SUSAN D. RUSSELL

















Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon display some of the attitude that has taken them to the top echelon of their sport.
PHOTO COURTESY MONDOR LTD/JEAN-FRANCOIS GRATTON, SHOOTSTUDIO
















Technically solid skaters, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon delivered an emotionally charged performance at Canadian nationals.
SUSAN D. RUSSELL














The Canadian champions and reigning World silver medalists are a couple off the ice. They had planned to wed this spring but put the plans on hold to continue competing.
SUSAN D. RUSSELL

The life that Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon have freely chosen — the path that has taken them to the brink of their skating dreams — allows only rare opportunities to enjoy what’s important to them. That is why a Christmas at home in Montreal with so many loved ones is something to be truly cherished.

“Everyone was there ... about 50 people in a small room,” the petite ice dancer with the long, flowing black locks said the day after the Dubreuil and Lauzon families came together at her grandmother’s house. It was the kind of holiday celebration they hadn’t shared in three years. “It puts us back in our place. It’s our roots, and it’s good to feel really grounded again with our families.”

As usual in the middle of a hectic skating season, it didn’t last long. Two days after the joyous homecoming, Dubreuil and Lauzon were off to Germany for some ice shows. Then back to Lyon, France — their training base and residence since 2002 — for some final preparation for the Canadian Championships in Halifax, where they won their fifth national crown.

Now clearly in their sights are the World Championships in Tokyo and another showdown with Bulgaria’s Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski. The Bulgarians edged the Canadians by fewer than two points to win the 2006 Worlds in Calgary — even though Dubreuil and Lauzon’s captivating “Somewhere in Time” free dance stole the night, and nearly the entire show.

At the Grand Prix Final in December in St. Petersburg, it was again gold for the Bulgarians and silver for the Canadians. Dubreuil and Lauzon surely hope the third time is the charm, so to speak, when they meet again in Japan.

“When we go to Tokyo, we will be trying to challenge the Bulgarians for the gold, that’s for sure,” said Dubreuil, 32. “It’s going to be a really good fight between us.”

A Warm Embrace

Should the Canadians finally prevail, it will inspire cheers that will resonate from coast to coast in their homeland — and more than likely, far beyond. From the moment Dubreuil lost her grip on a rotational lift during the original dance at the Torino Olympics and crashed to the ice with a sickening thud, they have felt an embrace of loving support like never before.

Even nine months later, Dubreuil remains gratified by the support she received after the mishap, which forced their withdrawal from the Torino Games and crushed their dreams of winning an Olympic medal.

“I would say more than half the support — letters and e-mails and prayers and everything — came from the United States. I was very touched and surprised about that,” she said. “I never felt so much love and positive energy sent our way. It was actually overwhelming.”

Dubreuil admitted she didn’t truly feel it all until after Worlds in Calgary was done, when she finally had time to carefully read all the messages that touched her so deeply.

“Then I cried,” she said with a laugh. “That’s when I realized all the support and all the love that was around us. It was pretty incredible.”

At least one keen observer of the support, though, believes that groundswell was beginning to build long before the world witnessed that terrible moment in Torino. Fans were swept away from the first time they saw “Somewhere in Time,” the masterpiece created by David Wilson that has become their signature program.
“I really believe people were rooting for them even before Torino,” said TSN/CTV analyst Tracy Wilson, who won Canada’s only Olympic ice dance medal (a bronze) with Rob McCall in Calgary in 1988.

“People looked at them and thought, ‘This is where dance needs to go.’ It’s easy to involve yourself in what they do. Sure, they got some sympathy [because of the fall], but [the support] was more evident with their new program.”

“Somewhere in Time” put the focus on Dubreuil and Lauzon’s decade-long romantic relationship, a human side of skaters that fans rarely get to glimpse. Wilson is convinced it’s the reason Dubreuil and Lauzon, after a few years of struggling to move up from the bottom half of the world’s top 10, have elevated themselves to new status among the sport’s elite.

“It’s such a fine line in dance. You’ve got a whole lot of good teams,” she said. “For them, [the difference] was when they were able to find that human touch in their programs. They’ve got great technique; they’ve always been innovators. But they’ve really put the dance into it, that’s the special part. And they play off their relationship.”

Ah yes, the relationship. Dubreuil and Lauzon both said it wasn’t an immediate thing, the romance that has blossomed over time.
“We started off as being very good friends,” said Lauzon, 31.

“We were both skating with other partners and then when [those partnerships] ended, we thought we could do this and have a lot of fun, because we’re such good friends.”


Love Blossoms

About a year and a half into their on-ice partnership, which began in 1995, the feelings between the two began to change in a way that concerned their coaches at the time.

