Tessa Virtue Interview
In our latest interview we speak to Tessa Virtue the 3 time Ice Dancing medallist legend. Tessa tells us about how she got into figure skating as a child, and how early she was paired with her longtime partner Scott Moir. Tessa explains her experiences of winning gold on home soil in Vancouver, taking the Silver in Sochi and how that motivated her to come back focused on the Gold again in 2018. Tessa also tells us about her media experiences away from the ice, including her own official Barbie that's available in stores.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: Welcome back to Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast as we get closer and closer to the 2020 slash 2021 Tokyo Summer Games. And we're continuing to bring you interviews from Olympians past, present, future, whatever. Today, we actually get to go back to the past for one of the most accomplished figure skaters of all time. We're talking to Tessa Virtue, who along with her partner Scott Moir won two gold medals, one in Vancouver, one in Pyeongchang, and a silver in between, as well as multiple world championships. Tessa is one of the most accomplished figure skaters of all time, which we do get to talk to her about all those accomplishments here on this interview, and as well catching up with what she's up to right now and what it's been like since she retired from figure skating about a year and a half, two years ago. And as you hear me say in this interview, I mean, Tessa is one of those athletes that we've probably talked about on this podcast, going back several years. Like who do we want to get on one of these days? We'd love to get Tessa Virtue on here. So mission accomplished. This is a really good chat and hope everybody enjoys it. Let's get right into it. Here is our interview with Tessa Virtue.
COLIN HILDING: We are thrilled to bring you another Winter Olympian interview, as that seems to be our trend the last couple of weeks, as we're gearing up for the Summer Olympics appropriately. We'll bring you winter athletes, but we couldn't be happier, because today we get to talk to a three-time Olympic medallist, two-time gold medallist, three-time world champion, reality TV star, and many other ventures, which I'm sure we'll get into a little bit here. Tessa Virtue, Tessa, thanks so much for being here.
TESSA VIRTUE: Oh, well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
COLIN HILDING: Now, we always start out these interviews just by asking how you got into the sport in the first place. I mean, you grew up in Canada, so skating is just natural before you can walk for some kids. But figure skating specifically, how did you get into that as a kid?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, you're right. Being Canadian, it's in our blood, isn't it? It's just ingrained in us from such an early age. Well, I actually started skating. I had my grandmother drive me to the rink for lessons when I was six, because my grade one class was going on a field trip, and I wanted to be able to skate with them. And she showed up at the rink, and it was actually Scott's aunt who was teaching Carol at the time. And my grandmother said, this is just the thing Tessa does for fun. It's going to be a hobby, no tests, no competitions. And about a year later, I was paired with Scott. So that didn't last very long.
COLIN HILDING: Well, that's funny because we interview so many people, and they'll always say, I was really competitively into sports and all that. And I sort of eventually got into this professionally or amateur, whatever, really got competitive, but it was just sort of a hobby for you. So when did you, do you even remember sort of making the jump to, I want to do this competitively?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, I grew up in a family that was really sports oriented. There was a heavy emphasis on both education and sport. And so my parents wanted to expose us to any and every activity possible. So the list was endless of my after school hobbies. But it didn't take long for Scott and I to realise that we liked the competition side of it. I think we both have that drive quite naturally. And it was just about being the best in juvenile that we could possibly be, and then moving our way up to pre-novice. I suppose when we started to travel from London to Waterloo to train with different coaches and better ice dance teams, it was obvious we were taking it more seriously. And then of course, when I was 13 and Scott was 15, we moved away from home to pursue that on a different level.
COLIN HILDING: And you have to forgive me for my ignorance here, because I follow figure skating. I mean, tune in every single time for the Olympics and all that, and even just regular events. But I can't quite wrap my head around the difference between regular pairs figure skating and ice dancing. What is the major difference? Is it the music? Is it what you're allowed to do as far as like the technique?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, ice dance is just a discipline of figure skating. So the rules are different in that we don't jump. We don't do overhead lifts. So the man's arms aren't extended overhead. Yeah, some of the intricacies are quite different in the technical demands.
COLIN HILDING: When you and Scott were paired up, did you try different disciplines?
TESSA VIRTUE: We both continued our single skating throughout, well into our teenage years. It was important to build that set of skating skills and whether that was jumping or spinning, I think that really served a purpose for us. But as soon as we were paired up, it was always about ice dance. We were always close in size and neither of us really had any interest in big throws or triple jumps.
