Eric Radford, the openly gay Olympic figure skater who made some firsts this year in Pyeongchang, has announced his retirement from competition, along with his skating partner, Meagan Duhamel.
The pair lead a gold-medal performance by Canada in the team event, finishing first and second in the pairs team event competition. They followed that up with a bronze-medal performance in the pairs competition.
Yes, that’s four performances in one week. Pretty impressive.
They were also the first team ever to successfully execute a quad throw in the Olympics.
“We saved the best for last,” Radford said, according to LGBTQNation.
The duo have a gold, silver and bronze from two Olympics, seven national titles, and an incredible legacy.
Radford was, along with Adam Rippon, Gus Kenworthy and Jorik Hendrickx, one of four athletes to be the first publicly out gay Olympians to compete at an Olympic Games. He was also the first to win a gold medal.
Radford has one thing he’s most definitely looking forward to: getting married. He’s engaged to fellow figure skater Luis Fenero. He and Duhamel will also be skating exhibitions over the next few months.
But for now Radford and Duhamel get to bask in the glow of their incredible Olympic achievements. Add to that a couple World Championships, and you have quite a career.
For Radford, he has been able to offer hope to LGBTQ youth so often in need of good role models. That fact hasn’t been lost on this great Olympic champion.
