THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — An injury setback may have cut short their season debut, but Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir say it won’t keep them from their quest for another world title.
Canada’s ice dance champions were forced to withdraw from the Four Continents championships last week — their first competition in 11 months — when Virtue felt tightness in her thigh.
But the 21-year-old Virtue said the injury, which forced them to stop just 30 seconds into their free program, wasn’t related to the surgery she underwent in the fall to alleviate chronic pain in her lower legs. And it won’t affect their training plans, they said, for the March 21-27 world championships in Tokyo.
"It was something I felt going into the competition. It was nothing serious, and I expected to push through it," Virtue said. "The day of the free dance, it got a bit overwhelming. I’ll be dealing with the injury, and it shouldn’t stop us from training at all."
Virtue and Moir spoke on a conference call Tuesday as part of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s look back at the 2010 Games. Virtue and Moir captured Canada’s first Olympic ice dance gold at year ago in Vancouver and became the youngest ice dance champions ever — Virtue was 20 and Moir was 22.
The whirlwind weeks that followed saw them skate with Stars on Ice in 12 Canadian cities, make numerous public appearances, and even dine with the Queen.
But Virtue realized in the fall her legs weren’t 100 per cent. She had undergone surgery in 2008 on her shins for the chronic pain caused by compartment syndrome, but the pain never completely disappeared. She revealed later she’d competed in pain at the Vancouver Olympics, the aching so bad at times it was difficult to make the 10-minute walk from her room at the athletes’ village to the cafeteria.
The second surgery this past September was meant to alleviate pressure on her calves. The procedure was like slicing the casing of a sausage.
"I feel great, it’s such a relief to have found a solution to my pain," Virtue said. "I’m pleased to say I’m healthy and my shins and calves aren’t giving me any grief."
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., are the defending world champions, but will be pushed in Tokyo by training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the U.S., who went on to win Four Continents.
Moir said despite the setbacks this season, they’ve been able to get some decent training under their belts. Compared to the 2008-09 season, where they won world bronze on the heels of Virtue’s first surgery, "this season has already blown that season out of the water."
"I think we’d done as many run-throughs (of their programs) before New Year’s this year than we did in all of the 2008 season," Moir said.
"In 2008 our product suffered because we weren’t physically able to do the training and get the program where we wanted it to be. This time we’ve been able to do the programs, we’re training and following our plan, it’s going really well."
Moir said he couldn’t believe a year had passed since the two captured gold in Vancouver, thrilling the Pacific Coliseum crowd with their dreamy long program to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
"When we were there with 10,000-plus people — and what seemed like 10,000 Canadians — cheering us on, it was just a feeling we’ll never forget," Moir said. "It’s been quite an interesting ride trying to find audiences that can match that and I don’t think we’ll ever find that again in our career."
The two haven’t committed to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
"Right now our biggest goal is to win the world championships," Moir said. "We’re on track to do that, that’s where our immediate goal is. As for long term that’s a good question…"
"We’re just planning for one season at a time," Virtue added. "This season wasn’t ideal, the circumstances with my surgery, but I think it’s given us a chance to do what we love again and to give ourselves a chance to win another world title, and we’re feeling great about that."