Figure Skating

Figure skater Meagan Duhamel may be down, but she's not out.

This woman is determined. She's part of a breed that ignores pain and injury and risk: the female pair skater.

The 23-year-old skater from Lively, Ont., believes she'll make it to the Canadian championships in London, Ont., next month despite a serious ankle sprain that caused her and partner Craig Buntin to withdraw from Skate America two weeks ago.

The Canadian championships serve as the qualifying event for the Vancouver Olympics. Duhamel and Buntin, of Kelowna, B.C. are the reigning Canadian silver medalists. There are only two berths for pairs and several teams fighting for them.

Duhamel emerged from Skate America with a peroneal traction injury, which means she did some damage to the peroneal nerve that runs from her right knee to her foot when she initially injured her ankle during the warmup. Her right foot is the one she uses to land her jumps, and it's the takeoff foot for the difficult throw triple Lutz.

The skater said yesterday from Montreal that she needs to rest her leg, and put as little weight as possible on it. "My foot is just kind of dull and numb,'' she said. "The thing with the nerve injury, is that it could be a few weeks and it could be a few months before I get all the feeling back in my foot,'' she said.

She's currently getting as much physiotherapy as is possible without irritating the nerve more.

While Duhamel was in a Toronto hospital last week getting electromyography (EMG), x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests, she also had doctors look at her back as well, which had been causing her pain for the past couple of months, she said.

They diagnosed a stress fracture and a bulging disc in her lower back, too.
Duhamel said her back began to bother her a year ago when she and her partner started training triple twists. They've backed off the move, but Duhamel had already been getting acupuncture and massage and chiropractic treatments once a week for her back, which she will continue.
Already this week, Duhamel and Buntin have started doing off-ice lifts, and Duhamel will start work again in the gym. "We're hoping to get back on the ice next week as long as putting my foot in my skate isn't going to bother me,'' she said. "Sometimes having my foot in my running shoe causes a weird, numb, tingling sensation.

"But it's only going to get better. It's not going to get worse.''

She said her doctors were surprised that she has not developed foot drop, a condition in which the foot can't be articulated.

She said her nerve specialist was surprised to find that her leg still has all of its strength. "He said I should have foot drop.'' she said. "He did the test six times. He couldn't believe it. So that's a positive.''

She still feels a lot of pain in her foot and knee, and feels numbness between the shin and the calf. The pain should go away within the next few weeks, but the numb, tingling sensation could last a few months.

"As long as I'm not going to make it worse, then I don't mind skating with a weird feeling in my foot,'' she said.

As for Buntin, he's training without Duhamel, doing a couple of singles sessions a day. "His triple toe loop is looking awesome,'' Duhamel said.

At Skate America, when Duhamel fell in the long program, she hit her head on the ice. She had a headache for a day or two afterward, but she was more concerned about her foot. She had initially hurt the ankle in the warmup. But when the skaters got off the ice, she and Buntin were the second team to skate, so she did not have time to take off her skates.

She almost fell taking her first step from the opening pose. After that, Duhamel said she lost her focus, wondering what was wrong with her leg.

"Everything that happened after that was just a result of me not focusing,'' she said.

For now, Duhamel must be patient and let nature take its course, she said.