GRAND PRIX FINAL AMERICA’S TEAM
DAVIS AND WHITE RESPOND TO CANADIANS’ CHALLENGE, WIN RECORD FIFTH TITLE; WAGNER SECURES BRONZE
by RENEE FELTON America’s Team? Te moniker would seem
fitting, as Meryl Davis and Charlie White now have as many Grand Prix Final titles (to go with their five U.S. titles) as the Dallas Cowboys have Super Bowl wins. Te Michigan-based duo con- tinued to make history as they extended their
Grand Prix Final winning streak last month at the 2013 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Fukuoka, Japan. Te win came as no easy feat, as longtime
Canadian rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir recorded world-record scores in both the short
Meryl Davis and Charlie White perform their delightful short program to My Fair Lady.
dance and free dance immediately before the Americans took the ice. “It makes an already challenging skate a lit-
tle more nerve-racking when you see someone record a score like that before you skate,” White said. “Luckily, we’ve been doing this a long time and come prepared for anything. We were able to take it in stride and still be able to perform our best.”
Teir best indeed. Davis and White went
to set their own world records in captivating fashion. Tey took the narrowest of leads, 0.07 points to be exact, into the free dance after earn- ing 77.66 points for their My Fair Lady short program. Davis and White were looking for a score of at least 112.35 to claim the win. When the mu- sic started, it seemed you could have heard a pin drop in the packed house of the Marine Messe Arena.
And as the Scheherazade program began to
build, there was almost a collective holding of the breath until the ending pose when the crowd rose to its feet, American flags waving in the stands and flowers and goodies raining down onto the ice.
“It’s such an amazing feeling to finish your
program and know you put everything into it then look up and see that the crowd realized it. It means so much to us,” White said.
Davis and White display their record fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final gold medals.
36 JANUARY 2014
ATSUSHI TOMURA/GETTY IMAGES
TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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