VIRTUE AND MOIR’S ARTISTRY HASN’T LOST A STROKE
The ice dance world has been put on notice: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are saving the best for last, if indeed this is their swan song.
The defending world champs were the class of Skate Canada International again during Saturday’s free skate at Brandt Centre, twizzling, lifting, stepping, spinning and emoting their way through a sensual, dramatic and athletic Moulin Rouge program to emerge with a win and world-record overall score of 199.86.
It was their second consecutive win at Skate Canada International and seventh in their impressive career.
Though they think that world record number will fall later this season, perhaps more than once, it’s early encouragement from judges that all their work has been on point.
“It’s a nice confidence boost,” Virtue said. “I think if anything it’s validation that we’re on the right track, which any athlete loves any time.”
It set them more than nine points free of Canadian teammates Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in second spot at 190.01 with Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue in third at 189.43.
Their four-minute free dance is a feast for the senses and though the connection between Virtue and Moir is obviously rehearsed for months on end, it’s genuine. It’s clear they love skating together and they’re all in on the substance and emotion of this free skate, as well as the journey to a third and likely final Olympics.
At this moment, they appear to have separated themselves from the field with a blend of risky lifts, intricate footwork and speed. That doesn’t happen by mistake. They have built a support team of expert service providers and coaches in Montreal and they have added their considerable work product to that ambitious enterprise.
And really, they have grown as athletes and people during their 20-year on-ice relationship, so a finely honed program should be the norm by now.
“We’ve worked for this feeling,” said Virtue. “This is why we put in all the hours and built the team we have around us and why we’ve set ourselves up to take the ice with this sort of confidence.”
They will go to the PyeongChang Olympics with the same frame of mind, backed by gold from Vancouver in 2010 and silver at Sochi in 2014 and freed by the notion they came out of retirement to do this all over again purely for themselves. It’s personal.
“We love going into the rink every day,” Moir said. “We came back, we didn’t have to, it was for us. And I think there is power to that. We’re doing this because we love figure skating, because we love ice dancing with each other. It’s a crazy thing to say, but that’s why.”
Their victory was one of three gold medals for Canada as Kaetlyn Osmond won the women’s singles title and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford climbed from second after the short program to win the pairs.
Duhamel and Radford landed their huge throw quadruple Salchow on the way to 222.22 total points. Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot won silver (215.66), while Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France captured bronze (214.37).
Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., won back-to-back world titles in 2015 and ’16, but are coming off a rocky season that saw them place third at the Grand Prix Final and then seventh — Radford was skating with a herniated disc in his back — at the worlds last spring.
The 21-year-old Osmond, meanwhile, stumbled out of a triple toe loop then fell on a double Axel late in the program, but scored 212.91 for the victory.
“It’s a great starting point. Score-wise I’m where I was at the Grand Prix Final last (December), so I’m a couple of months ahead this year and hopefully it will keep growing,” said Osmond, who took a huge seven-point lead into the free skate.
Russia’s Maria Sotskova scored 192.52 for second, while American Ashley Wagner, who was seventh after the short program, climbed up to bronze with
183.94.
Canada’s three-time world champ Patrick Chan had a disastrous night, falling from second place to finish fourth.
The 26-year-old Chan fell on his opening quad jump and his program unravelled from there. He downgraded four jumps and touched a hand down on two, en route to finishing with 245.70 points.
“It’s important to realize that I’ve never had a skate like that in a big event,” Chan said. “I think it’s part of the process and having ownership of your career and being successful; you’ve got to have days like this.
“Yeah it sucks, but I’ve had the great highs, too.”
Japan’s Shoma Uno won gold with 301.10, while American Jason Brown was second with 261.14, and Russia’s Alexander Samarin won bronze with 250.06.