On March 26,
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue gave the final competitive performance of their careers, wrapping up an 11-year partnership at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022 and earning the silver medal.
But they weren't done skating together.
Just weeks later, the ice dance team returned to the ice as part of Stars on Ice, touring with fellow members of Team USA in shows across the country.
At their final show in Portland on May 29, we sat down with Hubbell and Donohue to ask about their competitive careers coming to an end and what's next.
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What does it mean to you to end your competitive skating careers and then come to do this tour and have fun?
Hubbell: It was kind of always in the plans, so I don't think we've sat down and thought too much about it. We want to continue doing Stars on Ice and any show opportunities because we obviously love skating together, but over the last days, I've had the girls asking me how I'm feeling because it's true that after today's show Zach and I part ways and we won't see each other probably until the end of August and that's going to be the longest break we've ever spent apart. It's going to be strange.
Have you reflected at all on your careers being that this is the last show? Have you taken the time yet?
Donohue: I don't think I'm a sentimentalist as much as Madi is. For me, I know that we're going to keep skating together, so I think at some point, it'll hit me a little differently probably when I'm like, "Okay. I'm done touring. Let's plan to see each other once and a while." But knowing that we're going to keep skating and knowing that we each have our things that we're going out and doing and coming back, I think that for me it doesn't really feel quite like the end. It just feels like closing a chapter, but there are more chapters continuing on afterwards.
Now that I've said that, I'm probably going to be the one crying at the end of the night because that's just the way it is, right? [Laughs]. I'm looking forward to the challenges that come ahead, us being able to dive into who we are individually, knowing that we still have a lot more to enjoy together and that every time we come back together, we're going to be in different places and have grown as people and it's going to be a lot more experiencing than we've done. We've done everything side by side for so long that this transition is going to be pretty cool to see – to be able to take a step back and then enter each other's space and notice the different things and be able to share our relationship in a new way.
Do you have plans to see each other?
Hubbell: So far no.
Donohue: [Joking] I don't even have an official invite to the wedding. I just want to put that out there.
Hubbell: Nobody does! You keep throwing this out to other people as if I've sent out invites.
Donohue: You've never even said 'Hey.' The wedding list is getting long … [laughs]
Madison: Yeah. Yeah. We don't have plans yet. I guess the next formidable plan is August 27 we're doing another show – a weekend show – so we'll probably have to see each other a few days before that to polish it back up.
Do you think it'll hit you in a few days since up to this point you've been constantly together?
Hubbell: Yeah, [I'm sure it'll be] I haven't seen you in a couple months. Let's remember these lifts. But no, I look forward to working together not just in our show crew, but also we both want futures in the sport in some capacity and it would be really unlikely that we would not be crossing paths and not be working together.
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