After Emotional Farewell, Hubbell and Donohue Embrace Next Chapter of Their Careers

In what was the last practice session of their competitive careers, at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were on the ice at the same time as Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
 
As Gilles and Poirier prepared to run through their free dance, the first line of their music – "The Long and Winding Road" by Paul McCartney – filtered into the arena.
 
Hubbell burst into tears.
 
"The morning of the free dance, as much as I knew it was coming, it kind of hit me that it was going to be my last practice ice," Hubbell said. "It's something Zach and I have always enjoyed together. It was going to be my last time feeling that competitive drive, and sharing that feeling. Also with the girls in the locker room and knowing that we enjoy each other's company, not only as a friendship, as a support, but we also enjoy how much we push each other, and how much effort it takes to beat one another and face each other's fears together. And so it kind of hit me."
 
Warming up that morning, as she normally does before an emotional free dance, Hubbell listened to a playlist of sad, nostalgic songs. She started crying and, unable to stop, asked Gabriella Papadakis of France what she should do. Papadakis suggested techno. It didn't work.
 
By the time Hubbell had even gotten onto the ice, she says she'd cried off all her mascara.
 
Coach Marie-France Dubreuil pulled her aside.
 
"You still have a job to do," she said sternly. "Don't be sad."
 
"They knew they weren't going to get me to stop crying by just telling me it's going to be OK. They had to get me out of my sadness, or out of my open-heartedness a little bit, just to keep it together. But it all worked out in the end," Hubbell said with a laugh.
 
Work out it did, as Hubbell and Donohue went on to win the third world silver medal of their career, finishing behind Papadakis and partner Guillaume Cizeron and ahead of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, all their training mates at the Ice Academy of Montreal.
 
"I think it was, in some ways, an easier performance, with so much energy from the audience and so much help from our friends and everything, so much support," Hubbell said. "But also a challenging one to stay grounded and focused and remember the job to be done. So we were very pleased, and it was a lovely way to finish our career, with so many teammates and on the podium with four of our best friends. So we couldn't be happier."
 
While Hubbell is admittedly an emotional person, heading to a World Championships knowing that it's your final competition would be enough to rattle even the most stoic of skaters. But Donohue says that, paradoxically, it's the competition itself that kept them in check.
 
"I think the competition was actually a bit of a blessing because there was so much structure around it," Donohue said. "We've been competing for years, and everyone that's at that level, even if it's their first Worlds, has had enough consistency and training and their approach to the sport that there's a routine there in place for everyone. Even for us, being at our last Worlds, I think the competition itself and the fact that we were still very driven to perform and to be at our very best, and not only focus on the last of everything, was a really big part of that success."
 
The two earned personal-best scores for their rhythm dance, free dance and overall total, leaving them plenty satisfied with their final competition despite not earning a coveted World title. The reigning Olympic bronze medalists embraced on the ice as they finished their free dance, the pressure of being elite athletes suddenly lifted.
 
"Certainly, the feeling that I had was relief," Hubbell said. "It's a lot of pressure to push yourself the way we have for many years. And as amazing as it's been and as hard as it is to walk away, there is a sense of kind of finally exhaling, and that weight of needing to be my best on that moment or else there's disappointment, or the feeling of failure, all those things – it was a chance for us to kind of feel like we were done with that."
 
And suddenly, after more than two decades of skating apiece and 11 years of partnership, it was over.
 
Hubbell and Donohue have now begun their lives as retirees, so to speak. After a brief break, they joined the Stars on Ice tour, which runs until the end of May. Hubbell is planning her wedding to Spanish ice dancer Adrian Diaz – the two will wed on June 7, 2023 – and wants to get into coaching and choreography as quickly as possible. Donohue will be moving in and starting a coaching business with his girlfriend, Australian ice dancer Chantelle Kerry.
 
But don't ask them to process their retirement just yet.
 
"Oh Mylanta. You know, I think it'll hit when Stars is done, to be honest," Donohue said. "We haven't really had a chance to stop and do anything different. It's all been, 'Let's get ready for the next skating thing.' I think by the time Stars is finishing, a whole new wave of emotions will be coming up, and that'll be the time to kind of process everything."
 
While both are excited about the next chapter of their lives, both are sufficiently nervous about it. There are no more shows booked until later in the year, no coaching details officially ironed out, and no real idea how to navigate their relationship without skating together every single day.
 
But if there's one thing that Hubbell and Donohue are good at, it's walking their long and winding road together.
 
"One of the perks of announcing our retirement so early is that it's not so much the end of something; it's the start of something new for us," Donohue said. "We know that we're going to be in each other's lives for probably way longer than we realize, and life is going to provide us so many different opportunities, and we're looking forward to that. But I think that's really where we're at, is that everything is very positive right here. That we're looking into the future with a lot of wonder and hope and open-mindedness to taking what comes and just addressing each thing in the moment, and knowing that our skating together isn't done, that we're not done with the career, and knowing that we get to see the people we've loved and trained with for years for many years to come."