“I wasn’t good until I started skating with Tessa. The competitiveness really pushed me” - Scott
“As a kid I was a bruiser. I grew up with two older brothers and an older sister, and played bodycheck hockey games and mini-sticks. When I was little, while watching my brothers play football, I was cheerleading on the sidelines, doing my gymnastic routines. I was always active. I was a bit of a tomboy. I was a tough kid.” - Tessa
“But when he was six and starting to learn elementary toe jumps, he needed figure skates with their toe picks. He got two pairs of hand me downs from his cousins, but they were white. One pair the family painted black, and the other required black boot covers to hide the original colour. ‘One time, my mom had forgotten to put one boot cover on,’ he says. ‘I can remember one of the rink guys saying ‘nice white skates’ so I wouldn’t go on the ice. I had one white skate and one black skate, and I thought the world was going to figure out that the black skate was actually a white skate too. White skates were supposed to be for girls.’” - Scott
“I don’t remember necessarily a first attraction, but I remember always sort of being aware of where Scott was in the rink. In any activity group he was kind of buzzing about, but I was always keeping an eye on him for some reason.” - Tessa
“You gave me flowers,” says Tessa, giggling. “But I was going to get them anyways. You just happened to grab them from the bucket and give them to me.”….“I was ten years old,” Scott retorts. “I didn’t have the allowance to buy flowers. I kissed her on the cheek that night too. She had to be in the next number right away so it probably wasn’t the best time.”
“I always think that dance kind of chose us.” - Scott
"He had a buzzed head,“ Tessa says (of the time she really remembered Scott for the first time)
“It was summer, man, it was a buzz cut,” Scott replies
“Sometimes you’d dye it blond.”
“Yeah, I did a whole bunch of things to it.”
Scott “I was getting kicked out of the ballet classes, because I was just goofing around.”
On a summer camp prank “We wanted to put chickens in their dressing room,” Scott says, “but we couldn’t get any chickens at that time of year, so we got little chicks instead and all the girls went “Awww, they’re so cute!” They wanted to take them home.“
"Tessa points out that she can still beat Scott when they play on the bubble hockey game at the rink when they need a diversion from training. To which Scott jokingly replies, "Tessa is stretching this, she can’t beat me at bubble hockey.”
Their first ice dance event:
“At the event, both sets of parents were standing together on the wooden steps of the arena, laughing because their children looked so cute together.” (Kate Virtue)
On testing:
“As he grew older, Scott would also partner other dancers through the various levels of testing. In either situation, his inner reaction was the same. Every time, I’d say to myself, "Okay, but Tessa, come back. I hated to skate with anyone else but Tess.”
On moving to Kitchener:
“It was a big time of our lives and we were both scared,” Scott concedes. “We were together a lot during that time. Not only were we skating partners, but we were really each other’s family because we were more or less alone in Kitchener- Waterloo.”
“Tessa and Scott never had the same lunch period, so he was unable to help her with that first-year lunchtime lonliness, but their lokers were right next to each other. Tessa would encourage Scott with his schoolwork and "when I’d get down she’d help me. And sometimes the other way around.”
Moving to Canton:
“Until Kate Virtue joined her daughter in Canton eight months later, Scott, who had a car, would drive Tessa to the rink, grocery store, and home to western Ontario for the weekends. The three hours they’d spend in the car together, talking about everything but skating, further deepened an already deep relationship.”
Respect:
“We know it’s a team,” Scott replies. “I could easily have lost count on my twizzles too. We don’t get mad at each other, it doesn’t make sense.”
“We hear teams yelling and swearing at each other all the time,” Tessa says. “We’ve never said so much as 'shut up’ to one another.”
On how Tessa hugs.
“When Tessa gets really excited, she does this thing between a laugh and a cry. It’s the best. Usually I’m hugging her at that point and it’s so awesome.”
On Tessa finding out about her surgery:
“After I talked to Dr.Julia, I had a little moment of crying. Then I called Scott, and then Marina and Igor.”
Hardships in their friendship after Tessa’s surgery:
“But the worst development was something only they knew about, and their voices still crack when they try to describe it. "We didn’t talk,” they said in perfect unison.
“It was like we grew apart so much in those two months,” Scott says. “We had to learn how to get along and try to support each other. It was really quite strange.”
“They were getting along well on the ice, but were still virtual strangers off it. And that was eating away at both of them. They did not "have a comfort zone unless we were on the ice,” recalls Scott. “So that off-season we spent a lot of time just trying to get back together, trying to become the friends that we had been.”
(and they did)
“I knew I had support from Scott and he had it from me, but we weren’t expressing that, because we didn’t know how to.” Tessa said.
“It would take much of the Olympic season for Tessa and Scott to restore, and then tighten even more, their longtime closeness and off ice friendship.”
**We know that they won’t make that mistake this time!!**
Listening to Mahler for the first time and both liking it:
“That was one of the major steps towards regaining their off-ice relationship: they were thinking the same way again, and they were playing off of each other’s excitement.
Nationals 2010 and first "10”:
“That was a big turning point in the off-ice relationship,” Tessa now realizes. “We had to be supportive and we had to be there for each other.”
Finally, back together permanently (Japan):
“We connected,” Tessa smiles. “we were talking but there was more than we weren’t saying that was understood. It was the first time we had felt that again.”
Canadian Nats 2010:
“Off the ice, our relationship was better than it’s ever been, and I came away from the nationals feeling that we were going to win the Olympics.”
OLYMPICS!!:
Opening ceremony:
“We were back on track off the ice, in terms of our relationship, so marching through that together was such a team thing for us, it was just like this,” Tessa says, clasping her hands tightly. “We did everything together for the entire Olympics.” <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Scared before CD:
“We knew we had to make a first good impression,” Scott explains. “Tessa was talking to me and I wasn’t even litening. I was zoned out- she actually had to grab my hand and say , 'hey, hey, we’re here, it’s us. And somehow, I don’t know how, I snapped out of it when we got back on the ice.”
“Halfway through their Tango Romantica, the audience began clapping so loudly that Scott kept yelling at Tessa to keep focused.
'We’d never been more in tune with each other,’ Tessa grins. 'Never been more together. It was the best!’”
Joannie (this is long):
“I stopped and gve her her space. I just said, "I’m so sorry,” and “Your mom’s with you.” I was in shock. It didn’t really register.“ -Tessa
"Before leaving for practice, Scott automatically wondered if his own parents would be in the stands, and that’s when it hit him and he broke down crying. "Jo would never get to have that. Her mom would never see her at the Games.”
“Tessa’s voice cracks when she recalls that Kate Virtue was in the stands that morning. Tessa and Scott continually squeezed each other’s hands for support, and on the bus home Tessa broke down and so they talked about the situation rather than ignore it.”
Preparing:
“If you ever want to get to know yourself,” Scott says, “try those last twelve hours before an Olympic final. You have so much time with your own thoughts, absolutely everything that could happen goes through your mind.”
Tessa is always right:
“Thirteen years together and I have learned this lesson,” Scott laughs. “When you think you’re right and Tessa thinks she’s right, chances are Tessa’s right.”
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