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Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir win Grand Prix silver setting up epic Olympic figure skating showdown
If you're a figure skating fan, mark Feb. 16 on your calendar. In fact, even if you equate the sequins-and-feathers set with Vegas floor shows you should take note of that date.
That's when the Olympic ice dancing figure skating competition begins in Sochi, Russia, and if Saturday's Grand Prix event in Japan was any indication it may be the greatest skating battle in that discipline's history. Heck, it could be one of all-time great battles in any sport.
Saturday's competition saw the Canadian due of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir perform an the skate of their lives in the free dance to set a Grand Prix final record. The crowd in Fukuoka had barely settled down from applauding the Canadian performance when the reigning world champion duo of Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White registered an even higher score to claim the title.
The two scores were the highest in the event's history as the competition lived up to the pre-event buzz. This was the first skate-to-skate meeting between the world's best duos this season.
Davis and White earned 191.35 points while Virtue and Moir finished the width of a skate blade behind at 190.00. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third at 169.11.
“We had a great skate,” said Moir, of Ilderton, Ont. “We’ve been training so well and working so hard all season. We did our technical elements really well at this event. We’ll need to come out with more speed and more emotion heading into the Games and hopefully that can put us on top.”
Virtue said the performance gives them a lot of confidence that they can repeat as Olympic champions at Sochi.
“We’re right on track," the London, Ont., native told reporters. ``Our approaches are bang on. It’s a process, we still have two more months to train before the Games and we need to trust that process that it will get us where we need to go.”
The loss certainly will give the Canadians incentive, though they hardly need any more heading into the Olympics. The Americans have won gold five times at the Grand Prix final while Virtue and Moir have never worn gold at the International Skating Union's marquee event.
The Americans will certainly have a world of confidence heading into Sochi as they attempt to unseat the duo that relegated them to silver in Vancouver four years ago. The win was their 15th straight Grand Prix victory, a record and a streak that dates back to 2008.
“We’re going to work harder than ever,” Davis said. “We’re really excited … the Olympics is the pinnacle of sport and we want to put our best skates forward.”
It was a good day for Canadians, with Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., placing fifth overall.
Canadians did well in pairs even though no medals will be making their way through Canadian customs. Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., placed fifth while Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto finished sixth.
