The Winter Olympics Aren’t the Same Without Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir

I should be stoked about winter sports right now. After all, we are in the midst of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Through Peacock, I have access to wall-to-wall live events, including an unedited, unfiltered feed of each and every single figure skating event and warmup. Except something’s missing this year. For some reason, I can’t seem to summon any excitement for what has long been my favorite sport. Maybe it’s the ennui of a spectator-less Olympics or the cynicism stoked by the Kamila Valieva controversy, but I am finding it hard to care. Or perhaps I just miss them.

Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir used to dominate the Winter Olympics through their exquisite ice dancing and crackling chemistry. During the 2018 Winter Olympics, they not only took home the gold (for the second time), but they gave us all heart palpitations with their steamy Moulin Rouge! routine. Tessa and Scott made the Olympics fun, sexy, and a true celebration of sport. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made the Olympics great and I miss them so much this year.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir started skating with each other in 1997, but they took the world by storm in 2010. That’s when the pair made their Olympic debut and made history in the process. Virtue and Moir wound up winning gold that year, making them not only the first ice dancing team to accomplish such a feat in their Olympics debut, but the youngest gold-winning pair ever. In 2014, they won silver behind American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White. When they decided to come back from retirement to skate in PyeongChang, they arrived with what might be the most iconic ice dancing routine in the sport’s history: “Moulin Rouge.”

The thing that’s magical about Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir is that they are technically perfect, but — more importantly — they are storytellers. Nothing about their performances look forced or tortured. At times, you’re so caught up in the emotions that they’re selling that you forget that you’re watching a grand feat of athleticism. Their skating transports you. Simple as that. (Virtue and Moir were so good at selling romance on the ice that fans spent years convinced they should be a romantic couple in real life.)

Over their career, Virtue and Moir competed in three Winter Olympics. Between medaling three times in ice dancing and twice in the figure skating team event, that makes them the most decorated skaters in Olympic history. The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing marks the first time since 2006 that we haven’t had Tessa and Scott skating for us during the games. Now they’re gone and they’ve left a gulf in their wake. (And don’t get me started on how jealous I am of Canadians who still get to see them pop up in CBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics.)

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir defined the last decade of ice dancing and the last three Winter Olympic games. Without them competing, something feels missing. We’re missing the sizzle of their swizzles, the passion of their lifts, and the gossip they inspired. We’re missing the majesty that was Tessa and Scott.