# This Week in Skating / Interview with Eric Radford

An episode of [This Week in Skating Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1621874792), 28 Aug 2025, 48 min.

Audio: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/c9082d70-0fdd-40d7-a52e-c05f6c8454bb/stream.mp3

In this episode, Matteo and Gina talk with two-time World champion, Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalist and seven-time Canadian pairs champion Eric Radford. Eric spoke about his competitive career, his show skating, his previous role with the ISU and more. Follow Eric on Instagram and X. ------------------------------------------------------- This Week in Skating is hosted by Gina Capellazzi, Daphne Backman and Matteo Morelli is a cooperative project between Figure Skaters Online and Ice-dance.com. New episodes are available every Tuesday. Website: https://www.thisweekinskating.com Email: thisweekinskating@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisweekinskating Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thiswkinskating Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinskating Thread: https://www.threads.net/@thisweekinskating Patreon: patreon.com/ThisWeekinSkating Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Hello, it's Eric Grafford and you're listening to this week in Skating.
[0:20] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Welcome to this week in Skating, the weekly podcast bringing you the latest news from the world of figure skating.
[0:26] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Here are your hosts, Daphne, Gina, and Natalia.
[0:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Our guest today is a former pair skater that competed for Canada with different partners achieving a lot of important results that include two world titles and three Olympic medals.
[0:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Eric Ratford has also participated in different shows, including Battle of the Blade, Dancing On Eyes, and lately he joined the Tour Villain Dean Fairwell Tour.
[0:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So we are excited to welcome Eric to this weekend skating.
[0:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hi, Eric.
[0:54] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Hello, and thank you so much for having me.
[0:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Thank you for joining us.
[0:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, so as we said in the intro, you just completed the Torval and Dean our last dance farewell tour.
[1:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Mateo got to see that show.
[1:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, I wish I could have saw that show.
[1:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It toured all over the UK and Australia so how did that tour go and what did it mean to be a part of such an incredible tour with you know the legendary Torval and Dean?
[1:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Well, when I was first asked to do the tour, I remember thinking like this is going to be incredible.
[1:33] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that was like a whole year before we even started rehearsals.
[1:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then when we arrived at rehearsals and started to get to know the cast, I think that we all sort of knew right away that it was going to be something incredibly special.
[1:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Performing the show was so much fun.
[1:50] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We had so many different types of styles of numbers.
[1:53] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, the opening was this big, great, a showman number.
[1:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then we had, like, putting on the Ritz number.
[1:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it was really fun to kind of, like, I think all of the skaters really had to drop on a lot of different feeling and style through the show.
[2:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And yeah, getting to tour with Torval and Dean was just, it was so amazing.
[2:14] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like, they have such an incredible legacy.
[2:16] \[SPEAKER_03\]: They are superstars here in the UK and in Australia.
[2:21] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, like,
[2:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Sometimes, I think in the skating world, with show, sometimes people feel as if it's difficult to get big audiences to come to skating shows.
[2:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And every single show we did had an incredible packed audience.
[2:38] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that's just a testament to their career.
[2:42] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And the sort of brand that they were able to build for themselves here, which is incredible.
[2:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And to be able to write their coat tails and experience all that energy was
[2:54] \[SPEAKER_03\]: an incredible honor and then also just for me personally, you know, getting to skate with Vanessa.
[3:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We had a very short career and I just love skating with her so much and, you know, we had done holiday on ice together and then you never know if you're going to get another opportunity to perform together.
[3:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So getting this opportunity to go out and skate so many more like times with Vanessa was just for me it was a big highlight.
[3:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You are right, as Tina said, you know, I came to the first night of the show in Wendley, which was amazing.
[3:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I did not really quite know what to expect, but it definitely exceeded my expectations.
[3:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As you said, it was such a variety of styles and different performances altogether, but I think the storytelling as well was phenomenal.
[3:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And even if you go there without no interview then deal,
[3:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You would definitely know who they are after that and lock them.
[3:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And if you know who they are, yeah, you're just end up lobbying them even more.
[3:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It was incredible, really.
[3:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it was a really beautiful way, like sort of trip down memory laying, you know, and how they tied in the numbers with their, you know, their story.
[4:06] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I thought it was this, it was very clever and effective.
[4:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And as you said, you know, you were there with Vanessa, actually you and Vanessa joined the cast of Dancing On Ice in the UK of season seventeen.
[4:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So can you tell us about how did it did that all happen.
[4:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it was a did you guys, I don't know, I call from Torvin and Dean directly.
[4:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: How did it go?
[4:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it just kind of came in in an email and you know Vanessa did it the year before as well and they had invited me to do it then as well but I couldn't at that time I just had other things happening in my life and I was in a sort of a transition phase and then you know that you went by and then they reached out one more time and you know Vanessa
[4:54] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, she's like, I think I'm really gonna like it.
[4:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: She had a blast doing it.
