Canadian Ice Dancers Virtue and Moir Win the Gold at 2010 Vancouver Olympics; Americans Davis and White Take Silver

The 2010 Olympic Ice dancing saw two North American teams on the podium. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the gold medal and USA's Meryl Davis and Charlie White won silver. Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin settled for Bronze.

1. For the first time in ice dancing history, a team won the gold medal in their debut Olympic appearance. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, skating together since they were children, put on the show of their life, with romance, emotion and unfettered joy. At the conclusion of their skate, the crowd jumped to their feet, and the medal ceremony saw the entire arena and the medallists belting out "O Canada." Virtue and Moir's stunning, intricate three-part lifts, flawless twizzles and dizzying spins won them the top score all season for free dance, 110.52, for a gold medal score of 221.57.

2. USA's Meryl Davis and Charlie White also had the skate of their life, holding the record for the highest free dance score all season for a brief ten minutes, when Virtue and Moir broke it. Davis and White can now say they are no longer in the shadow of Belbin and Agosto, besting their teammates for the first time in competition. Their most notable move was a back-to-back lift, where Davis' skate was on the back of White's leg. White told an interviewer that he found adding padding interfered with his skating, so he said he "decided to live with the bruise." They were flawless and clean and their twizzles were perfect. White, a University of Michigan sophomore, quipped in an NBC interview, "If there's one thing that can top a Michigan football game, it would be an Olympic medal." With a free dance score of 107.19 and a total of 215.74, Davis and White have indeed topped a Michigan State football game, taking home the silver.

3. Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, ever the controversial pair, took the ice in costumes that included ropes around them that they used for their lifts. There will probably be a rule forbidding this next year, according to the announcers. They skated an exciting routine, and did it well. Their lifts were impressive, their twizzles and spins in good unison, and they skated with speed and confidence, if not without a few technical errors that only earned them the bronze. Their score of 101.04 gave them a total of 207.64.

4. USA's Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto performed flawless twizzles and spins, but their lifts just were not as striking as the medal winners. The dramatic program seemed to build in intensity and they seemed more attuned to each other than they've been in their other performances. Their other elements were performed beautifully, but not well enough to pull them ahead of the Russians. Their score of 99.74 brought their total to 203.07, for fourth place.

Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali placed fifth, while France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder finished in sixth. Honorable mention must go to USA's Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, who finished 11th. These Olympics are experience for them, and they topped their own personal best by eight points with an impressive program, hinting that they could be a force in the next Olympic games.

All in all, it was a good night for North American ice dancers. The joy in the arena was palpable for both the Canadians and Americans, but the Russians looked like they had just sucked a lemon. Oh, well. The Russians never did know how to lose well.

Sources: NBC-TV 10 Philadelphia; Ice Dancing Results