Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the ice dance competition at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, giving the country its first gold medal in the event.The couple captured the gold with a stirring free dance performance to Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 5" at the Vancouver Winter Games on Monday.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., edged American training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White and reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia.
Virtue, 20, and Moir, 22, skating to “Symphony No. 5” by Gustav Mahler, finished with a combined score of 221.57, including a score of 110.42 in the free-dance portion.
It's the first figure skating medal for Canada at the Vancouver Games and first Olympic gold since Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared the pairs title eight years ago in Salt Lake City.
“It’s everything we ever wanted; it’s everything we ever dreamed of,” Moir said, before receiving his gold medal in front of a cheering crowd waving red and white Canadian flags at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. “We couldn’t be happier.”
Virtue and Moir, who have been skating together for 13 years and won bronze at last year's world championships, are fortunate to blaze an Olympic ice dance trail that other skaters before them found blocked.
In a discipline long fraught with controversy and marred by corrupt judging, Canada had won just one ice dance medal since the sport was added to the Olympic program in 1976 - bronze by Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall in 1988 in Calgary.
Almost two hours after the competition ended and the crowd of 11,667 had left, Moir walked back on the ice wearing his Canadian team uniform, with the gold medal around his neck. He knelt down and kissed the Olympic rings painted on the middle of the ice, and then climbed into the seats and posed for pictures with security and cleaning staff.
U.S. skaters Meryl Davis, 23, and Charlie White, 22, won the silver medal with a score of 215.74. Oksana Domnina, 25, and Maxim Shabalin, 28, of Russia took the bronze.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., edged American training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White and reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia.
Virtue, 20, and Moir, 22, skating to “Symphony No. 5” by Gustav Mahler, finished with a combined score of 221.57, including a score of 110.42 in the free-dance portion.
It's the first figure skating medal for Canada at the Vancouver Games and first Olympic gold since Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared the pairs title eight years ago in Salt Lake City.
“It’s everything we ever wanted; it’s everything we ever dreamed of,” Moir said, before receiving his gold medal in front of a cheering crowd waving red and white Canadian flags at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. “We couldn’t be happier.”
Virtue and Moir, who have been skating together for 13 years and won bronze at last year's world championships, are fortunate to blaze an Olympic ice dance trail that other skaters before them found blocked.
In a discipline long fraught with controversy and marred by corrupt judging, Canada had won just one ice dance medal since the sport was added to the Olympic program in 1976 - bronze by Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall in 1988 in Calgary.
Almost two hours after the competition ended and the crowd of 11,667 had left, Moir walked back on the ice wearing his Canadian team uniform, with the gold medal around his neck. He knelt down and kissed the Olympic rings painted on the middle of the ice, and then climbed into the seats and posed for pictures with security and cleaning staff.
U.S. skaters Meryl Davis, 23, and Charlie White, 22, won the silver medal with a score of 215.74. Oksana Domnina, 25, and Maxim Shabalin, 28, of Russia took the bronze.
They skated beautifully no question. But since I've fallen in love with the Canadian national anthem, I've watched over and over the Virtue/Moir medals ceremony. He looks brilliant, passionate moved.
She, on the other hand, can NOT stop fidgeting with her mouth. Even in the coverage backstage, she keeps picking at something in her teeth. What is it? Why? doesn't she know she's on an international stage?
What was up with her teeth picking? Anyone?
I know, it's minutia - beautiful and poised in every other way. But when people asked about Apolo Ohno's yawning, his answer was very interesting.