[4:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was like, yeah, you know, I think that I'm in the right space in my life to go and to do that.
[5:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But that came in at the same time.
[5:07] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We were asked to do dancing on ice and the tour.
[5:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So that all came in like one big email.
[5:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was like, well, this is so incredibly exciting.
[5:16] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But it was so far away at that point.
[5:18] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was like,
[5:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like, I hope, like, I don't want to injure myself.
[5:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I hope that, you know, something doesn't happen that I can't do it.
[5:26] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But it was good motivation to kind of keep myself in shape for a whole period of time.
[5:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then, yeah.
[5:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then, you know, before you, you know, as with all these things, they're always so far away.
[5:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then before you know it, I was on a plane over to the UK and sort of jumped right into the experience.
[5:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, so is dancing a nice sort of like battle of the blades in Canada, and you had done battle of the blades in Canada, right?
[5:51] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yes, yeah, it's similar, but in battle of the blades, it was hockey players and figure skaters, and this is celebrities, so these celebrities go from like not knowing how to skate to be able to do these pretty intricate routines, like it is really incredible what they're able to do, and it's just a very different dynamic, because with a hockey player, they already know how to skate,
[6:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But they're learning to skate in figure skates, which can be a challenge and they're learning to skate in a completely different way than they ever had to.
[6:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But yeah, each one had its own challenges.
[6:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But each one, like, I love to a such a fun experience.
[6:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, we are starting an Olympic season.
[6:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You know what it's like.
[6:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You've had such a long and successful competitive career as a pair skater.
[6:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So looking back on it, what would you say are the highlights for you when you look back on your career?
[6:49] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, when I look back at my three Olympic experiences, they're each one is like a fingerprint.
[6:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: took place at a particular part of my career in a particular like almost part or a section of my life of where I was in my own just development.
[7:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And with a different thing, you know, like making it to the first one was incredible.
[7:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, that was our goal.
[7:16] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I would have never
[7:18] \[SPEAKER_03\]: imagined that, you know, like, medals were going to be a part of it.
[7:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was always like, I got to get there and then I'll be happy.
[7:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then that turned into, oh, we're at a second one.
[7:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And now we know that we have a potential to medal here.
[7:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So, oh, now I want to be able to medal.
[7:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then the third one was like, I had no plan or, like, four thought that I was going to ever go back to another one.
[7:41] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So just to be back at a third one and kind of just be like,
[7:44] \[SPEAKER_03\]: just to go there with no pressure whatsoever but just to soak it up and to skate for myself in a completely different way than I ever had before was incredible as well so each one had its highlights
[7:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Of course, in Pyongcheng, like going out and having four amazing skates like that in the team event and then in the individual event and to come away with two medals was incredible.
[8:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: In the first Olympics, being able to win that silver medal with my best friend and one of my biggest rivals at the time as well, Dylan Moskovich was something that I'll never forget.
[8:21] \[SPEAKER_03\]: coming back with Vanessa and getting to skate in a completely different way and a completely different facet for a completely different reason than before was was incredible and to be back at an Olympics when I would have never dreamed of it was a really cool experience as well.
[8:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Actually, one of the things that we keep reflecting about is that, of course, that is a limbic cycle that a lot of skaters come in back like you did.
[8:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So if we look at the pairs, field, you know, not exactly the season, but you know, of Minerva Hassan and Nikita Velodin, we have the Anastasia Latozjudic that came back, you know, and they're all achieving quite a lot of sterile sort of, if you look at Einstein's, we have Yoms's of our own coming back, we don't answer for near-budry.
[9:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What did it take for you to come back?
[9:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You already said that you had to approach things differently, but what were the challenges you had to face?
[9:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That's a really good question, I think.
[9:17] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I actually found I was like a little scared coming back, you know, could I get back to that level?
[9:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like it is it's so hard to maintain that high level of training that it takes to be able to go out there in those really high pressure moments and be able to have the comfort and the training behind you to have a good escape.
[9:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And so just, you know, being like four years older than the last time, was probably the biggest challenge.
[9:51] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like, I could feel to get to that really high level of like physical conditioning.
[9:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was just more difficult.
[10:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that we, you know, anybody who's an athlete or has done physical exercise, like as you get older, it just becomes exponentially more difficult to get back to that very, very high and find like that very last level of like training long programs consistently for long periods of time before you go into a competition.
[10:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But I think that
[10:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, I think that I wasn't as far away from that high level as I thought I was because that was part of the reason that I think that Vanessa and I finally like kind of looked at one another and said, are we going to go for this?
[10:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Because the, you know, the triple twist, the throat triples, the side by side jumps.
[10:42] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Everything was right there.
[10:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: All the ingredients were still there.
[10:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was just going to be a question of putting them all together.
[10:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And if I think if those things didn't come together so quickly and easily, I think we may have been more hesitant to like really go for the comeback.
