SKATING December 2018: Hubbell and Donohue: Tango of Experience and Camaraderie

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who grace the cover of December's SKATING magazine, are enjoying the best season of their lives. Since winning the silver medal at the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships behind their Montreal, Quebec training partners Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, they've won four international events, including the Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 6-9.
 
"We're exhausted, elated, kind of scared knowing there's a lot more work ahead," Donohue said in Vancouver. "It's incredible to have our first medal at the Grand Prix Final be gold. At the same time, we have our hardest events coming up – nationals, Four Continents, Worlds."
 
In SKATING, Hubbell and Donohue talk about how training under Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer changed the trajectory of their skating career and personal lives. Here are some outtakes from the interview.
 
On training alongside two other top U.S. teams...
 
When you arrived at Gadbois Centre in Montreal in 2015, you were the only U.S. team in training in the group. This season, your top U.S. competition – Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker – joined you there. Did your coaches discuss the new additions with you?
 
Hubbell: Yes, they want to make sure that everybody's going to feel comfortable, and one of the great things they've created there is the environment, so they certainly wouldn't want to disrupt that. And you know, we've trained, in different times of our careers, with both of those teams, and so we already knew that we had a very friendly relationship with both.
 
Donohue: There's no worry that (the coaches) are going to try and push one team over another team. That doesn't exist in Montreal, there's no favoritism in that way. We're all their favorites because they personally care about all of us. And they don't invite people to their camp if they don't feel like they can get in line with that.
 
Choosing their 2018-19 music...
 
For your free dance this season, you chose the 1996 Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, something that's been used by other couples. What drew you to it?
 
Hubbell: We've never, I think, told a story that people know already. And that's a challenge in itself, to honor what it is meant to be, but also make it your own. And we've always picked very interesting music, something new, something people have never heard before, never seen on the ice before. We wanted to challenge ourselves to do something that people do know, and to make it better than what they've ever seen before.
 
For your rhythm dance, you've chosen a classic Argentine Tango, and you're not combining it with any other rhythms, like waltz.
 
Hubbell: We thought about mixing it. We had a few different ideas, but with the piece that we created (to an Astor Piazzolla medley) it just makes sense not to mix anything into it. It will be interesting to see who can do the true, authentic moves, but still satisfy what you need to excel in skating, like speed and flow and edge work.
 
How the Montreal camp is managing its growth...
 
How many teams are now training in Montreal?
 
Hubbell: I think we have 12 senior teams, and then we have two, three junior teams.
 
That's a large group. Some people might say the Gadbois school is taking on too much. 

Donohue: I think it's very easy to jump to that conclusion when you've seen it happen in every other camp. But I've actually had the opportunity to be at every other camp, and now that I'm with Marie and Patch -- even watching how they managed the three top teams going into the (Olympics) -- it is unlike anything I had ever experienced with a coaching team. They care more about you and your individual goal, and they take the time to prioritize that. They found success because they're not after success. Patch will tell you himself, he never wanted a school, he started off small and it just kind of happened, and now that they have this very successful thing that they're passionate about and love, and it shows in the success that they're having from the highest to the lowest levels of their students. Honestly, I can't think of much they couldn't handle.
 
Sometimes, people forget that there are quite a few coaches in Montreal, in addition to Marie-France, Patrice and Romain Haguenauer.
 
Hubbell: They are the three who own the school. Then, Pascal Denis is there full-time. (Denis accompanied Hubbell and Donohue to Champs Camp and is also scheduled to be with them at the 2019 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.) Josée Pichet and Benjamin Brisebois work there full-time. And then we have (choreographer) Samuel Chouinard, who is there much of the time, and (ballroom expert) Ginette Cournoyer, who is part-time. And we have a performance coach (Steffany Hanlen) that does off-ice with most of the teams.
 
Donohue: They're always looking for ways of improving the system and having help.
 
Hubbell: We saw that they were very organized. With the growth of the school this year, Patch was getting absolutely overloaded with emails and schedules and all of this, and you know, they were smart enough to take on someone who now works at the rink nine to five, as basically their personal assistant. He handles everything. When we have a schedule change, we have this person, Fred, who we go to and he helps everything.

Read the U.S. champions' full cover story in the December issue of SKATING magazine.