The Tamesis
A week before Papadakis’ book was published, Cizeron issued a cease-and-desist order accusing her of leading a smear campaign. “I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the label that has been placed on me,” Cizeron told the outlet in January. “These accusations come at a particularly sensitive time…thus raising questions about the underlying intentions behind this campaign. I also want to condemn the content of the book, which contains false information that, among other things, attributes to me what I consider to be serious statements that I have never made.” (As of the date of publication, Cizeron had not responded to a request for comment.)
“I wrote a book to retell my story, but it was hijacked by people who were trying to silence me,” Papadakis said. “At first, it made me laugh because that’s what my book is about.”
Papadakis was raised by her mother, a French skating coach, but when she was with her father, he filled his daughter’s world with Greek mythology to try to compensate for the fact that she couldn’t speak his native language. “I don’t remember how the stories were written, but I remember they were like landscapes from a parallel world,” she said. These stories become “part of the present” [her] Subliminal landscape. “In the dream, her father became Zeus and she became Athena, and in real life she carried the goddess. “Whenever I go through something difficult, I imagine this is a mission Zeus has given me to fulfill,” Papadakis says. Today, she attributes her resilience to that framework, and the stories help her feel less alone. “I always say, if you think you have a unique experience, you haven’t read enough books,” she says.
Last year, Papadakis took on a new role at the skating competition: NBC’s official ice dance commentator. She has covered the past two U.S. National Figure Skating Championships and covered events in China and Japan last fall. (That includes the Grand Prix final in Nagoya, where Fournier Beaudry competed with Cizeron and finished second.) At the Cortina Games in Milan, she will provide ice dance insights alongside Johnny Weir.
But after Cizeron called it quits, NBC removed Papadakis as a commentator. “They think my neutrality has been compromised and I cannot comment on the Olympics,” Papadakis told a French newspaper. L’Equipe.
Now, Papadakis is in London and considering a permanent move from Montreal. Many of her books have seen action; during our call, she pointed out the text messages she herself had written that have accompanied her: age of water Author: Lydia Yuknavitch, between the world and me Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Annie Ernaux’s book, and Audre Lorde’s article “The Transformation of Silence into Words and Actions.” “It’s like my bible,” Papadakis said. “To be honest, I read it almost every day.”
She took a book from the shelf, Chanel Miller’s know my namelooking for the exact passage that struck her. Instead, she paraphrased Miller’s statement. “She said, you know, I’ve always dreamed of writing, but I hope it’s about something else. I hope it’s not such a dark and sad story, but you don’t really get to decide what you write. That’s what God decides for you or whatever.”