[11:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But something that was really interesting was
[11:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: because I was just skating for myself when we initially started training together in running programs.
[11:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We were skating so amazing and it was so easy.
[11:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I thought I was just gonna walk out onto the competition.
[11:16] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I simply like, I don't care.
[11:18] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I'm gonna be free of nerves and I'm just gonna go and do it for myself.
[11:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But of course it didn't work like that.
[11:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that you could see as our season went on, like we were struggling
[11:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We were struggling to get those clean skates put out there.
[11:33] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I've realized that there is no shortcut to be able to get to that level of consistency.
[11:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You need to go out and move more and more and more and more competitions.
[11:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And because we only had one season, you could see at the end of the season, we were starting to get some clean programs out.
[11:50] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it was sort of a battle with time now when I look back in hindsight.
[11:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But I
[12:00] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I guess what I realized is that there is no easy way to do a competition.
[12:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It doesn't matter how far removed you are yourself from, you know, like that, just trying to skate for, you know, to win.
[12:14] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It's still when you put in all that time in practice, you go out and you want to have a good skate because you don't want it to all be for nothing.
[12:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, you've been through three Olympic cycles and here we are, less than six months away from the twenty twenty six Olympics.
[12:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What sort of advice would you give to the athletes that are in the rod of it right now?
[12:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They are trying their hardest to be the best they can be to make their respective Olympic teams.
[12:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What would you say to them right now as they are
[12:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: going through this these next six months.
[12:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I'd say two things keep it simple.
[12:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think that an Olympic year isn't a year to like experiment really.
[13:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think that you begin to figure out the elements and the transitions in and out of the elements that really work for you and feel the most comfortable and you want to have as much of that in your program as possible.
[13:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then the second thing is would be
[13:18] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like, just stay in your bubble.
[13:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Keep it small, along with keeping it simple.
[13:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Don't look at what anybody else is doing.
[13:28] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Just when you do what I competitions, like you run it just pretend that it's just another day.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, I always thought it was funny that when you're at the Olympics, I was putting all of my energy into pretending I wasn't at the Olympics.
[13:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: so that you can access that comfortable feeling and kind of get into that flow once the music starts.
[13:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I think, yeah, for the teams, it's just doing your job, keeping it small, keeping it simple, and don't stray too far from that sort of horrible, like bubble you create for yourself in your training.
[14:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You go in, you do your job, you do the best you can, and then you get out.
[14:08] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that
[14:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: If you can keep it small, keep it simple like that, then you're going to give yourself the best chance possible to have the best performance on the day.
[14:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's very true, and I think it's above Gina and I are going to go to your Olympic ends in Milan as journalist, and we are very much looking forward to leaving the Olympics there from immediate perspective, because as you said, it's quite difficult to get in that mindset that you're just talking about, we've seen a lot of the Olympic games where the medalists are
[14:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Skaters that you would not expect to medal no fans to those those.
[14:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm kind of referring to, but it's just because the mindset is so important and even the strongest ones that we would take for granted to get to the podium might not have the best gates there because they're not in the right place mentally.
[14:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, exactly.
[14:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it's different.
[15:00] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It's different like rhythm to the season where usually you're aiming to peak end of March and here you're aiming to peak in February.
[15:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So that the importance of the season kind of gets moved ahead a little bit and you have to, you know, usually start a little earlier, be a little ahead of the game so that you can hit the peak at the right time.
[15:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Just quickly, so another thing that we went to ask in relation to the Olympic Games, your retirement, your first retirement, was after the Piumchang Olympic Games.
[15:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Did you actually feel that you retired and that was the right thing when that happened?
[15:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I mean, you came back and we know that.
[15:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But when you retired at that stage, did you feel like it was the right thing for you to do?
[15:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Or there was something inside of you saying, I still have a fire burning.
[15:52] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, at that time, I was completely ready to retire.
[15:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We had achieved more than we could have dreamed.
[16:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I was feeling completely satisfied with my career, totally satiated.
[16:07] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, we had a lot of cool opportunity.
[16:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think we spent all of, like, eighteen and nineteen just traveling the world, doing shows, doing seminars, doing events.
[16:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it was incredible.
[16:21] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I don't think Megan R.I.
[16:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: in that moment felt like we had anything else to really give or prove.
[16:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, when you did retire, when we've talked about you were in shows, and you have done choreography, music composition, when you retired, did you know exactly what you wanted to do?
[16:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Or did you find yourself needing to take some time to figure it all out?
[16:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We hear about athletes when they leave the competitive world.
[16:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They don't know exactly what they want to do if whether they want to stay in the sport or not.
[16:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Did you kind of have a plan on what you were going to do post-competition?
[16:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I had a plan, you know, that I wanted to pursue my music more.
[17:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I was still involved in skating with through the ISU with the Athletes Commission and then eventually as the athlete rep on the council.
[17:12] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So there was like little things happening that were keeping me busy, but that sort of ultimate next step.
