Canada's Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps jump into pairs lead at figure skating worlds
CBC
Deanna Stellato-Dudek matched the home crowd's energy with fist pumps and elated cheers at centre ice.
Maxime Deschamps called it "definitely the most emotional performance of my career."
"It was really special," he said.
Competing on home soil, the Canadian pair jumped into first place in the short program Wednesday afternoon at the world figure skating championships at Montreal's Bell Centre.
Stellato-Dudek, of Chicago, and Deschamps, of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., set a personal-best with a 77.48 score while skating to Cirque du Soleil's "Oxygene" as an ode to Montreal.
The partisan crowd of about 5,000 responded with a standing ovation for one of Canada's top medal contenders this week.
"This was our best short program of the year," Stellato-Dudek said. "It being the program that we chose as a tribute to Montreal, I'm very happy that we can give the audience a good ride."
WATCH | Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps soar to top spot:
The pair shattered their previous best of 73.05 and took a solid lead over their competition heading into Thursday evening's free program.
Defending champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan were second (73.53) ahead of Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (72.88).
"It was really a culmination of a year's work," Deschamps said. "We've worked hard all year, it hasn't always been perfect but we gave ourselves objectives and each time we succeeded in reaching those.
They also overcame plenty of nerves to do it.
Though American, Stellato-Dudek is confident she'll receive Canadian citizenship before the 2026 Olympics and treats Montreal as home.
The 40-year-old retired from the sport at age 17 due to a chronic hip injury before returning 16 years later and eventually moving to Quebec to join forces with the 32-year-old Deschamps.
