on paper, usa ice dance super couple charlie white and meryl davis are clear favorites to win gold in sochi. They won silver in Vancouver and have since won gold at two world championships, six national championships, and five grand prix finals. in the 2014 usa figure skating championships in boston, the pair scored their personal best free skate and finished with the highest possible score for their routine.
But what’s even more special about the tandem is that White, 26, and Davis, 27, have been skating together since 1997, the longest in the US. uu. ice dance couple has ever skated together.
Since being placed together as children, White and Davis have held hands through 17 years of success, failure and undeniable chemistry on the ice. it is their longstanding partnership that will land them on the gold medal podium on the world’s biggest stage.
it wasn’t necessarily a seamless transition for white and davis to start skating together. at eight and nine years old, respectively, the couple were at an age where holding hands with people of the opposite sex was decidedly gross. White was a single skater who took up ice dancing to improve her posture, and Davis was a shy girl who needed to be brought out of her shell.
but as fate would have it, a coach at the detroit ice skating club thought the two would make a strong couple. Davis recalls mllive’s kyle austin presenting, “charlie was a couple of months ahead of me in terms of the ice dance world, so when he teamed up with someone who hadn’t had any ice dance experience at all, it was a little…”
“put on,” added white, “I was like ‘she doesn’t even know what she’s doing.'”
fortunately, the duo patiently worked to foster a functional and lasting relationship, winning a silver medal at the u.s. junior olympics their first year together. that was just the beginning for the couple, who grew together from then on.
both attended public school; White played hockey on a team that won the high school state championship, Davis overcame dyslexia and became an honor society student. Together they graduated from high school and enrolled as students at the University of Michigan, where they were able to focus on their studies while successfully skating in six consecutive national championships.
Jacqui white and cheryl davis, also known as “the moms” on the runway, are the mothers of the couple who spend most of their time together to support their children. “The Moms” talk about the duo’s working relationship over the years, saying: “Meryl and Charlie’s relationship is much more difficult than a marriage. How many people do you know who spend 10 hours a day with their husband and wife?” White said at the P&G lifting an Olympic series, “There is only one word to have a lasting relationship and that is respect. comes first.”
Respect and trust are two components of a couple’s relationship that have stood the test of time, which is evident when you see them perform. in perfect sync, white and davis glide flawlessly in unison, lifting each other into the air, as if the two were born to be together on ice.
“We’ve been very lucky to have a lot of the same goals in skating and I think that’s why we’ve always had a very similar work ethic and great families to keep us happy,” White said, according to brandon penny for teamusa, ” there are many things that have contributed to our great relationship, but we really care about each other, which is one of the main things.”
With the eyes of the world watching Sochi, White and Davis will perform the same magic on the ice they have worked 17 years to perfect. Countless hours of practice, sacrifice, and hard work will no doubt put them in position, but it will be the duo’s undeniable chemistry that will ultimately lead the couple to Olympic gold and the hearts of millions.