Meryl Davis & Charlie White (USA) Achieve Record Score in Short Dance

(17 February 2014)  As in, it's all over for Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir in the Dance event.

For the third time in the past nine days, Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White bested the Canadians in a dance segment, this time with a record setting score for the Short Dance.  If it was not clear before the start of the Games, the judges have reached consensus, if both teams skate their best, Davis & White win.  And for the competition and practices so far, both teams are consistently skating their best or near best.  To pull this one out of the fire Virtue & Moir will have to skate their best and hope that Davis & White make an egregious error in the free skate.

Twenty fours couples competed in the Short Dance, vying for twenty slots in the final Free Skate.  Of the 24 couples, six represent the U.S. or Canada,

The first North American couples skated in the third of five groups.  Canadians Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam started off with both poorly executing their twizzles, but in the Finnstep they hit five of the six key performance parameter (KPPs) and scored well n their rotational lift.  Skating to "I Got Rhythm" and "Crazy for You" the team placed 18th with 55.91, mired in a pack of 11 couples who score fifty-something points.

"We're not disappointed with our score because we had a bit of a rough skate," said Islam.  "We put up a good fight and now we'll put it behind us.  We still have tomorrow."

Americans Maia and Alex Shibutani, skated last in the warm-up.  The 2011 World bronze medalists scored well for their twizzles and rotational lift, and had only one negative GoE.  It was a season best score, but not competitive for the top five.  Since 2011 Worlds the couple has struggled to retain the judges' fancy and break out of component marks in the sevens.

I think it was the most fun we've had performing - and it was a season best for us," said Maia, with Alex adding, "Everything went the way it should , and I've been looking forward to having that moment for a long time."

The event finally started to heat up in the fourth warm-up group, which was led off by Americans Madison Chock & Evan Bates.  For many, the rivalry between Chock & Bates and the Shibutanis as the "next" U.S. couple is a proxy for the rivalry between their coaches Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva.  Chock & Bated beat out the Shibutanis by 0.99 points and placed eighth in the segment.  They train in Total Element Score due to executing one less level 4 element than the Shibutanis but scored higher in components, in the low eights.

Chock described their experience saying, "Season's best at the Olymics - it doesn't get any better than that.  It was incredible.  I had so much fun out there.  We just kicked into a higher gear at the end.  Every Olympic moment is special and that was a special moment for us."

The always charming Italian couple Anna Cappellin & Luca Lanotte, were no less charming in their performance, but they missed one KPP and more seriously only acheivedlevel2 in their step sequence.  Together this cost them four base value points and with a sixth place finish, they are sufficiently far behind the leaders to be out of the running for the bronze medal.

"It went better than the team event," said Cappollini.  "It was good to try it out for the first time at the Olympics.  Of course, we focused mainly on the individual event because we've worked all our lives for it.  We did our best for our team, but we definitely focused on the individual event."

 On the Finnstep, she added, "The Finnstep is difficult to hit the key points accurately.  You have to make sure you get the technical points because losing one level can lose you a lot of points.  You can't really dance it out when you are always thinking of the technical aspects. ... It would be good to have a little less rules and a little more dance.  It's a challenge to put a program together that's interesting for the audience.

 Following the German couple Nelli Zhiganshina & Alexander Gazsi, who placed tenth, Virtue & Moir took the ice for their make-or-brake performance.

The couple floated across the ice with grace and style, and Moir looked very happy with the performance in kiss and cry, but looked less so when the marks came up.  The couple scored 76.33 points and at that point were the leaders in the competition.  The couple missed one KPP in the first Finnstep sequence, but the 1 point loss in base value that caused was only part of what proved to be the margin of victory for Davis & White.  Virtue & Moir ended the night trailing Davis & White by 2.08 points in elements and 0.48 points in components.

"We certainly felt more like ourselves out there tonight," said Virtue.  "We created the moment we wanted to create.  I don't think we could have done it much better than we did tonight."  Moir added, "For the team event, I think we felt a lot of pressure, but we were really comfortable tonight.  I think you could tell by our reaction that we were really excited about that skate."

On there chances to get the gold Moir said, "We did what we needed to do tonight.  We like our chances.  When you have a career like us, so much hard work goes into everything.  We've worked so hard this season to get us here.  Now we just want to enjoy oursleves."

Last to skate in the fourth warm-up was Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev, one of two Russian couple challenging for the bronze medal.  The couple skated an upbeat lively routine and scored 69.97 points for a fifth place finish, just ahead of the Italians.  They missed level 4 in three of the five elements, including a timing error for one of the KPPs in the second Finnstep sequence.  Their components were fourth best, but on the technical side Bobrova did not skate with the same control as the higher placing couples.

"We felt we skated really well tonight," said Bobrova.  "Dmitri was even singing to me during the skate, which gave me a boost."

The second Russian couple, Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov, started off the last warm-up group, skating to an odd pairing of "Bei mir bist du schoen" and "Sixteen Tons."  The couple hit all the KPPs and achieved level 4 for the remaining elements as well, except for the step sequence at level 3.  The had the fourth best element scores and third best components, in a close fight with the French couple Nathalie Pechelat & Fabian Bourzat.  At 30 and 33 years of age, Pechelat & Bourzat are the "old-timers" of the competition.  The Russians placed third, 0.26 points ahead of the French couple thanks to the higher Russian component scores.  The French couple also hit all the KPPs and had level 4 elements except for a level 3 for the step sequence.

It was a season best performance about which Katsalapov said, "I knew how to do things tonight, I could fell my partner 100%.  So, it looked perfect."  Describing their experience in the team event Ilnykh said, "Participation n the team event gave us confidence.  We had an opportunity to try the ice, to hear the roars of the crowd, to feel the atmospheres. ... Of course it's easier to step on the ice being Olympic champion.  But that medal didn't satisfy us that much and we forgot about it quite quickly.  Still it has helped us a lot mentally in the individual event."

On the performance of the French team, Pechalat said, "We beat our season best so we are very happy about the result.  To be fourth for now - not tomorrow, but for now - we are very happy about that because it means we will have to attack more."

Canadians Kaitlin Weaver & Andre Poje, who placed fifth at 2013 and 2011 Worlds, and fourth at 2012 Worlds had hoped to challenge for the bronze medal, but that will prove difficult after a 65.93  point performance that has them nearly seven points behind the third place couple.  They missed two KPPs in the first Finnstep sequence and had two other level 3 elements.  So going into the free dance it looks like the competition will be between the two Russian couples and the French couple for the bronze.

We're thrilled with the way we performed tonight.  It might have been our best short dance of the season.  Unfortunately, our scores didn't really reflect that."  And of the atmosphere in the arena she said, "It's electrifying.  I was thinking to myself, 'Thank goodness we're doing a happy program,' because I couldn't help but smile out there.  I was also thinking, 'Do everything right.'  We were improvising with each other a little bit out there.  Those are the memories we're making here that I'll never forget.

Last to skate in the event were Davis & White.  They skated a personal best and received a record score for the short dance.  They hit all the KPPs and achieved level 4 for all the elements.   Their components averaged 9.79 and they scored fifteen 10.0s.  In comparison Virtue & Moir scored ten 10.0s, with a rarity of one 10.0 for Skating Skills.  As in the team event, Davis & White outscored Virtue & Moir in elements, and in each of the program components.

"We were just in our zone," said White, "so we could go out and skate like that. ... We love skating.  We're not thinking.  We're letting it flow.""

"Excellent is a word to describe it," said Davis.  "I felt like I was in a dream.  Everything is coming together."