Virtue, Moir begin push for Olympic gold
REGINA — Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir sometimes marvel at the crowd they travel with these days.
While they are just two when they step on the ice, Canada’s ice dancers have constructed a formidable team of about a dozen sport specialists behind them they hope will help lift them to the top of the Olympic podium in Pyeongchang.
“Sometimes we joke because there are many people who walk behind us, but they’re part of this team because they’re there on the daily,” Moir said.
When the Olympic gold and silver medallists returned from a two-year hiatus last fall, they upended their training situation, moving from Canton, Michigan, to Montreal, where they assembled their squad, led by coaches Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer.
“A big reason for coming back was we wanted to do it differently,” said Moir. “We know what’s worked in the past, we want to see if we can do it even more efficiently.”
They’ve gone undefeated in their return, winning their third world title last spring. They’ll embark on what they’ve all but confirmed will be their final Olympic season today at Skate Canada International.
Standing at the boards during Thursday morning’s session, Virtue and Moir received some guidance from a familiar face — but it wasn’t Dubreuil or Lauzon. Their coaches had missed a connecting flight from Montreal, and so Brian Orser, the world and Olympic silver medallist who now coaches many of the world’s top singles skaters, stepped in.
“It was like we won a radio contest this morning, ‘Get coached by Brian Orser!’ ” Moir said, laughing. “When [Dubreuil and Lauzon] texted us to tell us they wouldn’t be here, we were like ‘Oh my god, that’s awesome, Brian Orser is going to be coaching us.’ I think they were a little bit insulted.”
Kidding aside, Virtue and Moir have found strength in numbers in Montreal. Their group, assembled partly with the help of the private business group B2Ten, includes sports psychologist Jean-Francois Menard and osteopath Dave Campbell, among others.
“Tessa and I love these . . . . we have little board meetings, where we get to run the show and kind of talk about what goes on for the next month, and if we accomplished our goals from the previous month,” Moir said. “There’s about 12 people who sit around the table, and that was a new experience for Tessa and I last year. And learning how to use that to our advantage was what last year was all about really.”
Menard usually travels with them, and the trio will chat on the bus to the rink.
“It’s a great time to work and kind of reflect,” said the 30-yearold Moir, from Ilderton, Ont. “And when we get in those high-pressure situations, we can talk about the Olympics, some things can be a heavier load on your shoulders than you anticipated, so having those check-in moments helped us last year.”