Davis & White (USA) Earn First Ever Olympic Gold in Ice Dance for U.S.

Virtue & Moir (CAN), Davis & White (USA), Ilinykh & Katsalapov (RUS)

(18 February 2014)  Meryl Davis & Charlie White were crowned Ice Dance champions after a record setting performance in the Free Dance.  The couple scored a record setting and their season best score of 116.63 points in the Free Dance, and combined with their record setting score in the Short Dance earned a record setting total of 195.52 points.  It was the first Olympic gold medal for a U.S. Ice Dance couple.  In racking up their record setting scores the couple got perfect 10.0s on Choreography and also Interpretation, a total of 18 from the nine judges.  They received an additional six 10.0s  from the judges in Presentation.  Their victory capped an exciting final round in which 20 of the original 24 couples competed.

For the fourth time in the Games Davis & White outscored Tess Virtue & Scott Moir.  The Canadians skated prior to their rivals, second in the last warm-up group.  They skated a beautiful, flawless routine that was their season best at 114.66 points.  Like the American couple all their leveled elements achieved level 4, and the base value of their elements matched the Americans.  In GoEs, however, they were scored second to Davis & White trailing in Total Element points by 1.28 points.  Another way to tally the difference, Davis & White were scored +3 for 65.3% of their GoEs, while for Virtue & Moir it was 46.9%.

After their skate Davis said, "We're so excited we're kind of in shock a little. I'm not sure what we're felling.  It kind of all came together for us and we're so pleased to be here.  We're kind of in disbelief.  I've never skated and visualized the performance at the same time and tonight that's kind of how it felt. It felt great."

In components, Virtue & Moir received 17 marks of 10.0, and trailed Davis & White by 0.69 points in Total Program Component Score.  As in the Short Dance, one of Virtue & Moirs 10s was for Skating Skills, and the sense of the marks suggests that a least a few judges rated Virtue & Moir higher in the technical components (Skating Skills and Transitions) than Davis & White -- though that is hard to tell given the way the ISU scrambles the marks on the protocol.

The Canadians talked the good fight after the Short Dance, but must have been resigned to the reality that their chance at victory was slim.  After the event during the flower ceremony and in the press conferences the couple seemed genuinely pleased with their silver medal result, and did not show any of the signs of despair that some competitors in their position have shown.  Said Moir, "We would have liked to bring home gold for Canada, but no one close to us will love us any less because we're bringing home silver."

After their performance Moir said, "It was what we wanted to do today.  That was our best performance of the year for that program.  That program was out baby - and it's special for us to perform it for the last time.  We handled ourselves in the best way possible."  Added Virtue. "This is the biggest stage in the world so, of course, it's stressful.  It's a pretty ambitious program, and it's a loaded program, and I think we did it pretty well.  We felt immense pressure.  We trained 17 years for this moment."

The second big fight of the event was for third place between the French couple of Nathalie Pechelat & Fabian Bourzart.  The French couple skated first in the last warm-up.  They skated a season best performance scoring 104.44 points.

 Performing to "Le Petit Prince et sa Rose,"  He is the petit prince and she is the rose.  In the beloved book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the relation between the petit prince and the rose is an important element of the story, providing the motivation for the prince to leave his asteroid to explore the rest of the universe, which brings him to earth.

The  French couple achieved level 4 in all but one leveled element, a level 3 circular step sequence.  Their components averaged 9.05.  They also received a 1 point deduction for an extended lift.  The couple placed fourth in both the short dance and the free for a fourth place finish.

Pechalat fell in the warm-up and after their performance Bourzat said, "She's a very strong girl and she knows what she has to do.  Mistakes like that can always happen - this didn't keep her from doing what we had to do in our actual performance. ... No (we weren't nervous), we knew that if we didn't skate our best we won't get it (a medal).  We skated our best, but we still didn't get it."

Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov gave a powerful performance to the old warhorse, "Swan Lake."  Like the French couple all but one of their elements achieved level 4, again a level 3 circular step sequence.  The two couples had identical base scores for the elements, but the Russians scored significantly higher in GoE., and also bested the French couple by 2.02 points in component score.

Said Katsalapov, "At the end, I didn't fully realize it was over.  Three was a pause and only then did I realize that we did it.  We skated our Olympic Games and now we have our bronze."

The two Russians make a charming couple, but someone from the Russian skating federation needs to smack them both on the backs of the head to stop texting during press conferences.  For both the short and the long press conferences their heads were down almost the entire time texting away, even while answering questions.

The ultimate bronze medals winners, where followed in the start order by their teammates Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev.  Their routine to the strange combination of "Man with a Harmonica" and "Tosca" was wells skated, but one less level 4 element than Canadians Kaitlin Weaver & Andrew Poje, cost them a place compared to the short dance, and they placed sixth in the free dance, but still finished fifth overall.

"We did our marks are up to the judges," said Bobrova.  "The result says that we need to skate perfectly.  We hoped until the last minute that a miracle could happen.  But we felt something strange before getting out on  to the ice, then we looked at each other, at our coaches, and said that we jsut want to skate our best and enjoy our favorite program."

Like all the Russian competitors in the skating events, the couple received a thunderous reception from the mostly Russian audience.  "When you step out on the ice you can feel the Iceberg literally shaking.  It's unbelievable," said Bobrova.

Weaver & Poje, who had skated in the third warm-up group, moved up in the free dance thanks to slightly higher technical scores and a season best score, but remained in seventh place for the final result.

After their skate, Weaver said, "I don't even remember our exact score but anything over 100 points is good for us.  It's the best score we've gotten on this program since it debuted.  We're just happy that our performance matches out score."  Added Poje, "It feels great.  It was deflating, the score we got yesterday.  We put out a great performance today and we're happy with it."

Among the other North American couples, Canadians Alexander Paul & Mitchell Islam moved placed 16th in the free dance, two places better than in the free, but in the final standings they made no headway, ending up 18th overall.  Their performance to music from the movie "W.E." was as dreadful as the movie itself -- slow and awkward looking.

The other two American couples skated in the third warm-up group.

Madison Chock & Evan Bates repeated in eighth place in the free dance for an eight place finish.  They skated with speed and enthusiasm, but the music is overpowering and they gave away points on three level 3 elements   The technical quality of the skating was their greatest strength and the couple scored a season best.

"The entire experience is difficult to sum up," Chock said.  "A lot of emotions, good feelings.  I was really in the zone, felt connected to Evan when we skated. ... It went very well.   That was definitely one of the best performances of the season and we're excited we could do it here."

Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani placed tenth in the free dance, but held their position overall from the short, finishing ninth.  The couple had a minor mishap in a lift where Maia's dress snagged on Alex's costume and the lift proved a bit of a challenge to set down without disaster.  Her tights ended being shredded in the process.

As described by Maia, "We had a little bit of trouble, more than a little bit of trouble on one of our lifts.  My costume and tights got caught on him.  We salvaged it and didn't fall - we pushed through."