Davis & White First American World Ice Dance Champions
Now that the draft is over: National champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White (anyone who clicks on this must by now know they're Michigan students) are the first Americans to win world gold in Ice Dancing, in Moscow of all places. The Russians used to own ice dancing, but fortunately Canton, Michigan has a couple of Russian coaches, and all three teams on the podium are North Americans who train there: the Canadian team, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir , who narrowly beat Davis & White for Olympic Gold, came in second here, and bronze was won by Michigan's own Alex Shibutani and his sister Maia in their very first world competition.
The competition was originally scheduled for Tokyo, but delayed and moved to Moscow due to the earthquake.
NY Times article link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/sports/01skate.html?_r=1&ref=sports
(an article I stumbled upon while watching the competition on TV before I've even gotten to the top few teams... If anyone has Universal Sports, the Shibutanis are about to compete.)
I trust our ice dance insiders will give us the inside info when they're through celebrating. Congrats to all.
From Maia and Alex's web page:
Plus I love the fact they won it in Moscow!! Congrats
Yet another win for the Blue over the red. Congrats to two great great representatives of the University.
If anyone is interested or knows someone interested in getting a great piece of autographed memorabilia from White & Davis, they signed this http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action?id=122214080 for an auction benefitting UofM undergrad scholarships.
Go Blue!
And to think people were complaining after the hockey final that we never win anything.
that is a very large nose
is hot, just sayin.
I would like to do a romance inside of the girl on the left.
Tessa she is Canada and trains in michigan...i had her in one of my psych classes at the University of Windsor
April 30th, 2011 at 10:32 PM ^
Did you give her the old "Canadian Volcano"?
April 30th, 2011 at 10:50 PM ^
haha, i had to urban dictionary it
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=canadian%20volcano
I thought it was a "How I Met Your Mother" reference...
<br>
<br>Those wacky Canadians...
Very popular in the mountainous regions of Canada. HAHA. Canadian Whale Penis sounds like a good one too,
How crazy is it that they ALL train in Michigan, and that HALF of those on the podium are University of Michigan students??? GO BLUE, indeed!
Also, happy 20th birthday, Alex! Way to ring in the second decade of your life in style! (according to wikipedia, Alex Shibutani turned 20 on April 25; the Worlds are April 24 through tomorrow, although today was the last day of competition - tomorrow is just exhibitions).
April 30th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
Second decade would mean Alex was turning 10.
But I did just flick it on to watch, and they didn't mess anything up and it looked like what they did was harder than the other two?
I met Meryl a few times (she's a friend of a friend). Nice girl.
As the commentator said, they were flawless. And I'm speechless (now that I've seen it). Incredible flow, even with all that intricacy. Perfection.
Translation from the Gushy: They were good. They were really, really, REALLY good.
April 30th, 2011 at 10:08 PM ^
I used to study chess with an ex-Soviet champion Grand Master in the Cleveland area. I only had about a dozen lessons with the guy but he gave me a lot of good ideas and kicked my butt up and down the board a good few times. These kids are lucky to get to work with such exceptional teachers.
April 30th, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
I've posted before about Meryl; she and her family are about the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
Meryl is a very level headed, friendly, and kind young woman. To talk to her, you'd never know that she is a world champion, she's modest and unassuming.
It's no surprise that UM has been putting the pair on some of their literature. Oddly enough, she's not on scholarship. She goes through UM like any other student, and works really hard to accomplish all this stuff.
April 30th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
I have family ties in figure skating (My sister Brooke won Nationals in 2007 in Pairs) and can say that they are very hard working and deserving of their World CHampionship. I actually found out this morning that they won when my mom was running around my house screaming (All three teams trained with my sister and are good friends). Congrats Charlie, Meryl, Alex, Maia, Scotty and Tessa!
It's absolutely great! I've actually trained/train all of them in their off-ice strength & conditioning.
But we won. So I am interested.
USA! USA! USA!
There's another team who are/were students, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates. Evan has been injured this year, but roomed with Charlie White last year.
PS Free replays of all their programs are on youtube, otherwise you have to pay on Universal Sports.
That's absolutely terrific. Leaders and Best personfied. I realize that Umich doesn't sponsor the sport but those kids are true blue Wolverines. The incredible breadth of what goes on at Michigan if you take the time to notice is mind blowing. Go Blue!