Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who led the Canadian Olympic Team into the opening ceremonies at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea and then went out and won the the gold medal in ice dancing with a record-breaking score, have been voted Canadian Press team of the year
Virtue and Moir are now the first figure skaters in history to own five career Olympic medals
Virtue and Moir hold up the Canadian flag during victory ceremonies at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics Tuesday, February 20. They left the Games with a career total of five medals. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
In South Korea, they added to the Olympic ice dance title they won at Vancouver 2010, the two silver medals they captured in the ice dance and team events at Sochi 2014, and the team event gold they won in PyeongChang.
The pair join Brooke Henderson and Mikaël Kingsbury in garnering end-of-the-year awards in the CP poll of writers and broadcasters across the country and are just the second figure skaters to win the team of the year award, after Jamie Salé and David Pelletier in 2001.
Their team of the year victory was a runaway as they picked up 39 of the 54 votes (72.2 per cent) in the poll.
Canada’s junior hockey team that won gold at the 2018 world championships placed second with five votes (9.3 per cent) and the Université Laval football team, which won the Canadian university championship, the Vanier Cup, was third with four votes (7.4 per cent).
Virtue and Moir perform during the figure skating exhibition gala in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. The pair was rewarded for their historic comeback gold medal performance at the PyeongChang Olympics by winning the The Canadian Press team of the year for 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Felipe Dana
“It’s so incredible, I was looking back at the history of this (award) to get some perspective and just trying to understand how 10 months later people still seem to care, or remember us and it’s a great moment to reflect,” Virtue told Canadian Press.
“Of course, it’s the end of the year, but 10 months after the Games, it’s a nice chance to just take a moment and reflect at the Olympics had across Canada.
While millions remember the performance, Virtue says she is such a perfectionist that she hasn’t mustered the nerve to watch it.
At least not yet.
With files from CP, CBC, Global, Sportsnet,
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