Rosie DiManno on the Villainy of Ice Dancing

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have been paired together for Ice Dancing for seventeen years, when Virtue was seven and Moir was nine.   While they are Canadian, they travel North through Detroit to train in at the Artic Edge rink in Canton, Michigan alongside their main rivals, Americans Charlie White and Meryl Davis.

Despite Toronto Star sports columnist Rosie DiManno's jaunty jingoistic jibes after Virtue and Moir took the Silver Medal in Ice Dancing with 190.99 points  as White and Davis took the Gold in Sochi with 195.53 score. This is a reverse of the placement at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. 

Vancouver Winter Olympics Ice Dancing Top Two Pairs 

While the Canadian pair was certainly disappointed that they were edged out of the top spot on the awards platform in 2014, Virtue showed more sportsmanship than the cranky Canadian columnist. 

Even Scott Moir's mom realizes that Ice Dancing is a judgment sport, where your fate is decided by a panel of seven judges.



So DiManno's philippic against the prostitution of ice dancing sounds like sour grapes coming from someone not picked for the dance.

As important as performance and perfection is at the Olympics, it also teaches life lessons.  Launching into crude attacks when your favorite does not win in a judgment discipline is the opposite of the beauty performed on the ice. In short, it's losing ugly.  Even more ugly than the Team USA Opening Ceremony Uniforms. They may get a lot of attention, but I wouldn't be caught dead wearing it or clothing myself in such bitter bile.