Maxim Shabalin got one thing right. Answering a question as to what Russia has to do to get back on top, he said, "They should round-up all the Russian coaches teaching in Canada and the US and send them back home." Since ice dance became an Olympic sport in 1976, Soviet and then Russian ice dancers won every gold but two leading up to Vancouver. The exceptions were Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Britons who won with Bolero in 1984, and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who won for France in the tainted Olympics of 2002. There was a Russian connection because Anissina was born in and competed for Russia until she teamed up with Peizerat. The top four couples are all trained by coaches who were born, learned to skate and competed in the Soviet Union. Gold and silver were won by skaters representing different countries but trained by the same teaching team of Marina Zueva, who came to Canada in 1991 and became a Canadian in 1995, and Igor Shpilband who defected to the US before the Soviet Union broke up and masterminded the US advance in ice dance. Zueva joined him first at the Detroit Skating Club and then at the Arctic Edge FSC rink in Canton. Zueva skated with Andrei Vitman. Their best placing was fifth in Worlds in Tokyo in 1977. Shpilband also changed his nationality, becoming an American as soon as he could. Third and fourth places were won by pupils of Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, the 1980 Olympic gold medalists who came to the United States in the 1990s and now are based in the four-rink facility in Aston, PA.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are the youngest ever Olympic ice dance gold medalists and the only ones not to have won a World Championship before gaining Olympic laurels. They received the silver in the 2008 Worlds and bronze in 2009 after her extensive surgery lost them much practice that season. Their debut at Worlds was made only in 2007 when they were sixth. Canada’s only other Olympic ice dance medal was won by Tracy Wilson and the late Rob McCall, who earned bronze in 1988. Wilson, who is in Vancouver commentating for NBC, said, "I was a little bit concerned coming in that Canadian ice dancers were getting very unlucky." Wilson remembers Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz in 2002 at Salt Lake City, messing up in the final moments of their free dance and failing to make the podium. Wilson felt they could have won a medal. Then there was the very bad fall that Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon had in a rotational lift in the original dance at the Turin Olympics four years ago. Dubreuil had to be carried off the ice and they were forced to withdraw. And, with Virtue’s surgery on both shins in 2008, even Virtue admitted, "It’s been quite a journey, a bit rocky. Almost every athlete sacrifices a lot, whether it be moving away from home, or missing out on school or normal activities. But our last season was especially difficult with my injury. There were times when I thought I wouldn’t get back on track. So it’s fun to be able to skate again without pain. It makes this victory even sweeter." One of their immediate assignments was posing for the cover of Maclean’s magazine, Canada’s version of Time. "The last 12 hours have been so crazy," said the bleary-eyed Moir, whose schedule suddenly became so over-crowded, it did not include any time-out, not even for sleep. They gave credit to their rink mates, Davis and White. "We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Meryl and Charlie. There is a fine balance. We don’t intrude on their practices and they don’t on ours. We’re friends off the ice but as soon as we get on the ice we know we have a job to do. They keep us on our toes." Zueva said there is no conflict in the teaching schedule. "I love both couples. When I’m watching Meryl and Charlie, they touch my soul. When I’m watching Tessa and Scott, I forget about the stopwatch and timing the lifts. I’m just melting. They are so different in their characters, their temperament, their physical and artistic abilities."

1.TS 221.57; 1.FD 110.42 (53.10+57.32) The world has its new Torvill and Dean. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir gave a sensational showing to become the first Canadians ever to win an Olympic gold medal. "That’s a very flattering comparison," said Virtue, "but I don’t think we have that kind of resume yet." None of the 23 couples in the Free Dance received more than Level 3 for their two step sequences, but both gold and silver medalists were awarded the maximum Level 4 for the other five elements from the Technical panel, which included past British champion, Marika Humphreys-Baranova. The entire panel of nine judges awarded Virtue and Moir +3, the maximum Grade of Execution for all their lifts. No one has ever got all +3s before for an element. Out of a possible 63 marks (9 judges giving one GoE for each of the 7 elements), Virtue and Moir earned 43 +3s, 19 +2s and a solitary +1 on their circular steps.

