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Tessa Virtue’s first Olympic trip churned up a carnival-worthy cocktail of pain, intensity, astonishment and exhilaration.

Nearly four years from Vancouver, she’s ready for her second — and more than likely final — spin.

“The roller coaster is just taking off,” the 24-year-old Londoner said Thursday during Skate Canada’s preseason training camp in Mississauga, “and we’re embracing it.”

It doesn’t stop there, said her ice dance partner Scott Moir.

“We’re driving the roller coaster,” the 26-year-old from Ilderton said. “We’re not just along for the ride.”

They consider themselves a tad more grizzled than the wide-eyed kids who, in 2010, became the youngest team to win Olympic gold. They’ll approach Sochi this February with experience in their corner and fire in their bellies after surrendering their world crown to Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White on home ice in London last spring.

If they defend Olympic gold, they will become just the second dance team to do so after Russians Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov in 1994 and ‘98.

“What I felt about Vancouver was so intense, it was a blur,” Virtue said. “I’d see pictures from that time and not remember any of it. I don’t have the memories I wished I had.”

They have done something about that this time.

They are being trailed by a crew and two cameras taping their six-part W Network documentary series that will start airing on Jan. 2 and run every Thursday until the day before the Olympics begin.

The taping began at their summer competition in Montreal, continued at their training home in Canton, Mich., and stopped in for this high performance. There are Ilderton trips in the works and a budget big enough to follow them to Grand Prix events in Saint John, N.B., and Paris, France.

“People will get to see what we go through every day,” Moir said. “So much is seeing us in make-up and sparkles. Now, you’ll see me when my hair doesn’t quite look this pretty.”

The skaters say they barely notice the cameras anymore. On projects like this, there always are limits on access, but Virtue said it’s enough that “you see the tears and the laughing fits.”

“This is a great time in our career,” Moir added. “We’re healthy athletes (Virtue no longer faces six-to-seven hours of physiotherapy a day as she did in the Vancouver lead-up) and we’re going to another Olympic Games to defend our title. It’s a great part of our lives, let alone career, and being able to document that is fun for us.”

They skate to a Louis Armstrong-Ella Fitzgerald tag team for their short dance and picked a Russian theme for their free dance. Four years ago, they competed at an early minor event in Thornhill and did the same in Quebec to kick off this season.

“We just wanted to get out,” Moir said. “We want to set the tone. We wanted to be first out and even if it was just a short dance, we wanted to prove we’ll be ready to rock this year.”

Jennifer Horvath, producing the Tessa & Scott series for Toronto-based Media Headquarters, previously worked on the Til Debt Do Us Part life planning show for Slice TV. The rivalry with Davis and White, the best in figure skating these days, won’t be ignored, but the focus will be on the Canadians.

“They’ve been great about giving us access to stuff that you maybe wouldn’t see in a typical sports documentary,” Horvath said.

Virtue and Moir will provide the narration of the series through interviews. Their on-ice plot is yet to be written.

“I think (this year’s programs) skate and breath more,” Moir said. “We made Carmen (last year’s free dance) difficult. Now, it’s more about the harmony and the story of us going through some struggles and persevering. It’s a fitting story going into these Games.”

They’ll have plenty of footage for this Olympic ride, which will be much easier to watch if they end up in the front seat one more time.

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@темы: Tessa & Scott