@CoachTomZ: Perhaps @mirai_nagasu will do a 3a combo in her long program? Looking forward to this coming season for sure! @USFigureSkating @ISU_Figure (x)
Skater Meryl Davis talks Stars on Ice show at Germain Arena, missing the Olympics and visiting her Marco Island parents
Everyone on the Stars on Ice tour buses will be chattering about the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. But probably not ice dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis.
The gold medalists are sitting this one out, Davis says. And sheâs just fine with that.
Most of the time.
âEvery once in a while, I miss it,â says Davis, 30, calling from her home in Detroit. âI loved every minute of training for competition, and I absolutely loved competing.
âOf course, there are moments when I miss it. I miss that comfort zone. I miss that intensity. I missed being in the best shape.â
Then again, sheâs looking forward to whatever comes next â although she admits she has absolutely no idea what that might be. Sheâs almost finished earning an anthropology degree from the University of Michigan, for example, and that might mean a whole new career. Or maybe ice skating will lead her somewhere else, instead.
Davis and White havenât competed in ice dancing for three seasons, and they announced in February that they wouldnât be going to South Korea, either.
âWe made a decision,â Davis says. âWe wanted to focus on our next adventure. [But] I donât know what that next adventure will be.â
In the meantime, thereâs the Stars on Ice tour. White and Davis are part of an all-star lineup for this yearâs traveling ice-skating show, which opens April 13 at Germain Arena after rehearsing there.
The reigning Olympic ice-dancing champs will be joined by three-time U.S. national champion and 2016 World silver medalist Ashley Wagner, reigning two-time U.S. champion Gracie Gold, 2015 U.S. ice-dance champions and two-time World medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, four-time U.S. national champion, and Olympic bronze medalist Jeremy Abbott.
The News-Press chatted with Davis about more than just the Olympics. Hereâs what she had to say about:
Visiting Southwest Florida â a place sheâs quite familiar with.
âMy parents have a home on Marco Island,â she says. âIâve actually spent a lot of time in the area. I just go to the beach a lot and hang out and enjoy the weather.â
Why sheâs looking forward to the Stars on Ice tour and spending time with her fellow ice-skating champions.
âItâs kind of like family,â she says. âItâs a group of people who Iâve spent a lot of time with, people Iâve grown up with.
âItâs a blast! Itâs really, really fun.â
The idea that she and White arenât competing because they already won a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics and feel like thereâs nothing left to accomplish.
âIt isnât so black and white,â she says. âCharlie and I took until about a month and a half, two months ago to decide for sure to announce that we werenât going to go back to the Olympics.
âFor us, it really is a sort of intangible feeling⊠ We took that time, and were sort of blown in the direction of new adventures.â
Their Stars on Ice program, which includes ice dancing to the Fleur East song âSax.â
âIt was really a fun piece to put together,â she says. âItâs a little bit cheeky, a little flirty. Itâs high-energy. Itâs sort of a nice departure from our default type of music that we usually go for (classical).â
But there will be classical music, too. Theyâll be dancing to Samuel Barberâs famous âAdagio for Strings.â
âWe decided to take a more emotional, more modern approach to it,â Davis says. âItâs very âSo You Think You Can Danceâ-esque.â
The difference between competing in the Olympics and competing on âDancing with the Stars.â
âWith the Olympics, it was a LIFETIME of work that went into that,â she says. âOf course, we were ready. And of course, we wanted to do it for ourselves.
âBut thereâs a lot of pressure that goes into all those years of preparation and being an Olympian. It was really a lifetime of effort and work, not only for us, but all the people that supported us. So there was a lot of pressure to make sure we performed the way we had prepared for.
âOn the other hand, âDancing with the Starsâ was this amazing three-month experience. We were certainly, by no means, professional dancers. But we were having a great time and having fun. And so the experiences were incredibly different and played different roles in our lives.â
I've looked into my crystal ball, and see that V/M will definitely lose Worlds. The myth that P/C suck at SDs will be disproven in shattering fashion, and once P/C establish the lead, the judges will give them the FD win. .
When your classmate tells you she had a âMeryl and Charlieâ (because of DWTS) phase but is heartbroken they arenât competing anymore⊠and she says she needs a new team.. she said she has binge watched all of DWâs programs. When I mentioned Merylâs âLatchâ program, she knew what I was talking about. So I decided to show her Tessa and Scottâs and she was in love with them. We started to watch WeaPo but then we had to leave. I plan to show her more tomorrow.
Me: âOh, donât worry, Iâll find you a new teamâ
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