Olympic darlings
It was a fairy-tale ending to a fairy-tale Olympic career. On Tuesday, in Pyeongchang, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the reigning queen and king of Canadian ice dancing, turned in their last Olympic skate: an electrifying, history-making performance that earned them another gold medal and sent them out on a soaring high.
With five medals — another gold from the team event this year, a gold in 2010, and two silvers in 2014 — Virtue and Moir are now the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history.
Their long program, a sexy routine set to a medley from Moulin Rouge, was fire on ice. It was a display of power and athleticism, of grace and excellence, but also of quiet intimacy; ice dancers aren’t just athletes, after all. They are storytellers.
And then, of course, there was the thrill of good old-fashioned Olympic competition. Just before Virtue and Moir took the ice, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France broke their own ice dancing world record, with a combined score of 205.58 and an ethereal long program that couldn’t have been more opposite in tone and style from the Canadians. Virtue and Moir skated last, adding to the anticipatory drama and narrowly knocked the French team off the top spot on the podium with a score of 206.07, a difference of 0.49 of a point. That’s just good Olympics.
Virtue and Moir’s undeniable on-ice chemistry captured many spectators’ hearts, and also their imaginations.
The provocative lift seen ‘round the world — you know the one — reignited speculation about whether the pair are in a romantic relationship and, by Tuesday morning, their relationship had become the “are-they-or-aren’t-they?” story of the Olympics. People were positively breathless on social media. Tellingly, the Google autofill for “Tessa and Scott” is “dating” not “skating.” Everyone loves a love story.
They’ve always said that their relationship is “unique” and that they only “dated” once, when Scott was 10 and Tessa was eight. (That’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s plenty of Tessa/Scott fan fiction on the internet to scratch that itch, should you desire.)
But setting romance rumours aside, Virtue and Moir have had a storied career worth celebrating. Their relationship is unique. They’ve skated together for two decades and, in that time, have grown up together.
Their performances are technically excellent, but they have a je ne sais quois that makes them captivating to watch. They make it easy for Canadians to claim them; they represent Canada on the world stage with charisma, and their dedication and passion — to their sport and to each other as teammates — is inspiring. Theirs is a love story of a different kind.
Of course, Virtue and Moir are not Canada’s only ice dancers, even though it feels like it right now. Canada had three pairs compete this year, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier — another deeply entertaining couple with a flair for the dramatic — and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje also represented Canada well in Pyeongchang, even if they didn’t medal. It will be exciting to see what happens in 2022.
Virtue and Moir are a tough act to follow, but the future of Canadian ice dancing burns bright.