Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada perform during the ice dance short dance team event in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.Julie Jacobson/The Associated Press
When Canada competed in the first-ever team figure skating event at the Sochi Olympics four years ago, the squad went into the competition with its "signals crossed," ice dancer Scott Moir said. Some skaters treated the event as a warm-up rather than a push for the team gold medal, which hurt their chances.
In Pyeongchang, the Canadians have taken a different approach. After being forced to settle for a silver in Sochi, the team is making sure every skater knows they are competing to win now, and not just using the team competition as a warm-up for their individual events later in the Games.
"We've talked a bit about how we weren't really thrilled actually with our approach in Sochi. Some team members thought it was a dress rehearsal, others were trying to go after it and win that gold medal. We had our signals crossed and it didn't work out for us," said Moir, who is co-captain of the Canadian team, along with his ice dance partner Tessa Virtue.
"So this time the goal is clearly to win. Our goal is to have our best skates and we think that will get us where we need to be."
Virtue and Moir placed first in the short program of the team event Sunday with a score of 80.51, helping bolster Canadas place atop the standings on Day 2 of the three-day event. The team competition wraps up Monday. Maia and Alex Shibutani of the United States were second with a score of 75.46, while Olympic athletes from Russia Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev were third with a mark of 74.76.
Virtue and Moir earned 10 points for Canada in the team event, while Kaetlyn Osmond placed third in her short program, earning 8 points, and pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were first in the free skate, gaining 10 points.
Canada now has a total of 45 points in the event, putting it atop the standings heading into the final day of team competition, ahead of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (39 points) and the United States (36 points).
Patrick Chan was third in the men's short program on Friday, for 8 points, while Duhamel and Radford were second in the short program, taking home 9 points.
Moir said Canada knows its chances at a gold in the event at these Olympics are better than in Sochi, so the team is making sure no one holds back.
"You just don't get too many shots at an Olympic medal, let alone an Olympic gold medal. And I think Canada has a great chance," he said. "It's very important to us to win this event."
Despite placing first in their event, Virtue and Moir appeared confused by their score, which was lower than some of the marks they received for the same program at international events throughout the season. At the end of their skate, Moir stared up at the scoreboard trying to contain a grimace. However, Virtue said they were fine with the score.
"I think any reaction to scores this early in the competition is just us being perfectionist and wanting to figure out how we maximize points and evaluating the performance," Virtue said.
The lower score is a concern, though, since Virtue and Moir are hoping it doesn't suggest the program will not generate a high score when they try for gold in the individual ice dance event beginning on Feb. 19. Virtue and Moir come into these Olympics in a heated race against Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France for the gold medal.
Papadakis and Cizeron are not competing in the team competition, which adds a level of intrigue, since the judges will not have a chance to compare the Canadians to the French prior to the individual event.
"We thought that that was an improved skate from what we've done, especially internationally in the fall," Moir said. "This is the Olympic Games, you're looking for the harshest panel, especially when you're going to have the best field that we've had in four years… there's no reason to think that the judging isn't fair."
Duhamel and Radford achieved one of their best scores of the season in the pairs long program, with a mark of 148.51.
Osmond's score of 71.38 in the women's short program put her behind Russia's Evgenia Medvedeva, who was first with a mark of 81.06, and Carolina Kostner of Italy, who was second with 75.10.
Osmond landed the first half of her opening combination, a triple flip, but stumbled on her triple toeloop. Osmond said she was probably a little too excited stepping back on Olympic ice after debuting four years ago as an 18-year-old, and overcoming a broken leg since then.
"A bit of excitement got into me and that's what made a few things messy. My jumps are big and they're hard to control especially with the added excitement, I tend to jump a little bit bigger in that case. But it was a good start," Osmond said.
Osmond said the team event in Sochi is all a blur to her now.
"I was young, I was new to the international world, I was new to the rest of the team, I didn't know many of the athletes very well," she said. "So when I was out on the ice in Sochi, it was really me, because I didn't really know many other people. But being on a team that medalled in Sochi and knowing them ever since… it makes me feel more like a team this time."
Osmond said she is treating the push for a team gold medal as seriously as her individual competition, on Feb. 21 and 23, in which she is also expected to contend for a medal.
"I treat it as two separate competitions, competing my absolute best in each one," she said. "I want each experience on the ice to be everything I have. And even though things got messy a little bit today, I gave everything I had and didn't leave anything else on the table."
Grant Robertson