Their routine was set to Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony which may never have been used before for ice dance. Moir explained, "We were sure we’d hate the music when Marina suggested it. She played it for us in her car. But when we heard it, we loved it." However, the music, and the introverted nature of Virtue and Moir’s routine was both its strength and its Archilles’ heel. The relationship between the audience and the skaters was intimate. While Meryl Davis and Charlie White’s athleticism jumped out of the television set, Virtue and Moir’s four minutes grows on the viewer, with repeated viewing. Virtue wore a simple, tasteful classic white dress with a few silver additions. He wore a plain white top and black trousers. They skated like a couple, although they are not romantically involved. They seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they were being watched by anyone, let alone the world. They appeared to be dancing for their own enjoyment. At the end, they do their "Goose" lift in which she puts her blade at the top of his leg while he is crouched down, and then kneels on this back, putting most of her weight there. Then she jumps off into a dive and he catches her. The crowd, of course, went wild, chanting "Canada" over and over again. Her jaw dropped when their score went up and Moir jumped to his feet, screaming. Zueva said that her heart belongs to Canada and that comes out in her passion for Virtue and Moir’s development. "In my hands are diamonds, Canadian diamonds, and in Vancouver they were presented with all their assets sparkling for the world to see."

Their main rivals, Davis and White, had skated first in their warm-up group and Davis and White were third on. So they were pretty certain they had won. Virtue said, "We were more relaxed than I thought we’d be, especially in our first Olympics and in our own country. But we put a bubble around us and that seems to work." On the rostrum he was so excited he kept bobbing around and when they did a victory lap around the rink, he lost some of his flowers from the bouquets because he was waving them around too excitedly. Moir, who is a joker, said, "I’ll probably wear it in the shower. I’m not going to take it off all week." Afterwards, he had to wait around because Virtue had to go through the doping procedure. He decided he’d go back on the ice and kiss it. The day after he’d won he revealed, "I always wanted to kiss the Olympic rings. I just felt like I owed something to that rink. I got down on my knees and thanked whatever powers were in that rink that had given us such strong performances. I think I actually French-kissed the ice.’’ It’s amazing he didn’t get his tongue stuck! Scott said, "I love this new system. It has given our sport credibility. You get rewarded for exactly what you do, and, if you don’t like the marks, you can see where you didn’t get the score you wanted, and you can go home and improve that element or aspect. We were so well trained. We were so ready. But to go out there and actually do it, - it feels amazing."

He started as a hockey-crazy boy. His aunt, Carol Moir, teaches figure skating. She convinced him he had to do power skating on figure skates to hone his hockey skills. "All I wanted to do, when I was on figure skates, was tear around the rink, trying not to let the toe picks mess me up." His aunt teamed him up with Virtue when he was 9 and she 7 because she thought if they could win some medals in a few small competitions, it might make him a bit more interested in figure skating. Virtue revealed she had a crush on him. "Actually, all the girls at the rink had a crush on him, but he didn’t notice us." When she talked about the crush, Moir joked, "Well, THAT’S certainly not true anymore. I eventually learned that skating with this beautiful young girl had its advantages, and it eventually dawned on me it was better than hanging around with 19 other guys." Virtue said, "I was really shy and Scott was so outgoing. It was maybe two years before we started talking. He was always funny, always making everyone laugh, always doing crazy pranks.’’ Moir has two older brothers, Danny and Charlie, and they were in stands to see him win. The TV cameras caught Charlie, now a firefighter in Calgary, in tears of joy at his baby brother’s win in the Original section. Almost immediately, his BlackBerry nearly exploded with teasing e-mails from his colleagues watching television from the firehouse. Virtue and Moir intend to go to the world championships and then on a national Stars on Ice tour. But they have no commitments after then. Virtue, who’s only 20, is anxious to attend university. "As far as we’re concerned, everything stops now. It’s all about re-evaluating and deciding what’s best. We really have no idea. It’s weird not knowing but it’s also very exciting.’’

Belbin and Agosto started with their sequential twizzles and only got Level 2 while the Russians did them as their third move and received the maximum Level 4. That enabled the Russians to bank 1.40 more than B&A. For their fourth move, both did Level 4 lifts. The Russians’ straight line gained 0.30 more on the GoEs than the Americans’ curve. For their last element, the long lift, the Russians did a straight line to curve while the Americans placed this element as their third move and did a Serpentine. Both got Level 4. Including the Grades of Execution, their score gave a small edge to D&S with 9.20 to the Americans’ 9.10. On their fifth and sixth moves, serpentine steps and diagonal steps, the Russians were awarded Level 2 and 3 while the Americans received Level 3 for both their circular steps and midline steps.

