Isabelle Duchesnay (born December 18, 1963, in Aylmer, Quebec, Canada) is a retired ice dancer who represented France for most of her career.

[3] Kestnbaum states that although the Duchesnays were not expected to win a gold medal at the Olympics so early in their career, their "novelty and the originality of their style made an impression".

[5] Kestnbaum goes on to state, "All markers of difference seem to have been suppressed in service of the mirror image theme; the skaters' bodies are gendered as neutral".

[5] Additionally, the Duchesnays' choice of trousers for both skaters pushed the gender neutrality depicted in the program towards maleness because female skaters did not typically wear trousers; Kestnbaum stated that it depicted Isabelle Duchesnay as "cross-dressed on the ice", which Kestnbaum called an "instant of transvestitism" that "profoundly disturbed the skating world, so accustomed to perceiving male/female differences as a given".

The gender dynamics in their programs, due to their status as siblings, also resisted the "traditional clichés" of the sport.

[4] According to Kestnbaum, their program's innovative symbols and movements were necessary because "if they fully enacted the erotic narratives of either ballroom or classical dance, they might raise the specter of incest".

[9] As the reigning world champions, Duchesnays were favoured to win gold at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, in their adopted home country.

Isabelle Duchesnay wears a diagonally cut purple dress, but her version of Maria seemed to be an active member of the Sharks, the street gang in West Side Story, unlike the character depicted in the original musical and film.

[9] The Duchesnays then retired from amateur competition and competed professionally until Paul suffered a serious rollerblading accident in 1996.