“We started having feelings [for each other],” said Dubreuil. “For us, it was a little bit ... not a challenge, but ...”
“It was a no-no,” Lauzon said in finishing the thought. “Our coaches had the idea that you just didn’t go out with your partner.”

“Because if the relationship failed, then the [on-ice] partnership would probably end,” Dubreuil continued. “We had a lot of doubts that we should explore a romantic relationship while we had a skating partnership.”

Love, however, just wouldn’t be denied.

“I think when you repress feelings, you start having frustration,” said Dubreuil. “It wasn’t good for us to repress those feelings so we gave it a shot and 10 years later, we’re still together.

“So I guess it was a good thing.”

It would prove to be the best thing given the turn their career would eventually take. Shortly after finishing 12th in 2002 in their Olympic debut, Dubreuil and Lauzon made the decision to pull up stakes and move to Lyon to train under the guidance of Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, whose star pupils Marina Anissina and Gwendal

Peizerat struck gold in Salt Lake City.

They arrived in Lyon as complete strangers, with only themselves to turn to for support.

“We felt a bit lost at the beginning,” admitted Lauzon. “I don’t think it would have been possible [to survive the change] if we weren’t a couple.”

It was hard enough on the two Canadians who at first found themselves asking for a little too much from each other.

“We didn’t have any friends or relationships with other people outside of skating,” Dubreuil said of their first few months in Lyon. “At one point, subconsciously, you want your partner to be your partner, your mom, your dad, your best friend. ... It was very demanding on each other.

“Then we realized we could be all of that for each other. But there was a lot of inner work done by ourselves to just be satisfied to be who we are, not trying to get more out of this than just a relationship. We miss our families so much that for us, it was a salvation that we were a couple at that time.”

Both agree the distance between homes has strengthened the love they feel between each other — even if, as Dubreuil said, “We’re two very different people.”

As Tracy Wilson puts it, “She’s kind of the terrier; he’s the big golden Lab.”

“In every way, we’re black and white, honestly,” said Dubreuil. “It always takes a lot of discussion for us to find a middle ground. ... We always take really different roads to get to the same point.”

Added Lauzon: “We like the same things in life. But the way that we’ll choose stuff ... that will always be different.”

But Patch and Mary, as they lovingly refer to each other, are a couple for life with the kind of love that David Wilson knew just had to be celebrated on the ice.

“We knew we wanted it to be about love, particularly their love for each other,” said Wilson as he talked about crafting “Somewhere in Time” with them last season. “It’s really about them. They truly do love each other and it’s a beautiful love.”

The Magic Touch

With that step, Dubreuil and Lauzon’s stature grew in the hearts of skating fans everywhere. While Boucher-Zazoui and performance coach Steffany Hanlen have put them in the right place technically and mentally, Tracy Wilson said, “The magic came from David Wilson.”

And they are just beginning to tap into it. That’s why in the end, Dubreuil and Lauzon decided to put off marriage and instead forge on into a new season. While a World title so close they can taste it played into the decision, Dubreuil and Lauzon both said their reasons for staying eligible run much deeper than that.

“We see a lot of our friends that became professional that are still improving, getting better and better being professional skaters,” said Dubreuil. “We felt we were in that space, too. We had space for improvement and we wanted to do it as amateurs, not professionals.”

The lure of an Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 is surely there. “We’re keeping the idea of doing the Olympics in our own country in the back of our head,” said Lauzon.

But Tracy Wilson agreed with the “one year at a time” way they’re approaching the future, and can’t wait to see what comes next.

“They’ve still got a lot to add [to the sport],” she said. “They have not yet reached their full potential, they’re just beginning to explore. They’re not ready for shows just yet.”

And not heading back to Canada for good, at least not anytime soon. Almost five years later, they are much more comfortable in France and in Europe, a country and a continent they have grown to appreciate. But the pull toward their homeland remains strong.

“There’s a sophistication and something poetic about Europe that we really enjoy,” said Dubreuil. “But Canada is Canada, and Montreal will always be our roots.”

“When you’re in a country, even if you do speak French, you always feel like a tourist,” Lauzon added. “It’s not your country. Even if they treat you like family — our coach, we think of her as a second mom — we’re still not French.

“When you come back home there’s still that feeling that you get. In a perfect world, we could live half the year in Europe and half of the year in Montreal. That would be perfect.”

Better still to spend it with a person who always stands beside you, through thick and thin. Torino, perhaps better than any moment, showed the world that Dubreuil and Lauzon each know they’ve found that right person.

“[The fans] saw a more human side of the sport, of who we are,” said Dubreuil. “I think people really saw through all the flashy costumes and makeup ... and saw the main essence of who we are as people.

“We did what we do best, and what we would have done together in any circumstance. We stuck together as a couple and that’s what got us through all of this. ... Every experience of our life, this is what we did, we stuck together.

“With a lot of love, you can get through anything.” ?