{"id":108653,"date":"2026-02-17T04:57:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/stellato-dudek-42-years-old-and-olympic-debut-in-figure-skating-milan-cortina-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:57:04","slug":"stellato-dudek-42-years-old-and-olympic-debut-in-figure-skating-milan-cortina-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nationals\/stellato-dudek-42-years-old-and-olympic-debut-in-figure-skating-milan-cortina-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellato-Dudek, 42 years old and Olympic debut in figure skating: Milan-Cortina 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"MILAN, Italy \u2013 Deanna Stellato-Dudek, at 42 years old, has starred in one of the most emotional narratives at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The Canadian skater made her Olympic debut alongside her partner Maxime Deschamps in the pairs figure skating competition.\n\nThe pair, who were crowned world champions in 2024, arrived in Italy after overcoming challenging weeks. Stellato-Dudek suffered an injury during pre-competition training, which forced the Canadian team to withdraw from the team competition and put their participation in the individual event in doubt. However, they received medical clearance just before traveling from Montreal.\n\n

After hitting my head, I didn’t know if I would be able to be in the Olympic Games. I am convinced that all the positive messages helped my recovery. We are grateful to be here.<\/p>Deanna Stellato-Dudek<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe expected Olympic debut had a bittersweet moment. In the short program, a fall at the end of a lift, one of the couple’s strongest elements, cost them important points. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps finished in 14th position with 66.04 units, losing around five points due to that error, which would have allowed them to place in eighth place.\n\n

I was very proud of our performance until that lift. It’s one of our strongest elements, so it was very disappointing. We lost a lot of points there.<\/p>Deanna Stellato-Dudek<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nDespite the setback, the Canadian skater highlighted the importance of the moment.\n\n

I feel like I’m on a highway going 100 miles per hour. I’ve waited a long time for this.<\/p>Deanna Stellato-Dudek<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe story of Stellato-Dudek is unique in modern figure skating. After excelling as a junior in the late 90s, she retired for 16 years before returning to the ice in 2016 with the goal of fulfilling her Olympic dream. Two decades after aspiring to participate in Salt Lake City 2002 or Turin 2006, she finally managed to compete in an Olympic Games.\n\nHer career was documented in the film Deanna\u2019s Dream<\/em>, produced by the Olympic Channel, which portrays her return to the \u00e9lite, her life outside of sports, and the determination needed to compete against athletes who, on average, are almost half her age.\n\n

Although not the oldest skater to participate in a Games, Stellato-Dudek breaks the mold of a discipline whose average age is around 24 years old in the pairs category.<\/p>\n\n

Keep pursuing what you want, ignore the people who criticize you. The only limits are the ones you set for yourself.<\/p>Deanna Stellato-Dudek<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe couple will seek to improve their performance in the free program, determined to once again defy the odds and proudly close a story that is already part of the Olympic memory of Milan-Cortina 2026.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MILAN, Italy \u2013 Deanna Stellato-Dudek, at 42 years old, has starred in one of the most emotional narratives at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The Canadian skater made her Olympic debut alongside her partner Maxime Deschamps in the pairs figure skating competition. The pair, who were crowned world champions in 2024, arrived in Italy after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[997],"tags":[11869,11866,10887,1297],"class_list":{"0":"post-108653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nationals","8":"tag-deanna-stellato-dudek","9":"tag-figure-skating","10":"tag-milan-cortina","11":"tag-olympic-games"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}