[17:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Okay, what is my next career?
[17:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I did take some time to search for that, but that moment did hit me.
[17:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It did hit me where I started to wonder, okay, like, what is next?
[17:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And who am I without skating?
[17:35] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And you quickly realized how small the skating world is.
[17:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: When you're in it, it takes up your entire field of view.
[17:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And you think,
[17:45] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And you feel like you're at the very center of this world.
[17:49] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then when you leave, you realize that if you go out on the street,
[17:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: not everybody watches the Olympics even, you know.
[17:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then even fewer people are really, no in our aware of the skating world and of the sport of figure skating.
[18:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And you quickly are thrown into this very, very different place.
[18:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that it's very difficult after you've been doing something for thirty years of your life.
[18:14] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it's really all you know to go out into this other sort of world where all of that is
[18:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You can't really bring a lot of it with you.
[18:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You can bring your experience and what you've learned is an athlete.
[18:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But when it comes to getting another job, sometimes you're further behind where your friends would be who followed the typical route of going to university and then starting a career.
[18:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So here I was at
[18:45] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Well, a little bit after the the first retirement, but then the pandemic, which was, I think, you know, kind of messed up everybody's trajectory.
[18:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But you know, I felt it especially after retiring with Vanessa out of competition.
[19:02] \[SPEAKER_03\]: in twenty twenty two because I was thirty seven and moving on from my sport and so imagine my all of my other friends at thirty seven are married with kids they worked their jobs for you know a decade and they're at this completely different part of their life and it made me feel like I was
[19:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: like a teenager, you know, I'm just stepping out into the world for the first time.
[19:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I had this incredible experience, but when it comes to, you know, the work world, I didn't.
[19:35] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it can be really challenging.
[19:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, I feel like there's not a lot of resources to help
[19:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: athletes once they finish their competitive career I feel like sometimes you're just kind of okay you're done competing and you're just thrown out there to figure it all out and I know some athletes have struggled with that that skating is their life and then when skating is done they don't know what's not some I mean some do balance college was skating and but some don't and then they just don't know what to do afterwards so I wish that maybe there were more
[20:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Opportunities are resources available, maybe to help athletes figure out what's next.
[20:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We're actually really lucky in Canada that the Canadian Olympic Committee has a system in place called game plan where they do have a lot of resources for athletes.
[20:26] \[SPEAKER_03\]: and not every country has that.
[20:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I felt very, very lucky.
[20:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But there's a whole sort of like mental spiritual side of it, too, where you ask yourself, well, who am I without this sport?
[20:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like your identity can be so connected to it.
[20:45] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And it actually kind of led me to a lot of souls searching about, you know, if I am not arrogant or the figureskater
[20:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, I think that, I mean, I think that there was a documentary, and I remember I think it was like Michael Phelps and Gracie Gold ran it, the cost of gold, the weight of gold or something.
[21:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, even Michael Phelps struggled with moving on from swimming because, and like a analogy that I used with my friends, like when I first retired was
[21:26] \[SPEAKER_03\]: were coming off the Olympics and coming off my career was like coming down from like the highest mountain.
[21:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I've just got back down to, you know, base camp, and it was incredible.
[21:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But I'm looking ahead at my life.
[21:38] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I don't, in that moment, I don't see any mountains as high as this one.
[21:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I'm thirty-seven, and there's this feeling of, oh no, nothing will ever be as amazing as this was.
[21:50] \[SPEAKER_03\]: My best years, my best experience, all of the most incredible things are behind me.
[21:54] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that can be really scary.
[21:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That can be very depressing to feel like, oh, it's never going to be as good as it was.
[22:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Of course, that changes and, you know, your life goes on and you get new perspective and, you know, I went to therapy and that helped a lot and I did all that sort of soul searching and your life recalibrates, you know, it's not, it's not as you think it was and I think that
[22:21] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That is a process that I think that would be natural for anybody to go through and I think that happens not only for athletes but people in careers people who are retiring.
[22:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: maybe people who are like in school and they finally finish their PhD, or it could be, I think there's a lot of different examples of that, but it was definitely challenging.
[22:42] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think that it's good that there is being more awareness brought to it, that athletes need support.
[22:49] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that even for me, when I used to watch the Olympics, I was like, oh, if you win a Olympic goal, you are set.
[22:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You're wealthy, you're gonna be living in a mansion, like people think that there's this,
[23:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: There's more there than there is, but I think the reality is sometimes you're just, you get home after day Olympics and it's you and your medal and then you're thinking, okay now I actually spoke with other athletes that want Olympic medals and they were saying something exactly around those lines.
[23:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They also said that some of them they said that they took them a few years to actually if we'd enjoy the medal and the victory was it the same for you as well.
[23:28] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, in a way, I actually have, it's very strange that I've talked to some of my other friends in skating about this that
[23:41] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, it really wasn't until a period of time after that I finally went back and I watched some of my performances and I think I had enough distance from the moment that I could watch it as if it was somebody else, as if it wasn't me.
