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Olympics Blog

Ice dance champs won’t defend title in L.A.

By Helene Elliott
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Figure skaters Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France, who won the ice dance world title last year, withdrew from this year’s championships, which begin March 22 at Staples Center.

Delobel hasn’t fully recovered right shoulder surgery she underwent in January. The duo said at a news conference in France that although they regret having to make the decision, they believe their preparation for next year’s Winter Olympics is better served by skipping this competition.

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To read the recount of their news conference in the French sports publication L’Equipe, click here. Thanks to my seventh grade French teacher (and five subsequent years of French classes) for teaching me about all those irregular verbs and helping me understand the L’Equipe story.

--Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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