COLIN HILDING: And how important do you feel like the chemistry was, the experience you guys had from such a young age in the success you had later on? Because, I mean, you might arguably go down as the most rewarded, competitive, the most successful duo of all time. And I don't know if that's a regular thing, that you'll just find a pair at such a young age and stick with it for decade, two decades?
TESSA VIRTUE: I think it's somewhat rare. We had an American counterparts, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, whom we competed against for many, many years. And they too had that sort of longevity. But we felt really fortunate to have been paired up at that age. I mean, it was wild to think about how much time we've spent together, just in all of our training, in all of the years. But I think that added to the level of trust we had, the prioritization of that partnership and really leveraging the strength of that and really wanting to be our best for one another. There was an accountability there that, you know, I don't think it could have manifested in a different way.
COLIN HILDING: And you both emerged with 2010, you'll be in both World Champions and then obviously as well, the Vancouver Olympics. Now, were the World Championships before the Olympics or were the Olympics first? Which came first?
TESSA VIRTUE: The Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: And did you know, I guess, a year, two years out, hey, we have a shot at making the Olympics, let alone that it's gonna be at home in Vancouver?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, we had known for quite some time, I'm not sure, is it eight years in advance or nine years in advance when they announced where the games would be? So even at that point, Scott said, we'll be there. But we narrowly missed out on the Torino Games in 2006. We were the alternates, and that was just devastating for us. It was truly heartbreaking at 16 and 18, thinking that we needed that Olympic experience there before we could leverage any kind of success in Vancouver. Four years later, and so to miss out on that, we knew heading into the 2010 season that we needed to give ourselves every opportunity to not just be there, but to have a chance at the podium.
COLIN HILDING: And being at home in Vancouver, I mean, we've talked to a couple of Canadians who won their medals on home turf. I mean, what was the experience of that? Like, I mean, obviously you'd go on to win medals in Sochi and Pyeongchang as well. I mean, was there anything that compared to just the reaction you got from the crowd being at home in Vancouver?
TESSA VIRTUE: It was so special. And that's what, that really is what every athlete dreams of, to be able to win on home soil and better yet, to have an Olympic Games that was magical in every way. I think no matter what sport you were participating in, what country you came from, Canada was on display. And its way of hosting so graciously was really remarkable. And we were just so proud. We were proud of the country. We were proud of the event that was put on. And so standing on the podium and singing, Oh Canada, with all of those people at the Pacific Coliseum is a memory we'll cherish forever.
COLIN HILDING: And obviously you'd go on to Sochi and you'd win the silver medals. Do you experience that disappointment? Because you hear so many athletes who are like, you know what, I came in fourth, I came in fifth, and it was just amazing to be there. But I have to imagine once you've been at the top, once you've been gold, to do the silver medal in Sochi, like did that just push you harder or you wanted to come back another time? Or were you like satisfied? You know what, we've now got a gold and a silver, let's complete the whole set. Let's go for a bronze eventually.
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, we weren't going for bronze, that's for sure. But you know, we were satisfied in our performances and we tried to think of each Olympic experience as a kind of a unique chapter and in its own silo almost of living that. And at the time, I remember feeling like we were carrying the burden of defending a title. And we thought, you know, if we come back home to Canada with silver medals, that it might be a failure. And I wish that we had recognised earlier that our fellow Canadians really just wanted to see us happy and at our best. And you know, we just, we weren't good enough. We weren't good enough, but we did the very best we possibly could in those moments. And, you know, we walked away from the sport at the time, really thinking that we were content and that we had received kind of that gratification from the sport.
COLIN HILDING: And you know, the funny thing is that it wasn't coming out of Vancouver or, you know, a world championships where you had the most spotlight on you, I feel. I mean, I feel like it was coming out of Sochi where you guys became, these names are just synonymous with sports in general in Canada. I mean, so much so that it wasn't even a stretch that you got your own television show. I mean, I can't think of many Olympians, period, who ended up with their own TV show. I mean, how did that actually come about? And do you even remember that being pitched to you? Like, did you want to do that? Were you hesitant?