[23:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that especially in a sport like figure skating, it becomes so critical of yourself and you can watch your performance and see all the tiny little details that didn't go well or that you always wanted to be better at.
[24:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was able to see myself as another person when I watched myself skate.
[24:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think it was, I mean, Megan's performance in Boston or something.
[24:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was like, wow, that was so incredible.
[24:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I felt so proud of myself in a way I had it before because I was just in this state of, well, it could always be better.
[24:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, you never reach that sort of like perfection.
[24:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: inscating and yeah it was a really like beautiful woman for me to kind of really feel proud really proud of myself for like the first time and I know it sounds strange to say with all the success I had but it really felt like that.
[24:53] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And you very quickly realize that it's not the metal.
[24:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I mean, this has been said time and time and time and time and time and time again, that it was the journey.
[25:02] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was all the memories.
[25:02] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was the people.
[25:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was my friends that I made along the way and had all these incredible experiences with that whole, the most joy.
[25:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, everyone's in a while, I can flip out the metal and be like, cool, you know, it's nice to have it.
[25:17] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it's not, it doesn't, the joy in the metal is not very long lasting.
[25:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It's fleeting.
[25:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, of course I have that memory of standing on the podium and singing the National Anthem with my friends and that will always be a highlight.
[25:30] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But it really was all the little moments in between and all the support for my family and my coaches and what it really took to get there that has the most meaning.
[25:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I was going to ask if your medals were with you in London.
[25:44] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, yeah.
[25:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, after your career, you did take on a role with the ISU and you were with the ISU Athletes Commission for a number of years.
[25:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Can you talk a little bit about that role and how did you, you know, maybe be inspired to kind of get involved with the ISU?
[26:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Well, there is like a whole sort of structure to athlete commissions and all the different sports.
[26:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I wasn't even aware of that side of things until I think I was it was in until two thousand nineteen that I think it was a friend of mine at skatecanner that was like, hey, like, would you ever consider doing this and then I kind of learned about it and
[26:26] \[SPEAKER_03\]: you know, I ran for the position, and then I got the position in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in,
[26:51] \[SPEAKER_03\]: getting a view on the sport and what the ISU actually has to do to
[26:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, create a season to promote the sport, to promote the development of sport around the entire globe.
[27:07] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It was kind of like, I think going into the control room of a ship and being like, oh, wow, like, there's so much that happens.
[27:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, I remember as a skater, you know, they changed the rules every year.
[27:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I was like, who's making these decisions?
[27:24] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Why is this happening?
[27:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And why has nobody like talked to me about it, the athletes?
[27:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that we were the only, the second term of the athletes commission for the ISU.
[27:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think it was in the last like, ten, fifteen years where sports were really like
[27:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: starting to open up to having to giving athletes a voice, which sounds crazy.
[27:51] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But for some reason, it wasn't happening.
[27:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that was kind of how I looked at it.
[27:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I wanted to give the athletes a voice the same way.
[28:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I thought I didn't have one.
[28:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: When I came to rule changes and
[28:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, so we came up with ideas of doing like a, like a, like a post-season, like questionaire for athletes about how they were feeling about, you know, rural changes, formats of competitions and starting to connect the council with the voice of the athletes more.
[28:30] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But yeah, just overall, it was days to kind of keep my foot in the door of the sport in a totally different way.
[28:36] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I liked being able to use my experience to give back not only in a competition way, but really just as an athlete that skates under the umbrella of the ISU.
[28:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's fantastic.
[28:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It sounds a bit like basically unions for professionals.
[28:54] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it is a little bit like that.
[28:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Anyway, so you're given a voice within your sector to say, hey, that's what we want.
[29:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But it's great because there are athletes, of course, that are continuing to do what you're doing.
[29:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think Evan Bates might be doing some flight that now.
[29:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it's incredible because you're competing, but you're also given a chance to participate within this conversation.
[29:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it's great to see that it actually makes a difference because we, you know, we can only see what we see from meetings and what's published in terms of minutes from the meetings, but it's good to hear from you that are actually effective from
[29:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: having had an experience from the inside.
[29:33] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I can tell you that there are a lot of very smart and passionate people that genuinely want this sport to be as big and the best that it can be.
[29:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that part of what we can do as the athletes' commission is reassure the athletes that that is what's happening.
[29:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now we're other athletes going to you and sharing their concerns with you since you were on the ISU Athlete Commission.
[30:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, so I mean, that's part of the reason that we try to go to one or two events throughout the season to be sort of on the ground with the athletes.
[30:14] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that's kind of when the best ideas get
[30:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: communicated.
[30:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: If you're just in the athletes lounge and an athlete will be like, hey, can I talk to you for a second?
[30:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And they'll tell you about a concern they have or they need information or a lot of it comes around like rule changes and what's going to be happening in future seasons.