The Russians, who drew to skate last, immediately following Belbin and Agosto, gained their bronze medals over Belbin and Agosto on the basis of their component marks. They gained 1.30 more than the Americans for their routine set to music from an award winning, puzzling French movie The Double Life of Veronique. When they saw their marks, they nodded matter-of-factly and headed backstage, with Maxim limping. He has had three operations on his knees and the left one was obviously bothering him. Domnina said, "We are happy with our medal, but, of course, we had hoped for more. No medal is worth what we went through. Maxim deserves a quadruple medal for his courage in carrying on through all the pain. We did everything that we could do. We probably did more than Maxim’s condition allowed us to do. We have a clean conscience. Changing coaches and coming to the United States paid off but not as much as we would have liked. If you think about placements, it’s not going to end well. We wanted to give our maximum. After the original dance, I first was in shock. (They won the Compulsory but dropped to third after their third place in this section.) Then I felt we just have to go out and prove ourselves. We had to do everything. I actually was calm, calmer than at the European championships. Hope dies last." He said, "I don’t have the words. We worked a lot and made many sacrifices. It was a long, difficult way for us and we are happy we did it. We had no choice. We decided four years ago that we must put everything else on hold and take this path to the Olympics. We made many sacrifices. We skated well. We did all our elements. It was hard, but we coped with our nerves. It was difficult to skate last."

5.TS 199.17; 5.FD 99.11 (47.70+51.41) Faiella Federica and Massimo Scali, Italy, who recently joined the Linichuk stable in Aston, gave a very emotional showing. He said, "This is the first Olympics where we competed in the group with the top five. We were happy to be second in the group but to skate between America and Canada, and right after the new Olympic champions, meant we had to skate with everything we had because, otherwise, the contrast would have been so great, the judges would be so disappointed, and our marks would have plunged." In the Original, Scali had failed to catch his foot on the twizzles and instead of a hoped for Level 4, they got a 2. "I couldn’t grab my blade. I just touched it. I hoped that the specialists would not notice, but they did. But this is the Olympics. Everything has to be fair. I am glad they are being so picky. I saw they were being picky with everyone." They skated to the music, The Immigrants from The Godfather. He said, "In a way, we are immigrants. We came from Italy to train here, and at first it was difficult."

6.TS 193.73; 6.FD 97.06 (46.00+51.06) Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France appeared in all black. The routine told the story of their lives. They began with childrens’ voices. She said in English, "I want to be a ballerina." Then, "Or maybe a hairdresser." The music is billed as Jacques Brel’s The Quest. He is singing in French but it is The Impossible Dream. At one point, she says, "I want to be a skating champion." Then they stop and Delobel adjusts the top of her dress which turns sparkling silver and gold. It was very professionally put together and the crowd liked it but they just suffered from being off the ice. She said, "When we knew we were no longer in the running for a medal, it was somewhat liberating." He said, "We are proud of all that we’ve accomplished. We think we were very professional in everything we did tonight. We are happy with the performance and the competition. We didn’t get a medal but, in the end, we performed at a high level." He sounded relieved and glad it was over.

7.TS 190.49; 7.FD 94.37 (46.90+47.47) Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, France, skated to Kika and Requiem for a Dream, she in light blue to purple and he in black. They received Level 4 for all but the circular and diagonal steps. He fell in the warm-up. "When I got off the warm-up, I told myself that I am well-trained and composed myself by thinking of all the hard work I had put in to getting here." She said, "It was really fantastic to skate in front of this crowd of so many people, who are so enthusiastic about our sport."

8.TS 186.01; 9.FD 92.23 (44.30+47.93) Sinead and John Kerr, GB, skated to Krwlng by Linkin Park. Sinead was dressed in white with silver. He was dressed in mud-streaked jeans and torn black short-sleeved T-shirt with a smudged face. The opening pose had him in a half collapsed position. She is his guardian angel. He is down on his luck and maybe dying. At the very least, he is near collapse. They earned Level 4 for four of the elements. Three were Level 3 but the first part of their long lift was only a 2. She said, "We skated the best we could. There was a mistake in the Twizzle at the start but I am pleased we finished strong." The crowd particularly liked the reverse move in which she lifts him. "The reaction was amazing. I wanted to do it again. It was definitely one of the best reactions ever. We don’t want to offend the judges, but we chose this music because we want to push the sport forward." He said, "It could have gone better. I had some mistakes. You want to finish as high as you possible can but there are a lot of teams trying to do the same. We’ll take a break after Worlds and then decide what’s next."

