Eric Radford was born more than 27 hours by car from London.
His partner Meagan Duhamel was born about seven hours from London.
Yet London is going to seem like home for the Canadian pairs at the 2013 world figure skating championships.
Radford is from Balmertown, near Red Lake. He says it?s the furthest anyone can drive north in Ontario.
Duhamel is from Lively near Sudbury.
Both skaters are going to have an awful lot of family and friends joining them for the competition.
Despite the distance for Radford though, it may seem a little more like home to him.
Previous to these world championships, Radford has competed three times at the Gardens and in what was its prior incarnation as the John Labatt Centre. A large number of family and extended family live in London and will be present as will his parents from Red Lake.
?I have a lot of relatives who live in London,? he said. ?My grandparents, almost all of my aunts and uncles, cousins, almost all of my family live in London. This is where I used to come to summer school when I first started skating at the university. I skated in all the little communities of Ilderton, Lucan, Tillsonburg . . .?
Radford also knows the John Labatt Centre. He can tell you what?s on the inside of an elevator shaft.
?Yes, this is where I was stuck in the elevator,? Radford recalled. ?Paul Wirtz (his coach then) was with me. He was kind of like ?one day you are going to look back on this and it?s going to be the one thing you are always going to remember about these nationals.? Everybody else remembers it too.?
It was 2005 just before Radford had to skate in the men?s qualifying competition at the Canadian championships. His coach thought it would be a good idea for him to stretch in the relative privacy on the third floor.
As the order of competitors was being called, Radford headed down the elevator with his coach when it got stuck between the third and second floor.
?I remember hearing them announce the skater before me. You couldn?t open the door,? he said. ?They said ?it?s going to be 20 minutes before we can get anybody here.? What I am supposed to do? What are (organizers) going to do? I don?t know if it?s ever really happened before.?
As Radford was stuck in the elevator, organizers kept moving skaters up in the order.
?Eventually we managed to pry the door open,? he said. ?I had to jump down to the second floor, we were halfway between the third and second floor. I managed to get out at about the fourth skater, there were supposed to be six skaters, do a quick warm-up and then managed to get out and skate. I had a pretty decent skate if I remember.?
Radford could laugh about the story Monday but he was a little panicked back then.
?It was just like being in the twilight zone,? he said.
The experience didn?t sour Radford on the elevator.
?I was in there (Monday) actually. I took it to the top floor and was just looking around and wondering about when I was stuck in there,? he said.
Radford and Duhamel begin competition on Wednesday.
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Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/03/11/once-stuck-in-city-radford-right-at-home
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