Top left, Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy capture the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy for their win on Season 18 of “Dancing with the Stars” in the spring of 2014. Above, White and partner Sharna Burgess also fare well in the same competition. Middle, airweave ambassadors Davis and White join the company’s CEO, Motokuni Takaoka, at the grand opening of the first U.S. airweave store in New York City. Airweave is a bedding topper company. Bottom, coaches Marina Zoueva and Oleg Epstein celebrate with their Olym- pic champions in the kiss and cry in Sochi.
with childhood shyness and dyslexia, didn’t really feel comfortable in her own skin until 2009. “People will ask, ‘Did you ever have that moment when you just
couldn’t keep going?’ ” she said. “I never doubted that I wanted to keep getting better. My own self-confidence was my biggest challenge, whether it was the way I looked on the ice or my skating ability. “Ten we did our Samson and Delilah free dance at Worlds in Los Angeles. Tat was the turning point. I felt I could hold my head high and feel proud, although we missed the podium by .04 points. I had a newfound feeling of confidence and appreciation of what I felt I could uniquely bring to the table.”
Another tough moment came when White broke an ankle during a hockey tournament in late 2004, forcing the team’s withdrawal from the 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. “We took some time off and I think we came back hungrier to get
out there and prove ourselves,” White said. “We made the transition at that point to work with Marina (Zoueva) and Igor (Shpilband), and that was really our introduction to getting to the top of our game internationally and hitting our potential. We didn’t win Junior Worlds that year (2006), but it was the beginning of our rivalry with Tessa (Virtue) and Scott (Moir).”
The drive to Olympic gold Looking back on the years training with Zoueva and Shpilband (un-
til June 2012) at Canton’s Arctic Edge, the skaters cite several keys to their success. “Igor was able to be a couple of steps ahead when the [international judging system] came out (in 2004),” White said. “He was really able to cement himself as an innovator when it came to the techni- cal elements. He was on top of it. He was passionate about it. He loved it.” In recent years, Zoueva served not only as pri-
mary coach, but as the choreographic genius behind their most memorable programs, including their “Bollywood” short dance of the 2009–10 season and the Olympics-winning free dance to Rimsky-Korsa- kov’s Scheherazade. “In my opinion, there are two things in partic-
ular Marina is the best in the world at,” Davis said. “One is the psychological approach to figure skating, not just teaching people technique and this and that, but asking, ‘How are you going to approach this as a person? What does this make you feel?’
24 FEBRUARY 2016
PHOTO BY MICHAEL SIMARI
SLAVEN VLASIC/GETTY IMAGES
PAUL ZIMMERMAN/WIREIMAGE
RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
