Canada's Virtue/Moir win second Olympic gold in ice dance

Xinhua | Updated: 2018-02-20 14:30

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Gold medalists Tessa Virtue (C, Front) and Scott Moir (C, Back) of Canada, silver medalists Gabriella Papadakis (L, Front) and Guillaume Cizeron (L, Back) of France and bronze medalists Maia Shibutani (R, Front) and Alex Shibutani of the United States pose for group photos after the ice dance free dance of figure skating at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, in Gangneung Ice Arena, South Korea, on Feb 20, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, making debut at the Winter Olympic Games, danced to Piano Sonata, Moonlight Sonata to score 123.35 points and 205.28 in total to pocket the silver medal.

American Maia and Alex Shibutani settled for the bronze on 192.59 points after earning 114.86 in free dance, becoming the second pair of siblings to win an Olympic medal in ice dance, after French Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay-Dean claimed silver in 1992.

The Canadian duo teamed up in 1997 when Virtue was seven and Moir aged nine. Training individually under Moir's aunt, who suggested they would make good dance partners and paired them together, they came out the first Canadian world junior champions in 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Soon, they become a star pair in both home and abroad, reaching their career high at Vancouver with a gold medal.

After Sochi, where they brought home a silver medal, Virtue and Moir announced their retirement, but came back to rink in 2016 and won the second place in 2017-2018 grand prix final. They planned to retire again after Pyeongchang.

"If it is the end we are extremely pleased with that. We'll probably make an announcement in the coming days, but for us we just want to enjoy this right now," said Moir.