A North American Podium?

Ice Dancing, like pairs, has traditionally been dominated by Soviet/Russian skaters. Ice Dancing has only been an Olympic sport since 1976, but since then all but two of the gold medals have gone to Soviet or Russian teams.

This quadrennium, for the first time ever, North American teams have been competitive and stood on the podium at each worlds since Torino. Vancouver will be the first Olympic ice dance competition where North American ice dancers could sweep the podium.

US Teams

 

US Nationals - Belbin & Agosto 2nd, Davis & White 1st

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto earned the silver in Torino and immediately followed that up with back to back bronze at the World Championships. They seemed primed to be the next great ice dancing champions, however the past four seasons have also been filled with mid-season program changes, mid-season injuries and a coaching change. They ended last season with a close 2nd place finish at Worlds.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White moved up from the junior ranks after the Olympic season in Belbin & Agosto's shadow. Over the past two years they've become equal competitors and Davis & White defeated them at the US Nationals this year. This team has had success on the fall Grand Prix circuit and have been undefeated this season. Yet they been shut out at Worlds the past few seasons.

Canadian Team

 

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir

 

Canada has one team that has been competitive internationally and also have medaled at Worlds, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. They actually train with Davis & White in the Detroit area. They are the culprits who have edged out Davis & White at Worlds. 

One of the coaches that they share with Davis and White is Marina Zoueva who recently mused on how much Virtue and Moir remind her of the pair skating legends, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. Zoueva choreographed for G & G and I'm beginning to find Virtue & Moir's programs to be a dance version of G & G's programs. They're original dance flamenco music is the same cut of G & G's '93-'94 short program. Ice dancing is supposed to be ballroom dancing on ice, but I find Virtue & Moir skate adagio more often than ballroom. Even doing mirror movements common in adagio dancing, they still have beautiful and appealing programs with fascinating dance lifts.