Born to a French mother and Canadian father, Paul Duchesnay and his sister Isabelle had dual French-Canadian citizenship and competed for Canada until 1985. They would become one of the most innovative ice dance couples ever in international figure skating. Starting in pairs skating, they placed second at the 1982 Canadian Junior Nationals, but after Isabelle suffered a serious accident and hit her head on the ice, they switched to ice dancing. After a third-place finish at the Canadian Nationals in 1985, and angry at the policies of the Canadian Figure Skating Association, they began to compete for France from 1986. They were four-time French champions, winning the title in 1986-87 and 1990-91, but their biggest victory came in winning the 1991 World Championships, which followed a silver in that event in 1990 and a bronze in 1989. The Duchesnay’s also won Skate America in the 1986-87 season. They were three-time medalists at the European Championships, winning bronze in 1988 and 1990 and a silver in 1991.
The Duchesnays choreographer was Christopher Dean, the 1984 Olympic ice dancing gold medalist, and he and Isabelle would marry, but would later divorce. Their best known free dance performance was set to jungle drums and was initially quite controversial to the staid international skating judges. After the 1992 Winter Olympics the Duchesnays turned professional and skated in ice shows through 1996 when Paul was seriously injured in a rollerblading accident and they retired from professional skating. Paul then became a skating coach in the United States.
France