On February 17, American Olympic ice dancers, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, achieved the goal of a lifetime: the gold medal. Davis, 27, and White, 26, who are natives of Detroit, Michigan have been training for practically a lifetime for this monumental accomplishment. After 17 years of being partners and basically family, Davis says, “We’ve grown up together in every sense of the word, and I’m just so grateful that we were able to do it together.”
The dynamic duo broke their own world record to take home the win with a score of 195.52 points. Their biggest competitors and training partners of four years from Canada, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, finished second with 190.99 points, winning the silver medal. This put the shared coach of the two countries, Marina Zoueva, in somewhat of an awkward position, but she says, “I love and respect both teams.” Coming in third place with the bronze medal and 183.48 points was the home team, Russia (Elena Llinykh and Nikita Katsalapov). Virtue and Moir plan on retiring from Olympic training, but there is much hope that fan favorites, White and Davis will return for the next Winter Olympics.
Performing an almost flawless routine to “Scheherazade,” White and Davis seemed to be flying. They displayed grace and elegance as well as intensity and confidence. Davis says, “It hasn’t been easy to get where we are,” although they certainly did not let this show. Davis also says, “Charlie and I are different. We use those differences to balance it out. There has never been a moment of doubt.” This is exactly the confidence they needed and utilized to be the first Americans in Olympic history to win the gold medal in ice dancing. After taking home the silver medal in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, this was the pair’s dream come true.
This lifelong team has made both their mothers and their country proud while doing what they love.