http://www.thestar.com/sports/skati...ing-duos-motivated-for-nationals-dimanno.html
“We read mean comments online, ‘They don’t match,’ ‘Why would they skate together?’ ‘They don’t look good together,’ ‘She needs a new partner,’ ‘He needs a new partner,’ ” says Duhamel. “Really mean, hurtful things that we can’t change. I can’t make myself any taller and more balletic-looking. It’s not my body and I don’t want to, I don’t want to be more balletic-looking. And Eric can’t make himself smaller with more bulky muscles.”
It’s quite astonishing, and more than a little upsetting — to them — how much this team, two-time world bronze medallists, has attracted fury on the social media river of vomit. Duhamel noticed the other day a posting about Chinese pair Pang Qing and Tong Jian returning to the competitive ranks. “Somebody wrote, ‘Oh thank God, anything to stop Duhamel and Radford from being world champions.’ Why not? What’s wrong with us being world champions?”
The duo figures they’ve been the target of more social media vitriol than any of their Canadian teammates. A lot of folks just don’t like them and have no compunction about saying so, begrudging their high scores and victories. In earlier days, it made them skate with a chip on their shoulder. Now they use it as motivation.