Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White won a controversial decision to take the Olympic Ice Dancing Gold Medal over Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in Sochi. The two teams have been rivals and friends for several years, this is their story.
For those who only watch ice dancing during the Olympics, this has been one of the best “friendly” rivalries between any two teams we have seen in the sport, this is especially true in the last six seasons, (dating back to the 2009 season). However their stories start even earlier than that.
The Sochi Ice Dancing Duel – Eight Years in The Making
Both duos have been skating together for the last seventeen years, mostly under the radar. The Canadian team of Virtue and Moir, just missed out on making the Canadian Olympic team for Torino in 2006, as a last minute cut by Skate Canada.
The heartbroken duo almost wanted to give up, instead they came back even stronger. At the 2008 Figure Skating World Championships in Gottenberg they finally made their mark in the Ice Dancing World. Tessa and Scott were in third place after the Compulsory Program and Short Dance and as they went in to the final night of Free Dance, there were not many observers who had high expectations for the young couple (Tessa was just 18 years old at the time and Scott 20 years old).
They came out and skated their hearts out. Their lifts were superb, and were the types of lifts that were not typical for the Ice Dance discipline. They also showed an intimate emotional connection. There was a spark to the duo that made their skate more special and the intimacy was something that is rarely seen in in Ice Dance. They finished first in the free dance, and second overall in the competition, taking home the silver medal.
Charlie and Meryl also competed in this competition. They approached the competition with a slightly different style. They had good skating quality and edge work and coupled this with amazing spins and tricks…but there was something missing. The missing element was the dancing itself.
In 2009 Meryl and Charlie had their breakout with their Samson and Delilah routine. Their skating quality and connections were coming together but the routine was slightly sloppy. This kept them in fourth place most of the season. However this breakout showed that with even more practice they could end up being top contenders with the Canadian duo.
As the 2010 Olympics approached both teams improved and headed into Vancouver it was clear that these two couples were the top teams in ice dance. They had the speed and power that the older teams could not keep up with and both couples had worked on improving the elements they were lacking.
After the Compulsory Dance Virtue and Moir were in second place (behind the Russian team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin) while Davis and White were in third. Things were very close with just a little over two points separating first and third place… and only a little over a point separating the Americans from the Canadians.
At the original dance both teams were brilliant. Virtue and Moir ended up in first place with 68.41 points and Davis and White were in second with 67.08 and the Russian were now in third place. With the top three results so close, this became anyone’s competition.
The Free Dance followed and the Canadians blew the judges away with their program. As soon as their free skate was done everyone around the world knew who was going to take the gold medal. The Canadians became the first Ice Dancing team to win Gold on home soil and the first team to win Gold in their first Olympic Games. The Americans took the Silver and the Russians took the Bronze.
After the Olympics ended many changes were done to prepare for the duos for the 2014 Olympics. Meryl Davis and Charlie White got help from the International Skating Union (ISU) to rid the compulsory dance for the next Olympics.
By far this was a benefit for the American duo who struggle with the compulsory dance. For the Canadian duo this was a big disappointment since this dance was their strong suit. Never the less, what was done, was done.
In 2011 it was the Americans who stole the show for most of the season…mainly because their biggest competition rival were sidelined after Tessa Virtue needed surgery. This was her second surgery notable surgery (first in 2008) of her career, on her shins. She suffers from chronic exertional compartment sydrome… this is a disease that causes severe nerve pain and swelling that requires surgery if the athlete wants to return to the sport.
They tried competing in February (after taking most of the season off) but before the team dance…they had to withdraw from the competition. In a way their injury helped the Americans. The Americans were able to improve their skating style, cleaned up their sloppiness and worked on their connections and were able to take first place at several competitions.
When both duos were healthy again, the next three years were intense. The results were always close between the two of them. So that is why when the Sochi Olympics came these two couples were once again the ones to watch.
The individual short dance started where in their dance each dance team were required to perform a pattern of the Finn Step. The steps have to be the same for all the couples and they are marked on the fluidity, the deepness of the edges and how close they stay with their partner.
After the short dances Tessa and Scott sat in second place two points behind the Americans. Many fans believed that the Canadians over skated the Americans… it even caused a stir when the creators of the Finn Step revealed on twitter that they believed the Canadians performed it better than the Americans and they should have placed first place. The fact that the Canadians fell well below their season best, and the Americans set a new personal best score was curious. The scoring gap between the two teams was wider than it had ever been, and an earlier report that claimed the event was subject to vote swapping angered many Canadian fans.
The free dance was on Monday and after both couples performed flawless performances the Americans still came out on top with the Canadian duo in second place. The Americans would widen their lead setting a new world record in Free Dance score (and breaking the record the Canadians set earlier in the night).
For the future the Canadian team is expected to retire but nothing has been made official. The American team has made no announcements yet either but all the other teams know they have to step it up to finish on a top level like these two teams. Both teams changed the world of Ice Dance and it is exciting to see where this sport will be in a few years’ time.
As for Figure Skating judging and Ice dancing especially… they have to fix the way they score people so everyone can understand it. This sport is losing a lot of viewers because of the way the judging is and how nobody can understand it and believe that fixes may be in the works. Another controversy in the women’s singles event certainly didn’t help things.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @ddmatthews. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Interested in writing for LWOS? We are looking for enthusiastic, talented writers to join our Hockey writing team. Visit our “Write for Us” page for very easy details in how you can get started today!