9.TS 185.86; 8.FD 93.11 (45.50+47.61) Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitsky, Russia, skated last of the penultimate group. She appeared in a spectacular, very elaborate red and gold outfit that was completely appropriate for their Rimsky Korsakov’s Firebird music. He was also in an elaborate costume but all black. The music was a good choice for her to showcase her extreme flexibility. She executed some very dramatic positions. They were rewarded with all Level 4s except for the circular and diagonal steps which were only 2. She said, "Physically, it wasn’t so difficult to skate, but there is so much tension in the air. After the warm-up, we looked for a calm corner. We couldn’t stay in the corridor, there was so much tension. We had a wobble on our circular steps, which made it hard to get back into the rhythm, but once the circle was over, it was easier. We didn’t get the placement we had hoped for but nevertheless we enjoyed it. These were not our Games. It didn’t work out for us but the season is not over yet. There are still the world championships to come. It is too early to speak about Sochi (in Russia where the next Winter Olympic Games are in 2014) but we are hoping to be there." He said, "The score reflected our few little errors. It felt rather easy to skate today. The hardest part was to wait after the warm-up because we skated last in our group, again."

10.TS 180.26; 10.FD 90.64 (45.20+45.44) Alexander and Roman Zaretsky, Israel, skated to the poignant music to Schindler’s List, which tells a story from the terrible times of World War ll. They were dressed in intense black with a little red. She explained, "We wanted the costumes to be simple, nothing sparkly, nothing complicated. It’s really emotional to skate to, and, if you don’t project it the right way, then it doesn’t work." He explained, "My sister even cut her hair. Being Jewish puts a lot of weight on you. The music and the skating really came together and we earned a Personal Best, so that’s pretty good for us." They received all Level 4s except for a 3 on the circular steps and a 2 on the diagonal steps.

11.TS 174.20; 11.FD 88.94 (46.40+42.54) Skating 13^th, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, USA, performed to a duet, sung in Italian Canto Della Terra. Their costumes, him in maroon shirt and black pants, her in mustard with maroon, were refreshing straightforward after the some of the over elaborate costumes which had come before. All their moves were Level 4 except for two 3s, the circular and midline steps. She said, "At the end of the program, I thought, ‘We’ve nailed it at the Olympics!’ The emotion, the audience reaction, the inter-reaction with each other, everything just built." He said, "The Olympic rings just evoke passion. We are very relieved. There has been so much anticipation. It will be my birthday at midnight. I’m going to be rooting for Charlie now. He is my roommate. At the Olympics, all the emotion comes out. The energy level, the stadium, the Olympic rings, they all just evoke passion."

12.TS 167.32; 15.FD 82.74 (44.60+39.14 -1.0 for an extended lift) Anna Cappellini and Luca Notte represent Italy but train in Lyon in France. He was in a plain white shirt with only one side tucked in and black trousers. She was the devil tempting him, dressed in a black, backless outfit with black stockings, one of which had a tear. Half of her white boots were covered with black. Their music was Requiem for a Dream by C. Mansell. All their Levels were 4 except for a 2 for the circular and a 3 for the Diagonal Steps. She said, "The tear happened in the dressing room as I was putting on my costume. I looked in the mirror and said something that I probably should not say again. All the girls were very sympathetic and supportive. I would have changed my costume but I would have had to take off my entire costume and I didn’t want to rush into the competition. Again, we were the first one in our group, which is a little harder because you don’t have much time to prepare after the warm-up. We looked at each other quite often today. I looked at him during the competition and smiled to reassure him that everything will be fine, that we will make it through this."

13.TS 167.23; 13.FD 84.11 (43.40+40.71) Nora Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin, Hungary. She was in a punk outfit of pink and black, he in black. They skated to a female vocal rock number, So Excited, Hush Hush and then Rock this Party which was very loud. They received four Level 4s , two Level 3s - for their diagonal steps and curve lift, and Level 2 for the circular steps. She said, "Once the crowd started to clap, I knew it was going to go well. It gave us so much power." He said, "We had a couple of stumbles, here and there in the first two phases of the competition. We were very nervous for the compulsory because it was our first Olympics and only our second big competition together. The crowd in Canada is amazing. They’re the best we’ve ever seen. It’s been the highlight of our career. We decided to do hip-hop because of Daisuke Takahashi’s Short Program. It was the most amazing thing we’ve seen and we wanted to bring it into ice dance."

14.TS 164.60; 12.FD 85.29 (45.40+39.89); A huge cheer rose when Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier’s names were announced and out came the Canadian flags. They were dressed in purple and skated to evocative violin music, a nocturne and Bohemian Rhapsody. Everything was Level 4 except for their Level 3 diagonal steps and the Level 2 serpentine steps. Crone said, "Representing Canada in the Olympics on Canadian soil is probably the best thing we’ll ever do." He said, "All of our nine years together has been working to this point. It’s definitely been an amazing experience but our performances certainly weren’t perfect. We left points on the table." They were 14th overall and have now set their sights on bettering the 12th place finish they achieved at last year's world championships in Los Angeles. This year's worlds will be held March 23-28 in Turin. "Yes, we believe we can better that," says Poirier. "We definitely feel we left some points on the table here in the O.D. [original dance]. We'll work to correct those mistakes."

