Virtue, Moir hope changes lead to gold

VANCOUVER — Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir came out of retirement with one goal in mind. They envision standing on the Olympic medal podium when the curtain comes down on their competitive career. Only the top step will do.

So when they lost for the first time in more than a year at the Grand Prix Final in December, the veteran ice dancers headed back to the drawing board.

Virtue and Moir will unveil revamped programs, particularly their free dance to Moulin Rouge, at this week’s Canadian figure skating championships in Vancouver, a bold move they believe will help propel them to gold.

“We don’t plan on coming second at the Olympics like we did at Grand Prix finals,” Moir said. “We’re excited to showcase a lot of new elements for us. A couple of big changes that we’re really excited about. We’ve worked quite hard in December.”

The 28-year-old Virtue and Moir, 30, captured gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but were beaten by American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White four years later in Sochi.

Two years into a trial retirement, they decided to launch a comeback, and roared to a spectacular unbeaten streak that included world championship gold and a string of world record scores. But they lost to Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron at last month’s Grand Prix Final by less than three points.

The most significant change comes in their free dance, which opens to Roxanne and ends with the dreamy Come What May, sung by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

They’ve made some edits to the music, to emphasize “the duet and the love story, culminating in a bigger, more theatrical ending,” Virtue said.

“Having trained and performed this program so many times, it’s ingrained in our bodies and we’re so committed to this storyline, and we love it, but bringing in some fresh movement, it feels like the programs are reborn. And we are thrilled with the direction it’s taken. I think it will be hopefully more appealing to the masses.”

“It was time to let it build and really have that Olympic feeling at the end.”