Unsurprising silver for Canada in the figure-skating team event
Most of the suspense was long over when the final routines of the inaugural team event in ice dance were skated Sunday night.
Host Russia would win the gold regardless and Canada the silver – its second silver medal of the Sochi Games and fourth overall.
In the end, it wasn't even close. Russia was the strongest across all disciplines; the Canadians couldn't match up in the women's event, with 15-year-old phenom Yulia Lipnitskaya head and shoulders over Canadian Katelyn Osmond.
The gold medalists finished with 75 points. The Canadians had 65, and the American bronze medalists 60.
The only suspense came out of the medals, where Italy edged out Japan for fourth place by finishing one spot better in the ice dance.
Any potential prejudice in the ice dance portion, the subject of so much talk earlier in the week after a story in the French sports newspaper L'Équipe, wouldn't have come close to affecting the medal results, even if it had occurred.
Team Canada was ahead by six placement points before the ice dance long program wrapped up the event. Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White outpacing Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir – again – only allowed them to make up one point in the standings.
On the positive side, Virtue and Moir had no problems with their twizzles, as they did in the short program.
Both teams had minor mistakes, though. And in spite of that, the Americans scored 114.34 points for their routine, nearly seven points more than the Canadians. That total was a new world record in the current scoring system.
"Hmmmmmmm," mused CBC skating analyst Kurt Browning.
The ultimate difference between the two pairs – stylistic preferences aside – is that the Americans' footwork sequences are graded at a slightly higher level.
Still, that's a huge gap. And that will keep the judging "scandal" story alive for another week. The individual ice dance event doesn't begin until next Sunday.