15.TS 163.35; 14.FD 82.88 (42.30+41.58 -1.0 for an extended lift) Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, Russia, skated to Adagio by Il Divo, in lots of silver (more on him than her) and black, including her long sleeves and tights which might have looked better if her white boots hadn’t been half exposed. The crowd liked them and there was some booing their marks. He admitted, "We got tired in the fourth minute and that told on our performance. We got a deduction on our last creative lift for not fitting it into the six seconds allowed. The small mistakes are what keep us from achieving the level of skating we need in competition." She said, "We grew up in this event. We will become stronger."

16.TS 163.15; 17.FD 79.26 (39.20+40.06) Anna Zadorozhniuk and Sergei Verbillo, Ukraine, skating to To Live the Best by J. Halliday dressed in black. They had blue chiffon forming part of her skirt and making it look as if he was wearing a tattered skirt also. He said, "We had some small mistakes. But because it’s our first Olympics, it’s still special for us. We’re glad the crowd enjoyed our performance but we’re disappointed because we were 11^th in the compulsory and we wanted to keep that place."

17.TS 159.60; 16.FD 79.30 (42.50+36.80) Cathy and Chris Reed, Japan, performed to music from the soundtrack to Angels and Demons. All three lifts were Level 4. The twizzles, circular steps and combination spin were Level 3. However, their midline steps were only Level 2.

18.TS 149.64; 18.FD 72.91 (38.90+34.01) Christina and William Beier, Germany, interpreted music from two of Beethoven’s symphonies, No.7 and No.9. They received three Level 4s and two Level 3s but had only Level 2 for their serpentine lift and circular steps.

19.TS 145.52; 20.FD 71.27 (37.70+33.57) Xintong Huang and Xun Zheng of China, she in white, he in grey and white and both with orange trimmings, performed to a vocal version of Albinoni’s Adagio. He said they gave their routine a story. "It is a melancholy story of two lovers searching for each other." Their weak spots were their circular and diagonal step sequences for which they received only Level 1. Everything else was Level 4 except for a Level 2 for the synchronized twizzles. She said, "It went OK. The score is lower than we hoped for. We are more satisfied with our Original. We skated fine today but we did not relax into our program. We trained for two months with Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov last year. They are so kind. We arrived in Vancouver before our coach did and they saw that we had no one in training, so they came and helped us." He said, "I was not at my peak form today. I made small errors on the second element (the synchronized twizzles) and was not clean on my step sequence.

20.TS 143.61; 19.FD 71.60 (41.30+31.30 -1.0 for an extended lift) Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland, GB, were delighted with the crowd’s reception and with their Levels. They received Level 4 for four elements, two 3s, which were for their circular and diagonal steps, and their final curve lift was a 2. It was a far better performance than in the British championship in which he fell. He wore black with one glove. She was in white with silver. They performed to Pavane by M.Klass and Sarabande.

21.TS 133.81 21.FD 70.08 (41.30+28.78) Kamila Hajkova, 22, and David Vincour, 27, Czech Republic, drew to skate first. They interpreted a medley of songs by the French "sparrow" Edith Piaf. They wore black and white costumes with silver. They train with Pasquale Camerlengo and Angelika Krylova in Detroit. He used to compete for Austria. About cutting her finger during the performance, Hajkova explained, "It was on our first lift. It’s a bit of a difficult hold. It also happened in practice so I knew I could continue."

22.TS 132.32; 22.FD 63.45 (36.30+28.15 -1.0 for an extended lift) Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze, Georgia, skated to Crusaders of Light and Preliator. They began with a Level 2 combination spin, Level 3 synchronized twizzles and then came two Level 4 moves, a curve lift and their long lift which comprised curve to rotational. Their circular steps were only Level 2 but their final lift was Level 4. However, the final element, the midline steps was only Level 1. She said, "There were a couple of things we learned and will need to work on. We are looking forward to getting back home (to their New Jersey practice rink) to get ready for Worlds."

23.TS 115.18; 23 FD 58.24 (34.10+24.14 -1.0 for an extended lift) Irina Shtork and Taavi Rand, Estonia, skated to Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. They are trained by Rand’s mother. Shtork said, "I love this band. We were competing in Germany with our previous program and everyone said it didn’t suit us so we thought we would adapt our exhibition number. The performance went better than the Original. We had less nerves and more freedom tonight. We will now compete in the world junior championship."