Paul Duchesnay

Paul Duchesnay
Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay at a show in West Berlin, 1989
nation	France
birthday	July 31, 1961
place of birth	Metz
size	175 cm
Weight	70 kg
Career
discipline	Ice dance
Partner	Isabelle Duchesnay
society	Club Patinage Artistique Paris
Trainer	Martin Skotnicky
status	resigned
End of career	1992
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 1 × EM medals 0 × 1 × 2 ×
winter Olympics silver Albertville 1992 Ice dance  World figure skating championships bronze Paris 1989 Ice dance silver Halifax 1990 Ice dance gold Munich 1991 Ice dance  European figure skating championships bronze Prague 1988 Ice dance bronze Leningrad 1990 Ice dance silver Sofia 1991 Ice dance

Paul Duchesnay (born July 31, 1961 in Metz ) is a former French figure skater who started in ice dancing .

biography

Paul Duchesnay became world champion in ice dancing in 1991 with his sister Isabelle Duchesnay . The siblings grew up in Canada , but had problems in the Canadian Figure Skating Association and therefore competed for France. The couple started for the Club Patinage Artistique Paris . Their trainer was Martin Skotnický , so they often trained in Oberstdorf . Christopher Dean often worked on the choreography .

The Duchesnay siblings achieved their real breakthrough with the jungle dance, the freestyle in 1988. Even the judges were carried away by the unusual choreography. The audience celebrated this performance frenetically. The deficit from the compulsory program was too big to win, but this freestyle led to the first international medal for the Duchesnays at the European Championships in 1988.

They were favorites at the 1992 Winter Olympics. However, the Duchesnays could not win against the 1991 dethroned world champions Marina Klimowa and Sergej Ponomarenko with their innovative Bach freestyle in 1992.

Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay became professionals in 1992. You had to quit figure skating in 1996 because of a serious back injury to Paul Duchesnays. Paul Duchesnay now works as a figure skating coach, mainly in the USA .

Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay at a show in East Berlin, 1989

Results

Ice dance

(with Isabelle Duchesnay )

Competition / year	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992
winter Olympics				8th.				2.
World championships		12.	9.	6th	3.	2.	1.
European championships		8th.	5.	3.		3.	2.
French championships		1.	1.			1.	1.
Canadian Championships	3.

Web links

• Paul Duchesnay in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )