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- Dec 31, 2019
Very true.
However, he's saying that when they initially got the Japan tour offer Meagan didn't want to. So what was actually agreed on?
James/Radford announce partnership
- Thread starter Mista Ekko
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However, he's saying that when they initially got the Japan tour offer Meagan didn't want to. So what was actually agreed on?
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- Nov 9, 2009
What happened here is everybody was talking about something off of only hearing one side
And now we know the other
Hopefully Meagan and Eric could patch things up eventually
And best of luck to the team of James\Radford, They look exciting
And now we know the other
Hopefully Meagan and Eric could patch things up eventually
And best of luck to the team of James\Radford, They look exciting
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- Jun 26, 2012
No black and whites here...Eric is not a demon (he's no Charlie Bilodeau, that's for sure - sorry can't help mentioning this), it seems there was more communication than I thought. I'm with @Mista Ekko .
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They look great together and this is exciting for Canada.On "That Figure Skating Show"
They will train in Montreal
There are practice clips
This is looking good
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- Dec 31, 2019
That's kinda what I've been trying to say.
We don't know what happened. And there's never just one side of the story.
Personally, I don't think anyone is completely at fault, or even that there is something to be at fault for. I think perhaps things could have been communicated better but it sounds like all of this happened remarkably fast.
They also don't owe it to other teams to not try, if that's what they wish to do.
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- Feb 10, 2014
Well I’m not their attorney and I don’t have their SOI contract. But regardless of whether she initially expressed hesitation, they were contracted for the tour that’s going on right now. They didn’t go because things changed in Japan and international skaters weren’t permitted, not because of her hesitation.
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- Feb 10, 2014
I dunno. He’s basically saying the problem is she’s a woman of childbearing age with a kid. And he’s kind of leaving out some facts (like he says we missed this show bc she was pregnant but fails to acknowledge she did two other shows while pregnant).
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- Oct 25, 2014
I guess maybe he was a bit too bright-eyed when they released Vanessa, and wanted to move forward as fast as he could to start gearing up for the coming season. I'd also say, things got a little tricky because there's more family involved in the situation, with Julie. I guess this will blow over eventually, but it just seems like even now both sides are not exactly agreeing to things.
Maybe if Vanessa hadn't been involved with her previous partner, this wouldn't be as much of an issue as it is. That's my take.
Maybe if Vanessa hadn't been involved with her previous partner, this wouldn't be as much of an issue as it is. That's my take.
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- Feb 22, 2014
Interesting...
But why respond in All CAPS, Eric? It looks like you're yelling.
TBH he's not really helping his case here...Meagan competed in Battle of the Blades, clearly having a baby didn't end her skating career. That just comes off as rather sexist...like a woman has a baby and suddenly a mother is all she is?
As I said I don't agree with painting Eric as the worst person in the world for this, but damn dude.
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- Sep 22, 2019
Yeah his statement felt kinda tactless to me because it implied that babies = homemaker. I know pro skating has its own special challenges (like frequent travel), but still companies can get sued for terminating female workers on similar grounds as the ones he cited.
He could have raised the concern in a better way, like pointing out the fact they had settled down in different provinces and couldn't train together frequently without spending a lot of time away from their families.
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We don't even know if he typed that. It looks like a quote from CBC. Why would he put his own words in quotation marks? It looks like someone at CBC asked him and then typed what he said.
Also there's a difference between skating in shows and returning to competition. If she was hesitant to be away from her child for SOI Japan, it stands to reason that she would be with Zoey even less while training not to mention the Olympics or something if they make it.
Meagan has mentioned isolating with Zoey away from her own husband while he coaches and had to quarantine for World's. In this case, she might have to isolate from her own toddler. That's not an easy decision to make. Nor one we know if Meagan would be able to make. Now, she says she was never asked but he said she had no desire to return to competition. Regardless, it's a complicated decision involving many moving parts and not one that is clear cut.
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- Dec 31, 2019
That's a different question though.
Neither he not she backed out of SOI for this year. We don't know if they agreed to do shows BEYOND this year. It also stands to reason that if she expressed hesitation once he might wonder if she would again and how long it would last.
He might have been concerned with the long-term survival and partnership with regards to shows. Just because she said yes once doesn't mean he took that to mean she would say yes for the next year and the year after that, etc.
It sounds like he was concerned not for 2020 (or 2021) but for the future.
Now naturally, he could have asked her. But opinions and feelings change. At one point, Eric himself was completely done with competition at one point.
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- Feb 22, 2014
LOL, why should Eric be blamed for how CBC formatted his words?
True true...then CBC has committed a major fail, everyone knows you don't post things in ALL CAPS, it makes it makes it hard to read
That's true too...
I think Eric's error might have been waiting until Vanessa was released to speak to Meagan about it. Because that was only a few weeks back, but the idea was planted when he and Vanessa did some training together for Battle of the Blades which was like a year ago? So there's this whole..."You were going behind my back this whole time? And if it hadn't worked you probably still would have skated with me, but I was your 'back-up' choice? After we were partners for years?"
And if the new partnership doesn't work...does Eric assume that Meagan would be willing to do show skating with him? Seems doubtful as the trust between the two is surely gone now.
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- Feb 10, 2014
Truthfully? I think he just wants to skate with Vanessa. And he probably would have been better off saying that instead of implying that Meagan’s priorities were the problem. JMO.
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Except for we don't know it was actually a fully formed idea then. It sounds like he expected it to take a very long time for Vanessa to be released (and possibly cost the Canadian Fed money). I think they were just trying pairs moves, like former World class skaters, which can't actually have been that unusual around former athletes. I mean they were trying moves with ice hockey players during BotBs haha.
But I think even he was caught of guard by the fact that it could actually happen. I don't think he thought it would.
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- Dec 31, 2019
The question might be why though?
It's fully within his rights to want to.
It could be a combination of factors as to why he might want to skate with someone else. Partnerships are dissolved for a variety of reasons and it's important to not that despite shows and everything, they were in fact, retired.
To be honest, I don't think it's dissimilar to Meagan wanting to still skate shows. And saying she was never asked to return to competition. Does she actually want to? He seems to think she doesn't. She never said she did - just that she wasn't asked. It just sounds like a lack of communication and a lack of a joint goal on both sides. We don't even know if Meagan 100% wanted to skate shows anyway?
Also that's a different question.
Regardless, I think it's important to note that having differing goals isn't a negative thing, in and of itself.
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well, since no one ever accused me of being afraid to say the same thing twice (or three times, or four times).
this is NOT “oh Eric left for another partner, too bad so sad that happens in the world of pairs competetive skating”
IF (and I am relying on Meagan’s account here, but we have no other account) there were oral promises to participate in shows where money is involved, and Meagan lost money due to Eric‘s breaking his promises, that is different. Very different. (of course that would be in the US, and totally dependent on facts, and god only knows the law in Canada because I sure don’t
plus it’s a jerk (not to mention cowardly) move on Eric’s part not to tell Meagan before you do something like this. But that’s just human relations,
It might be a jerk move on Eric's part but the same can be said for Meghan's social media behavior, based on what Eric said once he knew the partnership with Vanessa was going to happen he contacted Meghan, he's not required to preemptively tell her of plans he's considering. Eric could make the same complaints against Meghan that she moved away to a different city from him where they couldn't train together and has the skating school going.
He didn't say that that, but that her having a child understandably changed her priorities where she was having reservations about doing shows in Japan that would require her being away from her child.
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