Two-time Canadian figure skating champion Cynthia Phaneuf is stepping away from the ice.
The 24-year-old from Sorel-Tracy, Que., announced her retirement on Wednesday, which came after a roller-coaster 2011-12 season nagged by lingering back pain and a coaching change.
Phaneuf, the Canadian champion in 2004 and 2011, was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her back over the summer.
"People think it was because of my injury, but actually it's not," she said as friends, family and Skate Canada officials gathered for her announcement. "It's more about where I am in my life now."
She plans to move to Philadelphia, where her boyfriend Max Talbot plays hockey for the Flyers, to work at former Canadian skater Isabelle Brasseur's figure skating school.