[30:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But yeah, I think that we've tried to open up
[30:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: lines of communication to the athlete because that was the biggest barrier.
[30:52] \[SPEAKER_03\]: What are the athletes feeling and thinking and then getting that to the council so that they can when they make decisions, they're making sure that they're taking into consideration what the athletes
[31:04] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think anything like.
[31:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Have you been following the issue lately?
[31:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Because they're actually, so you're not going to have a vision to bring effective change to the sport both for athletes, but also for funds, the way funds are engaged and the way they work as an institution.
[31:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But we see a lot being published that seems to be going towards that direction and to be
[31:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: and sharing that are keeping the promise that they are sharing to the world.
[31:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Are you actually following the latest in relation to what they're doing there?
[31:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yes, I mean, I was there at the sort of inception of the ISU vision, twenty-thirty and I think when I was first presented with it and I was reading through and I was like, wow, this is amazing, this could be really, really amazing and I have seen them taking the steps
[31:53] \[SPEAKER_03\]: to like, just look at the sort of energy and sort of reformating of how they did things at worlds.
[32:00] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I know that there were some sort of pierists or, you know, classicalists who are like, no, this isn't figure skating figures getting just to be like this, but if you don't change with the rest of the world, then it will fade away.
[32:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And we were all feeling that and observing that.
[32:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that they are taking and making the necessary changes to ensure that figure skating has a great future.
[32:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So maybe not to some other questions that are relating to your life.
[32:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You recently moved to London.
[32:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So could you just say, how is it going there?
[32:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Are you enjoying it?
[32:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So far, you know, you're being there for dancing on ice already as you said before.
[32:38] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But yeah, how is it?
[32:38] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, you know, since I arrived, I really sort of fell on love with London.
[32:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I had never really been to the UK.
[32:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I was here for two days once for seminar and that was it.
[32:49] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And
[32:52] \[SPEAKER_03\]: As I, you know, I've explored London and then I've got to travel all over the UK.
[32:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I really just love it.
[33:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I mean, even just the way they have like tea all the time.
[33:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I was growing up as a kid.
[33:07] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I always had to you with my parents and
[33:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, they're going take a break and have a cup of tea.
[33:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: There's just something about that culture.
[33:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I love the accents and just compared to Canada how you can drive an hour and being a completely different city with so much history, with a different accent, with
[33:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It is a so different, you know, in Canada you have to drive six hours to get to the next city and here you can just, so many different places to go.
[33:33] \[SPEAKER_03\]: The proximity to the rest of Europe is really amazing as well.
[33:38] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, usually if you want to apply to different countries, it's just much larger undertaking if you're coming from North America.
[33:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And, you know, they have a really wonderful skating community and I've made so many amazing friends and connections
[33:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So quickly, I feel very lucky that it kind of found a community so quickly.
[34:02] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So far, I'm really just loving it.
[34:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, it was unfortunate that Mateo is in Italy right now and the two of you couldn't be together actually recording this because Mateo is lives in London.
[34:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But yeah, you know, as you just said, you can go from country to country in Europe so quickly like Mateo is constantly telling us he's in a different country every time we're texting him.
[34:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It just so is, isn't it?
[34:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's an average of think it's what?
[34:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Two hours to go anywhere in Europe.
[34:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: On a flight, you know, it's so easy for them.
[34:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And we are connected to every single place you can.
[34:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's beautiful.
[34:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah.
[34:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One thing you had to do to move the London was to give away your piano.
[34:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I thought you had to.
[34:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Dude, say goodbye to you.
[34:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Do you actually have a piano here in London?
[34:51] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I just bought one yesterday.
[34:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Oh, fantastic.
[34:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, so put it something you cannot keep away from.
[34:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: No, I've been like, yeah, that was in all honesty, like saying goodbye to that piano.
[35:06] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Like I cried as if I was losing an animal almost.
[35:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, like it really was like a huge part of me and my heart.
[35:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But
[35:17] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I can get another one.
[35:18] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So yeah, it was tough to say goodbye, but I'm looking forward to, you know, starting my musical journey over here.
[35:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And there are so many opportunities over there, isn't it?
[35:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Because they're just so much going on in London.
[35:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And I go to a lot of classical music concerts, but they're literally everywhere.
[35:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Whether it's a major venue like the Barbeque and the South Bank or a local tour, a church or venue.
[35:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Maybe one day I'll just come to a concert of you performing.
[35:47] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That's what I'm hoping to do.
[35:49] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I kind of look at things that were skating was the center and music was the periphery or the peripheral and I like to switch where music becomes the center and skating is more on the periphery and I can go and do seminars and some coaching but I like to invest more of my time and energy into music to
[36:14] \[SPEAKER_03\]: see where I can go with it, see what I can do with it the same way I have invested myself at just kidding.
