Her body shattered from the demands of her sport, Deanna Stellato-Dudek retired from figure skating in 2001, but incredibly 23 years later she has completed a remarkable come back to claim World Figure Skating championship gold, at the age of 40.

She suffered a spate of injuries including a broken left ankle, a torn ligament in her right ankle and a significant hip trauma. At just seventeen she walked away and pursued a totally different career.

Sixteen years on, she found the lure was too great, and after a bit of a search that eventually took her to Canada, she found a willing partner in Maxime Deschamps, eight years her junior and together they have seen off skaters less than half her age to claim the world pairs crown.

The duo delivered a chilling performance in Montreal to win what was the biggest title of both of their careers, prompting Ms Stellato-Dudek to declare “’Forty is the new twenty”.

She said she hopes the historic victory inspires everyone, even non-skaters, who might think it’s too late to pursue and achieve their goals when actually, it is never too late.

Her next major goal is to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, when she will be 42, with opportunities to smash even more records.

Before that she has to earn Canadian citizenship so she can compete with her partner and judging by the reaction the home crowd gave her when winning the world title, very few in the country will object.

Injuries force early retirement

Figure skating is an incredibly demanding sport and not one that many continue with much beyond the mid-twenties. It requires skill, strength and dedication and is also very dangerous.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek discovered all this following a successful junior career as a singles skater. She won the the 1999-2000 international Grand Prix Final and captured the silver medal at the 2000 World Junior Championships, but she was plagued with injuries and walked away from the sport she loved and for the next sixteen years lived a relatively normal existence out of the spotlight.

Nagging doubts

She got married and became a licensed aesthetician, working as the director of aesthetics at the Geldner Center in Chicago, in her home state of Illinois. She had been born in Park Ridge in 1983 and that part of the country was home.

Nevertheless, there remained at the back of her mind, a nagging feeling that maybe she gave up on the sport a little too early. A voice kept telling her she had more to accomplish.

Pairs the way forward

She knew singles would not be an option, so she focused on pairs skating and returned to the ice once more. In pairs, the demands and skill-set requirements on the female athlete are very different than in singles.

They need the strength to stabilize themselves high in the air and enough control to land powerful throw triple jumps on a narrow blade of steel. Failure to do either can end in disaster.

Next stop Canada

Finding the perfect partner was not easy, but Canadian Maxime Deschamps proved an inspired choice. The Quebec native had also had a successful junior career, but had his personal challenges, including living with ADHD.

Not one to do anything by halves, Ms Stellato-Dudek uprooted her life in Chicago and moved to Montreal to skate with her new partner.

Pride in her achievement

Now several years later the gamble has paid off big style, as they celebrated becoming the unlikely world champions at the ages of 40 and 32, with their competition more than half her age in most cases.

When they completed their final routine, she was heard to yell out “Oh my God!” as she looked incredulously at him, seemingly shocked at their accomplishment.

Shortly afterwards their win was confirmed and they were presented with their gold medals, and speaking later she talked of a wish that her success might transcend into other areas, not just sports but other professional careers.

She remarked: “Being the oldest female world champion was not something that I ever set out to do when I came back to skating, but equally I knew that if I were to accomplish my dreams it would inevitably occur because I’m the oldest everywhere, which is something I carry with pride.”

Olympics is the goal

She was asked what her teenaged self would think about winning a first world title at the age of 40, and she added some humour by declaring: “She would say, ‘Why did you stop?’”

Next stop is the 2026 Olympics, although that necessitates overcoming another obstacle of gaining citizenship; although in her own words, she has probably made herself “more attractive” to Canada with this victory, before adding; “My goal was always 2026, if my body can last that long!”