of her off-season as a world champion.

"It's just back to work, to the big goal that is the Olympics in February of 2026."

Despite representing Canada at worlds, Stellato-Dudek, who was born and raised in the U.S., can't compete at the Olympics without Canadian citizenship — something she's still seeking but remains optimistic about securing before the 2026 Games in Milano-Cortina.

Stellato-Dudek has filed the necessary paperwork, and a petition on Change.org has garnered nearly 10,000 signatures.

WATCH l Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps capture 2024 world title:

There's also precedent for figure skaters receiving Canadian citizenship before the Games, including Kaitlyn Weaver, Piper Gilles and Liubov Ilyushechkina.

"COVID really threw a wrench in everyone's plans and slowed everything down by years," Stellato-Dudek said. "But I feel very confident that I'm going to get it before the Olympics, when I need to have it."

The pair, who teamed up in 2019, have shared that Olympic goal since the beginning of their partnership.

Stellato-Dudek, a former world junior silver medallist from Chicago, retired at 17 with a hip injury and returned to the sport 16 years later. She moved to Montreal and teamed with Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.,