[36:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I don't know if I heard your story on how you've got started in playing the piano and you're composing.
[36:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So could you share that with us?
[36:30] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, it's kind of funny because I think it was my destiny to figure escape because it's one of the only sports that's done to music.
[36:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then I happened to start playing the piano as well, but I started doing both of them in the same year.
[36:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I was like eight years old.
[36:50] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I can remember I have a very far back memory of a fish or price little yellow piano and playing it when I was a little kid.
[36:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: like kind of experimenting with like harmonies and melodies and stuff and my brother who's like five years older than me when he was in grade eight.
[37:08] \[SPEAKER_03\]: My mom had bottom a little keyboard and he had this musical project and he had to like learn some music on it and I used to like sneak into his room and I would turn it on and I remember I taught myself when the Saints go marching in.
[37:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think that in my mom was like, how did you do this?
[37:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I was like, I want to learn to play the piano and so she put me in lessons.
[37:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And that was how it started.
[37:30] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I think it was, I have, I share a birthday with Mozart.
[37:35] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I'm thinking there's some sort of cosmic, like, I got a piece of his soul or something.
[37:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I don't know what it is.
[37:41] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But I think, yeah, I was born to be musical somehow.
[37:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And you haven't composed any programs of late or music of late for any of the skaters.
[37:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Have you?
[37:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I know Patrick Chan.
[37:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That was one of your more recent ones, but any lately?
[38:01] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I haven't composed anything specific where...
[38:04] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Look, an athlete has an asthma to compose something specific, but I know that there are some athletes that will be skating to some of my music this season.
[38:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I saw on a, there was a German skater who'll be skating to my orchestral version of Storm.
[38:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I had a music website, clicking clear, the one that kind of clears music for skaters to use, they reached out and said that they had some requests to use some of my music.
[38:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So I haven't composed anything specific but I think that and it would be nice and I hope that you'll be hearing some of my music out on the circuit.
[38:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's great.
[38:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And you have any other plans for the future.
[38:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So we know that as far as it goes from skating, you might be continuing to do shows, music, you're hoping to come back.
[38:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Any penult.
[38:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think we may have a couple of shows lined up just small ones.
[39:04] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Musically, I'm just getting myself set up here and then I need to sort of get into the process of composing again and then seeing
[39:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Maybe there's some projects that come up maybe I'll be composing for something specific or I'm just gonna try and release some more of my own music.
[39:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And yeah, just really kind of overall getting more and more settled into life over here in London.
[39:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, we like to, when we have time, ask some fun questions to our athletes that we have on the podcast.
[39:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And these are kind of some crazy fun questions.
[39:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So the first question we have is, if you were a fruit, which would you be in why?
[39:46] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think I'd be, I don't, I couldn't tell you why, but I think I might be like a passion fruit.
[39:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think that, but that also might just be because I really like them.
[40:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: When I was over in Thailand for the ISU Congress, you know, passion fruit so exotic everywhere, but when you go over to a place like Thailand, it's everywhere that you can just get it in whatever drink or smoothie you want, and oh man, that's so much passion fruit.
[40:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Right, the next one is, what's the most awkward thing you've ever done?
[40:26] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Awkward, oh boy.
[40:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Okay, I'll tell you, this is actually a great story that I don't think anybody really knows.
[40:35] \[SPEAKER_03\]: There was one season where it was before Boston Worlds, that season.
[40:40] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And Megan and I were working with an acting coach just to
[40:45] \[SPEAKER_03\]: connect more and you know when I look back it actually kind of helps you to deepen yourself awareness to a degree.
[40:55] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But what she asked us to do, we were skating to your song from Mulan Rouge and she wanted us to like I would sit and then Megan would lay in my arms and I would sing that song to her.
[41:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, Megan and I we never had that type of like relationship, you know, like, and we both are not both Megan and I were like, no, we're not doing that.
[41:20] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And she was like, you're my angels.
[41:23] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You guys can do this.
[41:25] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And I think literally for almost twenty, twenty to thirty minutes.
[41:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So you're just like, no, like pick something else.
[41:32] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We're gonna draw the line here.
[41:33] \[SPEAKER_03\]: We don't feel comfortable.
[41:35] \[SPEAKER_03\]: She continued to push and push and push and we did it.
[41:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And
[41:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So Megan had to lay my iron so I sang to her and then I laid in her arms and she sang to me and it was maybe one of the most difficult and most awkward things ever and then I remember thinking after I was like wow like I did something I didn't believe I could do you know we both were like we actually did it and
[41:58] \[SPEAKER_03\]: There was some sort of like expansion in that, you know, that it was really at the time.
[42:02] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So unbelievably uncomfortable.
[42:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you were an ice skate, would you be the left skate or the right skate?
[42:11] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Oh, look at that.
[42:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Good.
[42:13] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I think yeah, landing flight.
[42:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I'd be the right skate.
[42:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the next one is a musical question.
