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Ivan Sekretarev / AP
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada compete in the team ice dance short dance figure skating competition.
SOCHI, RUSSIA—It was just a little joke but peels of laughter leavened the glums.
Tessa Virtue had been asked if she and partner Scott Moir would likely skate the free dance part of the team figure skating event Sunday.
“Were my twizzles that bad?” she deadpanned.
See, the joke part was that Canada might not want the defending Olympic ice dance champions to carry the flag in the long after their, shall we say, not quite so awesome short dance performance here Saturday evening.
Hardly a fiasco. The duo clocked in at 72.98 for second place, three points behind forever rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States.
But Virtue did get her twizzles in a twist, a costly error that made all the difference in their foxtrot-quickstep-foxtrot outcome. The Americans certainly earned their top-ranked scores on this evening — if not necessarily on many of the other evenings when these two couples have gone head-to-head over the past two years. Two years in which Davis and White have consistently — yet precariously — dominated the Canadian tandem with whom they share a training base in Michigan and a choreographer/coach.
That was the fuss of the day here on Day 1 of the Games, though the inaugural team figure skating event had actually got a jump on the competition by beginning 24 hours before the opening ceremonies. Had to jam this bonus-added competition somewhere on the schedule.
French sports newspaper L’Equipe had just broken the story about an alleged collusion between French and Russian ice dance judges — a not so difficult to believe “one hand washing the other” scenario wherein the Russian judge would massage the marks on behalf of Davis and White, help nudge them towards a first-ever ice dance gold for the U.S. in their stand-alone competition next week, in exchange for the U.S. judge helping Russia win the team event. A “proposed barter” as L’Equipe put it, nice ’n’ cozy reciprocal arrangement, and shades of judge-cheating skating past.
It was the talk of the sport on Saturday, with a Russian judge anonymously confirming the tit-for-tat to L’Equipe. In fact, the backward-tailing results of the Canadian dancers over the last two seasons has been the stuff of insider gossip for quite a while now. A suspicion had taken hold, long before these Games launched, that the fix was in for Davis and White.
Another figure skating scandal erupting, just what the chronically suspicious sport needs. And it put all four skaters in a terrible position.
The stress of it was evident, if not in Virtue’s botched twizzle — both she and Moir have had twizzle issues all season, such that choreographer/coach Marina Zoueva has altered their placement in the short program — than certainly in the trembling of her chin afterwards, as the team faced reporters in the mixed zone at the Ice Cube.
It was the first question put to them by an American journalist: “There’s a report about a fix, that the Russians and the U.S. are colluding to make sure Davis and White win the individual gold.”
Earlier in the day, at practice, the Canadians (and the Americans) had refused to answer the question at all. What could they say, frankly?
Now, Moir had to finesse his way out of a tricky confrontation. “The best thing about being an athlete at the Winter Games is that’s none of our concern. We’re here for our moment and our moment is what Tessa and I make out on the ice.”
But, but, does it concern you? Virtue, voice quivering: “That’s out of our control. We have to take care of our job on the ice on the ice and focus on the task at hand.
“I don’t know what else to say.”
Reporters asked the question again, phrasing it differently, reminding that judging chicanery had hosed Canadians notoriously once before — in the vote swap at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City that ultimately resulted in a co-gold belatedly awarded to pairs team Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, along with the Russian duo who got their gold on the actual night of the free skate competition.
Moir sucked in his breath, the exasperation evident on his face. “Again, not on the top of our mind at an Olympic Games. Being Canadians, we lived through the Sale and Pelletier (affair), figure skating has a storied past with all that stuff. But the beautiful thing about being an athlete, that’s not our concern.
“As I said, it’s all about us. When we sit in the kiss ’n’ cry and get the mark, the disappointment on our faces is because of our performance today. It’s got nothing to do with the technical panel or the judges.”
The twizzles were a mess — that couldn’t be blamed on nefarious judges. Virtue started the rotation awkwardly, throwing off the duo’s timing and synchronicity. It could have been far worse, though, if not for Virtue’s ability to make a split-second correction that at least kept her vertical.
“I thought our skate was actually pretty strong. Of course, the twizzle wasn’t ideal. I had to recover after that one.
“I think that slowness was probably a result of maybe a loss of balance or a loss of speed after the first twizzle. I managed to stay on one foot so I was hoping to still get that (scoring) level but I think I just slowed down too much.”
Only five countries move on to the free skate part of the competition that will decide the medals. After completion of all short programs, Russia leads the team event standings with 37 points, followed by Canada with 32 points and the U.S. in third with 27 points. Japan and Italy have also qualified.
Although an announcement has yet to be made, it’s likely that Virtue and Moir will skate the free dance on Sunday, though teams are allowed to make two substitutions in this debut team event. Patricia Chan is giving way to Kevin Reynolds.
Kaetlyn Osmond might also skate the long after turning in a terrific short program effort last night at her first-ever Olympics.
The Newfoundland-born teenager skated smoothly and effortlessly in her Sweet Charity routine, opening with a cool and collected triple-toe-triple-toe combination, into a confident triple flip and no-prob double Axel.
“I’m very pleased with that. That program, I’m so comfortable with. And to be able to have such a strong performance for my very first competition, first program here at the Olympics, it felt really great to know that I’m able to do that.”
A fifth-place result among the 10 ladies contending, with a season best score of 62.54. Leading the lady charge, top of the toteboard and utterly thrilling the hometown crowd, was 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaya with 72.90, followed Japan’s Mao Asada, far back at 64.07.
Turn back the clock about 10 hours. Osmond was sleeping in her bed at the athletes’ village — having returned for a nap following an early morning training session — when there was a knock on the door. Dope-testers wanting her urine.
Random testing is not unusual. Random testing on the day of a competition is unusual.
Even more unusual: Seven of Canada’s 17 figure skaters have been drug tested since their arrival in Sochi. An eighth — Kirsten Moore-Towers — was also pegged to pee but happened not to be in her room when the urine collectors came calling.
At least one half of every Canadian pairs/dance team has been tested this past week.
That’s eyebrow-raising, especially because testing in-competition at the Olympics is the purview not of WADA but the Sochi organizing committee. Russians are deciding. They run the doping lab during the Olympics.
Mike Slipchuk, high performance director for Skate Canada, said the issue has been brought to the attention of the Canadian Olympic Committee, though it’s unclear where the complaint might go next.
“Today, the timing, that’s tough. We’ve never seen anyone tested before on the day of a competition, before the competition. It’s . . . interesting.”
But everybody has been quite taken aback by this preoccupation — focus, whatever you might call it — with the Canadian skaters. Pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were scooped for testing at midnight on the day of their arrival.
“At least we’re running out of skaters to be tested, which is a good thing,” said Slipchuk.
It all gets curiouser and curiouser.”
The long pairs competition concluded Saturday's program. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch did the honours for Canada and skated cleanly but for a hand touchdown by her on side by side triple Axels. They earned a score of 129.74.
But, skating last, Russians Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov nearly brought the house down with their entertaining Addams Family routine, drawing a plump score of 135.09.
So the Russians have opened up a six point gap over Canada — 47-41 — that will be near impossible to close on Sunday.
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