Thread by @walrusmagazine

Hi, @genna_buck here. My profile of Tessa Virtue didn’t include much fodder for those who enjoy our national pastime—discussing her partnership with Scott Moir. So here’s a Twitter thread about it! 1/15 thewalrus.ca/the-olympics-a…

If you ask skating people what makes Virtue and Moir so magical, they’ll likely answer “everything,” then get into their perfect height difference, their musicality, the bend of their knees. But mostly, it’ is their CONNECTION 2/15

The connection is what makes them so watchable. But what is it, really? And could a future Canadian ice-dance team study and replicate it? 3/15

Virtue and Moir started getting relationship questions almost before they were old enough to understand them. Their basic answer never wavers: they’re not together, and haven’t been since they were “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” at 8 and 10

In April 2018, during the post-Olympics hurricane, Virtue said the interrogations were missing the point: the “chemistry or romance or connection or sexual tension” people see is really “a genuine level of care.” Twenty-one years of hard work and making the partnership a priority

Twenty-one years spinning in the same circle of personal space. Leaving home at around 13 and 15. Moir not knowing what to say to Virtue when she was injured and needed surgery at 19. Coming back stronger, to 3 Olympics and 5 medals, including 3 golds 6/15

Now their relationship is changing again. My feature talks a lot about the Olympic comedown—the mental struggle athletes go through to accept that, if they’re lucky, they will outlive their success by many decades. They have to find what’s next 7/15

The comedown is also social. Team athletes often feel isolated when they retire because they lose their circle of friends. The stress of the Olympics is hard to understand if you haven’t been through it. Teammates can come out the other side almost mystically bonded 8/15

Virtue and Moir have been there three times. Mixed-doubles curling is the only other Winter Olympic sport with opposite-sex pairs—and the intimacy does not compare to an ice-dance or pairs skating team. Skating partners often spend more time together than life partners 9/15

The heat between them during their “Moulin Rouge!” dance was palpable through a phone screen. I remember thinking: How is it possible that we can feel this, but they don’t? As the kids say: seems fake 10/15

Through my reporting, I learned a lot about one possible reason: an aspect of their dynamic they call their code of respect. They don’t reproach or criticize each other. They credit each other for their successes, and blame problems on external factors 11/15

Could this code, which they developed early on and has served them so well, have bled into how they talk about one another? In my experience, Virtue and Moir talk each other up constantly, often in adoring terms. They rarely to never say anything negative 12/15

Moir also said their sweetness is not cynical. Some people think the two have, consciously or not, leaned into the romance rumours to extend the intrigue for judges, fans, or sponsors. (Also known as “shipbaiting”) 13/15

Moir got delightfully salty at the suggestion. “What people see on the ice is love. I don't know if it’s respect of her skill, if I love her as a person, or that close relationship or friendship that we have, but I’m feeling so fortunate,” he said. “I don’t fake anything.” 14/15

He gets why people find it puzzling. “I think, at this point, our life is just too much in there, and we respect each other too much, and love each other so much, that... it’s just a very different relationship thing than people would expect off of the ice." 15/15

For more on the Olympic comedown and Tessa Virtue's next steps, read @genna_buck's profile here: thewalrus.ca/the-olympics-a…