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World figure skating champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada will not compete in the Olympic team event in Italy later this month due to a training injury in Quebec sustained by Stellato-Dudek, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Monday.
Skate Canada and the COC did not disclose the nature or severity of Stellato-Dudek’s injury, adding she and Deschamps have not yet withdrawn from the individual pairs event.
Stellato-Dudek’s “condition and readiness for the individual pairs event” is being assessed daily, the COC stated. The duo, which trains outside Montreal, remains back home.
Should Stellato-Dudek be unable to compete, Canadian championship bronze medallists Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier are on standby as alternates in the individual pairs event.
“Athlete health and safety is our No. 1 priority. We will share more information as it becomes available,” the COC said.
In an interview with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux, Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas said her main focus is on Stellato-Dudek’s health.
“We’re all just thinking of her and Max right now,” said Schizas.
Canada’s Maddie Schizas and the team were made aware of Deanna Stellato-Dudek’s injury.
Here’s a really thoughtful answer from Maddie about what Deanna is going through and what she means to the team.
“We’re all just thinking of her and Max right now” pic.twitter.com/tjfkVeMLLt
Canadian champions Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud will compete in the pairs portion of the team event instead. Team competition starts Friday, with the individual pairs short program scheduled for Feb. 15. A withdrawal for individual pairs must be submitted one hour before the short program draw, which takes place on Feb. 13 at 3:30 p.m. local time.
Another Canadian Olympian, snowboard Cross athlete Tess Critchlow, has withdrawn from competition due to injury. The 30-year-old from Big White, B.C., was sixth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Stellato-Dudek, who was born in the Chicago suburbs, has represented Canada since partnering with Deschamps before the 2019 season.
Last summer, the Canadians said they were feeling lighter heading into the Olympic year. The 2024 world champions carried the heavy burden of defending their title through an underwhelming follow-up season.
They finished fifth at 2025 worlds in Boston, largely due to a season-low score in the short program.
They also faced their fair share of “treacherous obstacles,” as Stellato-Dudek described.
Deschamps fell ill with a severe fever in November 2024, wiping them out of December’s Grand Prix Final. Stellato-Dudek also fought through shoulder, ankle and wrist injuries.
2nd at national event
“We’re in the perfect place,” Stellato-Dudek said in a Canadian Press story last September. “Maybe this was the spot that we were meant to be in to give us the fire to push and to get back on top, versus feeling the pressure and the expectation to stay there.”
Last month, she and Deschamps captured a pairs silver medal at the Canadian figure skating championships in Gatineau, Que., where Stellato-Dudek picked up a stomach bug.
“I’ve been feeling really weak, but you never know what can happen at the Olympics, so it’s like you’d have to pry my dead body off that ice, I’m gonna skate no matter what,” she said at the time.
In early December, Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were sixth in pairs at the Grand Prix Final after a shaky free skate in Nagoya, Japan.
The two-time Grand Prix medallists, who won bronze at the 2023 Final, posted 194.36 points after a fall in their free program.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps won their third consecutive Skate Canada International title in Saskatoon on Nov. 1.
The duo had the home nation roaring at SaskTel Centre when they came from behind to take the gold medal ahead of German rivals Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin.
At 42, Stellato-Dudek would become the oldest woman to compete in an Olympic figure skating event since British athlete Ethel Muckelt in 1928.
Canada finished fourth in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Games and is a podium contender in Milan.
The Americans are the reigning Olympic champions and heavily favoured to defend their title. The rhythm dance and women’s short program also are Friday at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, while the men’s short program and free dance are on Saturday. The event concludes Sunday with the pairs, women’s and men’s free skates.