Monday looks to be an exciting day with the American ice dancing team composed of Charlie White and Meryl Davis. Favored to win the gold in the Sochi Games, the pair finished in first after the short program on Sunday.
It has been a long four years since White and Davis took the silver in Vancouver falling to Canadian’s, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir as previously reported. All training partners, the Canadian’s secured the gold in 2010 with a score of 221.74. However since the Winter Games in 2010, White and Davis have surpassed their rivals and look to win the first U.S. gold medal in ice dancing.
After skating last in the short program, White and Davis scored an international personal best with 78.89 leading second place Virtue and Moir by 2.56 points reported the Associated Press. Russian team, Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov are third after the short program, 3.29 points behind the Canadians. Other American teams, Madison Chock and Evan Bates and Maia and Alex Shibutani, are in eight and ninth.
Skating together for the past 17 years, White and Davis began skating together when they were young and have waited for this Olympic moment for some time now.
“We have been through so much together in competitions and in life. It’s just having that consistency in our training and our approach, and when it comes to big competitions, being a little bit nervous. You want to be able to count on that,’’ said White.
White and Davis will take the rink last again Monday night for the long program.