Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir at 2010 Stars On Ice in Toronto (Photo by Justine Chiu)

What HAPPENED to Tessa and Scott was the message left for me on a message board within minutes of them starting their Free Dance performance at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei. I don’t know – yet – althought there is speculation about injury.

They started off fine in their Free Dance with a slim margin of less than one point ahead of training mates and rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White. A little bit of trouble on the twizzles and then they were into their rotational lift where Tessa hooks her leg around Scott’s neck. Then it was over. Once he put her down from the lift – she skated away – back to waiting coaches Marina Zueva and Igor Shpillband. A small conversation ensued and then Scott skated to the referee and they withdrew from the event. Some are saying that they saw the skaters exchange a few words on their way to take their opening position and whether or not this is significant – we don’t know. It’s funny, but I really wasn’t convinced that they were going to go to this event thinking that they would need more time for Tessa to recover. I was finally convinced when Scott’s older brother texted me last weekend to confirm what time the CBC broadcast was going to take place. I knew then that they would be going but still wondered about the risk involved – that said – once they got there it would not have occured to me that they could succumb to injury.

Just off the phone with my CBC colleague Scott Russell who says that it’s official – Tessa is Injured. He phoned me within moments of concluding a phone call with Skate Canada’s high performance director, Michael Slipchuk, who stated that tessa felt a tightness in her left quad muscle. Slipchuk goes on to say that it “is all part of the process in getting to be back on top.” Strange choice of words in my mind – injury should not be part of the process. The team had been scheduled for a press conference to take place about now (10:30am ET) and would not be appearing – presumably so that Tessa can get the necessary attention.

As disappointed as the fans are – I can only imagine how disappointed the athletes must be. When all is said and done, race horses ‘gotta run’ and coming up lame is never part of the race plan.,

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