Ice Dance Fallout: Canada Not as Used to Coming in Second to the U.S. as You'd Expect

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You thought Canada was nice?  You wouldn't be the first. After all, these Olympic games have shown us that Canadians do nice things like helping out a Russian skier with equipment problems or giving up speed-skating spots for one another. But you're wrong. Don't let them fool you. Canadians are just as gold-hungry as the rest of us. Case in point: the exquisite ice dancing team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. 

Virtue and Moir skated beautifully and finished behind Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White — a team they beat for the gold medal four years ago in Vancouver. In the wake of their silver medal, they are now subtly hinting that, among other things, their coach,  Marina Zoueva, may have guided them toward a silver medal. Zoueva also coaches their American rivals. 

"We tried everything. It felt a little bit like we were in quicksand," Moir said during a press conference on Tuesday. "We sometimes felt like [Zoueva] wasn't in our corner," he added. 

That's about as blunt as you'll get when it comes to ice-skating, save for some of Plushenko's antics. The bottom line: Virtue and Moir are insinuating that Zoueva may have been playing favorites. Though, if you follow this logic along, then they're also undermining their own gold medal from 2010 when they beat out Davis-White for the gold. 

There was also subtle jab at Davis. "They’re the only two who know what we’ve gone through. That friendship and that respect has continued, particularly with Charlie," Virtue said during the conference.  The omission of Davis's name raised some eyebrows. "Notice who is missing in that equation," The Toronto Star pointed out. 

That's the same paper that allowed one of its columnists to imply that Americans had been fixing the ice-dancing competition ... for the past two years. "But given how generously they’ve been marked for two years now — defeating the Canadians in their last four head-to-head competitions, including worlds last March in London, Ont. — the Yanks would damn near have to fall on their backsides to blow it," columnist Rosie DiManno wrote. That was a passage from an updated version of a post. In the original, DiManno called ice dancing "a tawdry whore of a sport where the judges are the johns." 

You have to wonder if DiManno felt the same way when Canadians were winning the gold. And for what it's worth, I actually don't mind if Meryl didn't go to Zueva's rink to make friends. You don't win championships by being nice. Virtue, Moir, and DiManno know this better than anyone. 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.