The perfect finale
Their final, golden ice dance at the Gangneung Ice Arena was the stuff of legend. Now Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skate off into the sunset with a legacy most other figure skaters can only dream of
GANGNEUNG — They came back for the perfect ending.
But in sport as in life, those exits don’t just happen, even to once-in-a-generation talents like theirs, especially in a discipline so vulnerable to the vagaries of judging allegiances.
So, left wanting something more after silver in Sochi, and after a needed respite from the mental and physical grind of training and competition, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir set up shop in Montreal and built an ice-dance machine that would not fail them.
It was so thoughtfully constructed, its expert personnel hand-picked, its support systems and redundancies rock-solid. All they had to do was skate, which is what they still love to do together after a 20-year partnership. And, quite frankly, there is nobody in the world who does it better, with more innovation, athleticism and technical brilliance.
The Olympic gold medals they won on Tuesday are emphatic symbols of their dominance here, but more significantly of their relentless pursuit of perfection.
For a year now, Moir has told anybody who would listen that they had to be perfect to win their second Olympic gold. He knew how the judges were stacking this up, how the point differential between them and the French couple of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, their training partners, was going to be razor thin. He got all that right.
Virtue and Moir led the French by 1.74 points after the short program.
And on Tuesday, skating before Virtue and Moir hit the ice, Papadakis and Cizeron set a new world record of 123.35 in the free skate, another of 205.28 in the overall score. The stage looked set for a French victory, and the air was rife with hints of judging hijinx.
But Moir and Virtue snatched their fates from the judges’ hands and ensured the gold medals would be theirs by the end of the night. Their Moulin Rouge free dance seemed more powerful and more athletic than a lowkey, classical and technically proficient French performance, but they finished a tick behind at 122.40. It was still enough to push Virtue and Moir to 206.07, to the top step, the perfect ending.
“I don’t think perfection really exists, to be honest,” Moir said. “But we both said (afterward) that we wouldn’t want to go out and bet against that performance, if we had to go do it again. That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we can be proud of with all four skates. It’s not a surprise.
“But on this stage, when the lights are so bright, and you want it so bad, the tendency is that the surprises come out of nowhere. So we just made sure we were focused and believed in it, and sport sometimes throws you a couple of curveballs, and we were able to control a couple of little things in the programs, but that’s what we do every day.
“So I think perfection? No, I don’t think so. But they were fantastic, they were excellent skates. And we are so proud of each and every moment we spent on the ice, and mostly because we were present.”
You don’t come back to have an average time. To miss anything. To have a forgettable Olympics. To blow the ending. They had the best time, they carried the flag into Pyeongchang, they helped carry the Canadians to figure skating team event gold, they had the best two-dance total. They had the moment they saw in their minds and built with their team, and are the most decorated skaters of any country in history with five Olympic medals.
But they still weren’t sure they had beaten the French team, until the numbers finally flashed on the screen.
“We were holding our breath, obviously, in the kiss and cry because we know what fantastic skaters they are, we know that they’re going to post a world record. We thought that was a good enough skate to win us an Olympic title but you never know in this sport, you never know.”
Judges. Phew. Especially after the French had a fashion faux pas in the short program and had to hang on for dear life, and still finished just 1.74 points in arrears.
“I did have a similar thought to that yesterday because it was tight and we felt like we kind of blew the roof off the arena yesterday. But that’s the scoring system.”
And the French are great skaters. The records prove that too.
“We put a lot of work into it and it was a very great pleasure to be able to deliver two very great performances,” said Papadakis.
“Today we did something that we barely think we could do. We never skated that way before. To do that in our first Olympics is something we’re very proud of.”
The discipline is theirs now; they will win the worlds, there are Olympic golds in their future. Virtue and Moir will eventually announce their retirements and step aside. They saved their best for last and their coaches were beaming.
“They skated the best they’ve ever skated in four events here, four times,” said Marie-France Dubreuil. “And I think a whole generation of skaters will be influenced by them and will be inspired by them. We’re really grateful we had that journey with them.”
Who knows where Canada goes from here? The ice dancers will be joined by Patrick Chan and the pairs team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford on the show circuit. Happy retirees all of them.
They took the torch and somebody will have to carry the momentum forward, to ensure Canada keeps on winning Olympic figure skating medals.
“We stand on the shoulders of giants,” Moir said. “I mean, we have that history in Canada. We’re a skating country. I was pretty honest with you guys before the team event (win). That’s where Canada deserves to be. I think what our generation hopefully is doing is not believing in that so-called bad luck that Canada has in figure skating at the Olympics. We’re moving past that.”
They are moving away from it. They don’t have to care about scores and judges. Their tomorrows are full of possibility, their 20-year partnership transitioning into a new phase, away from three Olympic medals, three world titles, eight national titles, and on to something else.
“I think for our own partnership, what we can really agree on is how fortunate we were to have each other this year,” said Moir. “When I watch the singles skaters go out there by themselves, it’s terrifying, because we rely on each other for so much in our lives. We moved away together at a young age to chase what should have been a crazy dream to our parents at that time.
“Obviously that pays off because we know each other pretty well. Also I think that’s the reason why we came back. I wouldn’t even think about skating with somebody else. The whole reason I wanted to come back to skating was to be close to Tessa again and to share those moments. We are very proud of our business relationship and it’s been very, very special for 20 years.”
We stand on the shoulders of giants. I mean, we have that history in Canada. We’re a skating country. I was pretty honest with you guys before the team event (win). That’s where Canada deserves to be. I think what our generation hopefully is doing is not believing in that so-called bad luck that Canada has in figure skating at the Olympics. We’re moving past that.
Scott Moir