[42:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What is your go to song?
[42:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Go to like just personal listening?
[42:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, guilty pleasure.
[42:28] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So my favorite band is Silver Ross.
[42:31] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I don't know if not a whole lot of people have heard of them.
[42:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: They're from Iceland and they have a very particular sound that I just find.
[42:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: inspiring, uplifting, maybe a little melancholic.
[42:43] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then another one of my favorite artists is Oliver Arnolds, who just writes this the most beautiful neo-classical music you've ever heard of who also happens to be from Iceland.
[42:52] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I have all these ideas that I honestly have loved them individually, and they all happen to be from Iceland, and I think that there's something there that I need to go and experience.
[43:05] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So like,
[43:06] \[SPEAKER_03\]: on a totally unrelated question.
[43:09] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I need to go to travel to Iceland because of that.
[43:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Absolutely.
[43:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah.
[43:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And you might also want to see see going across life because I sort of in London six years old.
[43:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think and they're wearing terrible lights.
[43:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah.
[43:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think I'll back definitely do it.
[43:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, if a director wanted to make a movie about you, which actor would you want to portray you?
[43:31] \[SPEAKER_03\]: It's a great question.
[43:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I don't know why I'm like,
[43:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I don't know, like Chris Evans is coming to mind.
[43:39] \[SPEAKER_03\]: I just feel like you could die as hair gray and, you know, he's like pretty physical.
[43:45] \[SPEAKER_03\]: He might actually be able to do some of his own skating and, uh, yeah.
[43:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So you're granted three wishes.
[43:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What would they be?
[43:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And of course he cannot be to us for more wishes.
[43:59] \[SPEAKER_03\]: You know, I put a lot of thought into this.
[44:03] \[SPEAKER_03\]: But it's kind of like a little bit nerdy or weird.
[44:08] \[SPEAKER_03\]: If I was gonna wish to have powers, I would wish for molecular telekinesis, like the ability to manipulate matter.
[44:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then I would probably wish for immortality.
[44:22] \[SPEAKER_03\]: So if as long as I choose to,
[44:28] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And then my third wish would be that nobody could ever wish for me to lose my powers.
[44:34] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That's great.
[44:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Alright, well this last question has been a question we've asked every athlete that has come on the podcast for the last four seasons that we've had of this week in skating and it's a fun one.
[44:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You're stuck on a deserted island with three skaters past her present.
[44:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Who would you be stuck with on the island?
[44:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now you can either just be on the island having a good time or you need to figure out how to get off the island.
[45:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Your choice.
[45:07] \[SPEAKER_03\]: First one, definitely, Dylan Moskovich.
[45:10] \[SPEAKER_03\]: He could definitely learn or figure out how to get off the island.
[45:15] \[SPEAKER_03\]: He really good at that.
[45:17] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And he's my best friend.
[45:17] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And we always have a great time together.
[45:19] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Patrick Chan, who's one of my really close friends, another person who, whatever moment we've experienced together, it's always amplified just by being together.
[45:37] \[SPEAKER_03\]: And probably Andrew Posh.
[45:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Oh, okay.
[45:44] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Another one of my really close friends.
[45:48] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Dylan and Patrick were like best men at my wedding and Andrew basically was to So yeah, I just be basically with my three best friends Very good.
[45:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We asked the question to Patrick and I can't remember what Patrick said if he mentioned you or not But go back and check
[46:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But you came up with that really quickly.
[46:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Others have struggled with that and you did not mention Keegan messing.
[46:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: He is the most popular answer for that question because everyone thinks because he lives in Alaska, Keegan could get everybody off the island.
[46:27] \[SPEAKER_03\]: That is very true actually.
[46:29] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah.
[46:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, Eric, we want to thank you for joining us today.
[46:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You know, we had a great conversation with you and learning about what you've been up to since your retirement.
[46:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So good luck to you as you continue to pursue what's next for you and all the best in London.
[46:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Maybe you and Mateo can meet in person in one point.
[46:52] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Yeah, yeah, we should go grab a pint and talk skating.
[46:56] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Absolutely.
[46:57] \[SPEAKER_03\]: Thank you so much for having me.
[46:59] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of This Week in Skating.
[47:01] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Remember, you can keep up with us throughout the week by visiting our website at www.thisweekinscating.com.
[47:08] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Connect with us on social media for additional updates.
[47:10] \[SPEAKER_04\]: You can find us on Twitter at This Week in Skating without the ease or Facebook Instagram and Threads at This Week in Skating.
[47:18] \[SPEAKER_04\]: You got a burning question or feedback for Gina Daphne or Mateo?
[47:22] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Reach out to us via social media or drop us an email at thisweekonscading at gmail.com.
[47:27] \[SPEAKER_04\]: And if you're really enjoying the show and want to support us further, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash this week in Skating.
[47:34] \[SPEAKER_04\]: Until next time, have a nice week.

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