Canada’s figure skating darlings Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took home ice dancing gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, capping off their historic Olympic career.
Performing to Moulin Rouge, the pair captured the gold medal in front of a roaring crowd at the Gangneung Ice Arena with a total score of 206.07.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France took silver with a combined score of 205.28 while American siblings Alex and Maia Shibutani claimed bronze with a combined score of 192.59.
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“Amazing. It was a special moment to come out last,” Virtue said following their win. “It was a strong last group, there was a lot of pressure, but I’m so happy with how we performed.”
Tuesday’s medal for the three-time world champions makes it the third for the pair. Virtue and Moir are tied with Gillis Grafström of Sweden, Sonja Henie of Norway and Russia’s Irina Rodnina for the most gold medals in Olympic figure skating history.
Now with five medals to their name, Virtue and Moir are the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history.
“I am thrilled with this competition. That performance was really special and truly memorable. The gold medal is the cherry on the cake,” Virtue said. “We are so grateful to our team for having prepared us for this. We are taking in every single moment.”
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During Monday’s short dance portion of the event, Virtue and Moir broke their own world record, scoring 83.67 points. Their own previous world mark of 82.68 set at Skate Canada International in October.
Moir said the Tuesday’s gold is a little different than winning in Vancouver.
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“Obviously, 2010 we were in our own country. Those are moments we will never forget. But eight years later we’re completely different people, we’re completely different athletes,” he said. “We still love what we do. It’s personal this time. It was for each other, we skated with each other in mind the whole way and we skated with our hearts. It’s extremely fulfilling.”
Canada’s flag-bearers for the opening ceremony are set to retire following the Olympics. They came out of retirement last season, gunning to reclaim the gold they lost to Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White in 2014. They made a spectacular return, rewriting the record books and racking up wins until the Grand Prix Final in December, where they lost to Papadakis and Cizeron by less than two points.
As for a possible retirement, Moir said he’s happy going out the way they did.
“If it is the end we are extremely pleased with that,” Moir said. “We’ll probably make an announcement in the coming days, but for us we just want to enjoy this right now and let the dust kind of settle and figure out what’s next.”
–with files from The Canadian Press
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