Canadian Virtue and Moir won Olympic Games · 2011-02-23 13:05
Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold medal at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. They received 110.42 points for their effort, more than 6 points better than their season's best. Their final score was 221.57.
"We're so well trained," Moir said. "We were so ready. But to go out there and actually do it feels amazing."
Coming into this event, Russians or Soviets had won all but two Olympic gold medals in this sport since its Winter Games debut in 1976. But on Monday, the North Americans took over.
The American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who are close friends with Virtue and Moir, won the silver, with 107.19 points in the free dance. Their final score was 215.74 points over all.
"There is so much to be proud of right now," Davis said.
Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the reigning world champions from Russia, had won the compulsory dance, but could only eke out the bronze in the end. With 101.04 points in the free dance, they had 207.64 points over all, New York Times reports.
Their finish put the Russians one step closer to leaving these Olympics without a gold medal in figure skating. The last time that happened was 50 years ago.
"I think we have to take all the Russian coaches back to Russia," Shabalin said, jokingly, referring to Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva, who coach Virtue and Moir, as well as Davis and White in suburban Detroit.
Finishing just out of the medals, in fourth, were Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the five-time United States national champions and silver medalists at the 2009 world championship. They scored 203.07.
"This is possibly our last competition, and that was the performance we had hoped for," Belbin said.
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