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Vanessa James and Eric Radford (CAN) celebrate during the ISU World Championships 2022 Montpellier (FRA) @ISU

The moment comes sooner or later for every athlete – the moment to end the competitive career. It is not an easy step as you have change your lifestyle and find new goals. Canadian Pair Skater Eric Radford, 38, did it even twice. Following a long and distinguished career that included two ISU World titles, Olympic bronze and Olympic team gold with Meagan Duhamel, he retired in 2018. But then he came back with Vanessa James for the 2021/22 Olympic season. After competing in Beijing (CHN) and winning bronze at the ISU World Championships 2022, Eric decided to end his career as an athlete for good.

Miura/ Kihira (JPN), Knierim/Frazier (USA) and James/Radford (CAN) pose during the 2022 ISU World Championships in Montpellier (FRA). @ISU

“I kind of love that. Not that I had to retire twice, but that I got to experience my sport in such a different way and from such a different place the second time around than the first time.”

 The Canadian recalled what retiring was like.

“A funny thing about the first time is - for a few months after I retired, I would talk to other athletes, and they would ask me, ‘so has it hit you yet?’ For an entire year, it didn't ‘hit’ me. I think it was almost like a year after the Olympics, so just after late February of 2019. I was sitting at home, and it hit me, and I was like, oh, no. What am I going to do now? What am I going to do with my life?”

Meagan and Eric were very busy in that year following the 2018 Olympic Winter Games doing shows, giving seminars, appearing at public events and as speakers.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (CAN) pictured during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang (KOR). @GettyImages

“It was just a big whirlwind for an entire year. And then it hit me. I had to kind of start thinking, well, what is it that I want to do next? Do I want to go into coaching? Are there any other opportunities? What do I want to do with my music? That was kind of a big moment. I was already prepared for that the second time around. After retiring with Vanessa, I had already been through that process.”

Radford is not only a successful Skater, but as well a musician and has composed music he and fellow Skaters such as Patrick Chan performed to.

“Music at the moment is my passion and to turn it into a job it takes time,” he observed.

He wrote as well the score for a documentary by Randy Gardner, the 1979 ISU World Pair Skating Champion from the USA.

“That was a really amazing opportunity, and that actually ignited something in me, and I think that's something that I would really love to do. I really liked the process. I liked watching a scene and then trying to feel what type of emotion and what type of music would really suit that moment. That kind of opened my eyes to a new possibility in my music,” Eric shared.

However, for now Radford focuses on coaching.

“For my daily life, day in and day out, I was going to need something that was just very consistent and familiar. So that's why coaching was a better fit,” he explained.

The two-time ISU World Champion coaches in different clubs in the Montréal area and works mostly with Pairs.

Even though he had a long career and a lot of experience, he felt a bit nervous about coaching at first.

“If I told the skater a correction and then it didn't work right away, I was like, oh, I didn't tell them the right thing. And then I remembered it takes time to learn new things. It's not just done in a split second,” he said.

He enjoys figuring out the right technique and working with Pairs as there are many different types of elements – not just jumps and solo spins, but lifts, throws, twists, death spirals, pair spins.

Radford is still sometimes active on the ice himself and performing in shows with James. They even did a tour last winter but now want to do shorter assignments.

With coaching, writing music and performing in shows, Eric is still very much involved in the sport he loves. In addition to that, he wants to give back also at another level and became an athlete representative in the ISU Athletes Commission. He wanted to learn how the ISU works and is interested in aspects such as sustainability, good governance and in promoting skating in general as a sport.

“I think that being the athlete rep and also being the chair of the athletes’ commission, is a huge opportunity to use my experience and expertise in skating to definitely give a voice to the athletes when a decision is being made in regards directly to the athletes, but also to give our perspective on other aspects of our sport and especially when it maybe comes to different ideas of how to increase the popularity of the sport,” he pointed out.

He believes that the athletes can have a big impact.

“I think anytime that I have spoken to the ISU council, I've always felt very heard. I feel like they really pay attention to what I and what the athletes have to say, and they take it into account in their decision making.”

In his role as an athlete representative Radford is also happy to share some advice with fellow Skaters. For example, the process of leaving the competitive ranks and starting something new and different, whether it has to do with skating or not, should not start after the last competition.

“I think that it's very easy to forget just how much life you have left after you're going to be done competing,” the two-time ISU World Champion noted.

 “Usually people are under 30 or maybe a little over 30 when they retire. You've usually been skating since you were a kid and so it feels like you've been doing it forever, but maybe you have twice as much time (in your life) after you're done skating. Even for me, I wasn't looking too far into the future, especially in those key years like Olympic years, and in and around the World Championships.”

Eric feels the best way to start preparing for the life after skating is to study, to take courses, to learn new skills.

“I would say also to keep doing all of that will help you to keep perspective on where skating fits into your life. I think that it can be dangerous to allow skating to become everything in your life and to allow it to give yourself value,” he said.

“One thing that I always felt so lucky with going through my own career is that I had such a great team around me, my friends, family, coaches, choreographers. Skating was always important, but it was always the athlete and the person first. I think that makes a big difference that when you go out on the ice, you know that even if you have a bad skate, that everything's still going to be okay and it's not the end of the world.”

However, to study full-time while skating at the international level is not an easy task as both activities are very time consuming.

“You have to be very good with time management and very organized in order to do that,” Eric acknowledged.

“Maybe it isn't going to be possible right away, but it should definitely be something that you explore before the end of your career.”

He added that competing at a high level gives athletes the opportunity to make contacts that otherwise they might not be able to have.

For the Canadian Skater retiring was a conscious decision and it was not forced up on him because of an injury or the lack of the right partner.

“I could just feel inside that it was time to do something else. I could feel that fire that really pushes you every single day and pushes you through the really hard days just wasn't as strong as it once was. You get to a point where you're just like, you know what - I'm ready to try something else. I'm ready to invest my time and energy into something new,” Eric shared.

However, even if you feel the time is right, it is still a big step and a major change that some athletes shy away from. They do not know what is coming next and they feel reluctant to leave the life of competing behind.

“To be totally honest, I struggled with that, because you will most likely never find something that will be as exciting or feel as big as skating did,” Eric admitted.

Vanessa James and Eric Radford (CAN) compete during the 2021 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Grenoble (FRA).  @ISU

“That goes for every athlete. You don't realize it until you stop training. That to have a really specific goal to work towards every day is such an amazing thing to have. The majority of people don't ever get to experience what it's like to push yourself to the limit every day for this really big goal.

And you won't realize how amazing that was until it's over. Because when you're in the middle of it, it hurts and it's difficult, and it can be really challenging. But you'll look back on those really difficult training days or some of the best days, and I think that when the athlete finally does retire, and if they're feeling lost, the best thing to do is just draw upon your friends and your family and your peers and even your federations for a while.”

Radford pointed out another important aspect in the retirement process.

“It is important for athletes to give themselves time in the transition and to take some time for themselves to look back and appreciate everything that they accomplished, whether that was standing on top of a podium, whether that was making it to a national level competition,” he said.

Vanessa James Eric Radford (CAN) compete during the 2022 Olympic Winter Games Beijing (CHN). @GettyImages

“A lot of times, immediately after a competition, you don't take the time to really appreciate what you just accomplished, because usually you have another competition in a couple of weeks, and even if it was the World Championships, you have a couple of weeks off, and then you're preparing for next season. So you never really get that chunk of time to really appreciate what you accomplish. I think when it's all over, it's important to take that time then and to soak up that feeling and be really proud of yourself.”