Canadian ice dancers set world record at Olympics

“The gold medal is the cherry on the cake”, said Virtue. Their character-driven, passionate performance to “Moulin Rouge!” even has an endorsement from the film’s director, Baz Luhrmann.

“If it is the end we are extremely pleased with that”, Moir told reporters. Though the team skate ended last weekend with a gold for Canada, individual skating events will continue to air until February 22.

The Canadian ice dancers broke their own record for a short program at the Pyeongchang Olympics on Monday, piling up 83.67 points with a harmonious, rock-inspired performance.

Each American duo still has an opportunity to medal at Gangneung Ice Arena.

“That was so special to us and we’re going to return that favour”, he said. “But eight years later we’re completely different people, we’re completely different athletes”. Those are moments we will never forget. “It’s a really warm feeling”.

Medals will be awarded in ice dance on Monday night (U.S. time) following the free dance programs. This particular pattern, which calls for the skaters’ free legs to remain at the same distance and angle as their partners as they smoothly skate through a series of challenging twists and turns, is notoriously hard and even the top teams have had trouble mastering it. In PyeongChang, both Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron train in Montreal under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.

Maia and Alex Shibutani, the siblings who helped the US win team bronze, are making their second Olympic appearance.

China’s Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu failed to reach the free dance after they finished 22nd in short dance.

The 28-year-old Virtue and Moir, 30, are two of Canada’s most recognizable Olympians, and have been melting hearts since they won gold in Vancouver. “We’re so proud to be Canadian and to do it for the nation”. We know our work isn’t over. “We think we can do a better short dance there”.

Virtue and Moir are on the podium by 5.94 points over Americans Maia and Alex Shibutani.

Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir should look familiar: Their fluid, refined style captured them the gold medal in 2010 and the silver medal in 2014.

2018 U.S. Champions Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue earned a new personal best of 77.75 and sit in third place.

The win makes them only the second pair to win two Olympic titles in ice dancing, following Russia’s Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov in Lillehammer and Nagano in the 1990s. Bronze went to Latvia just 0.05sec behind in the high-octane event in which competitors whizz around the icy track at speeds of up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) per hour. “If we can do our best, we have chances to win”, Cizeron said. “I knew there was no shot”. Bates was voted team captain for the USA figure skating delegation. And it was these skaters that really didn’t let us think about ourselves any other way. Those things can happen.

Maia added “it’s obviously a strong event”. “The biggest chunk is tomorrow and we have to stay on our game”. It took us by surprise. Chock has an ankle injury that she aggravated Monday during warmups.

Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed scored 160.63 for 15th place, matching Japan’s best Olympic performance in ice dance turned in by Nozomi Watanabe and Akiyuki Kido at the 2006 Turin Games.

“I’ve skated all season with this and managed it”, Chock said.

That made the popular Canadians the most decorated figure skaters of all time. At the 2014 Olympics, the brother-sister team finished ninth.

For more in-depth analysis, check out the Olympic Ice post-show with Kristi Yamaguchi, Charlie White and Ben Agosto.