TESSA VIRTUE: I think that actually happened before the Sochi Games, the filming of that and the airing. But yeah, we had long wanted to let people into the behind the scenes of what goes on in amateur sport. I think there are a lot of misconceptions, especially with figure skating. It's always something that both Scott and I love watching. We love documentaries. We love seeing people train. We love seeing the intricacies and the teamwork involved, not just the final results and performances. So something we had dreamed of for a while. The timing was interesting in that we knew that to capitalise it needed to be in the lead up to the games, but it wasn't ideal to... We didn't want it to affect our training. And I think in our minds, we really saw it as a sport documentary. And of course, as you know, it took on a bit of a different shape in the end on the Lifestyle Network.
COLIN HILDING: Once you obviously get up to Pyeongchang then, now you're, I guess, you're not defending the gold medal, but you're going for the second gold medal. I mean, ultimately, you would become the most decorated skaters Canada had ever produced. I mean, am I right? It's even, is there anyone else in the world who's won as many medals as the two of you?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, I mean, the introduction of the team event in Sochi really helped us because it was new for figure skaters to be able to go for multiple medals at an Olympic Games. So, you know, it sounds nice, that stat, but we have a bit of a leg up. You know, heading into Pyeongchang was really interesting because we were doing things really on our own terms. We were fully responsible for, you know, our vision. And we had this amazing training team, you know, about 14, between 14 and 20, off by staff members who were helping us achieve these goals. And as mature athletes, I think we just came in with the unique perspective of just wanting to do it in our own way and to savour the process. It wasn't really about even the medal in Pyeongchang. And, you know, I think we both said, when we got on the plane to fly to Korea, our job had almost been done because we were so grateful to have had the chance to put in those two years of the comeback, trying to become the ice dance team we really wanted to be.
COLIN HILDING: At that point, did you know this is probably gonna be our final Olympics? Yes. Had you come home with no medal, you still would have been just as satisfied, you're saying?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, I don't think there was an option for us to continue. I don't think that was on the table for either of us. Felt like we were kind of pushing it as it was. But yeah, of course, when we made the decision to pursue Pyeongchang, we had to come to terms and reconcile with the fact that we might not even get on the podium. We might fail and it might be epic. But that was part of the risk that we were willing to take. I think we wanted to bank on ourselves and count on ourselves and see what we could do.
COLIN HILDING: In a way, that's probably gotta be the best way you could go out too, because there are a ton of athletes, who at the time said, yeah, this is absolutely gonna be my final Olympics ever. And already training for another Olympics, because it didn't quite go the way as planned. But when you go in and you're like, it doesn't matter if we win or not. I mean, that has to be the ideal way. You just have that decision in your head. We're doing this for the sport now. We're doing this for the experience. It doesn't matter if we win. And then you can go out happy.
TESSA VIRTUE: Yes, you're right. Yeah, it sounds so easy when you say it like that.
COLIN HILDING: But had you gotten there and knock out the gold, maybe it could have been a different story. Who knows? But you did get it. I mean, do you have a favourite of the Olympic moments or even include the world championships in there? Which one was the most satisfying for you? Would it be the first? Would it be the last?
TESSA VIRTUE: Hmm, that's a good question. I would have to say Pyeongchang, and I'm not sure if that's just recency bias, but it felt like we were the most sure of ourselves as people and as athletes. We were more prepared than ever before. And I think that was our, you know, our calling card in that we could just, like, we outworked people. And I credit that to our B210 team in Montreal who helped to facilitate that, because in a way we couldn't lose. We really, we mitigated the risk as much as possible, and we believed in our material. We loved our programs. We were ready.
COLIN HILDING: We always ask this question of any medals we have on the show. Do you have a special place you keep your medals?
TESSA VIRTUE: I don't, no.
COLIN HILDING: Nobody does, that's weird.
TESSA VIRTUE: Yeah, I think they're in some, I usually, like, say they're in my software, I really think that that's where they are.
COLIN HILDING: Do you ever use it to, you gain a bit of an advantage, like, when you first got home, or first, I guess, got home from home in Canada, do you ever, like, show the Olympic, hey, Olympic gold medallist here, you know, can I get a free Coke with my fries or something like that?
TESSA VIRTUE: No, I never really felt like that would serve me or get me very far.
COLIN HILDING: Now, I do have to ask you about something else, because last year, I was at Toys R Us shopping for my son's birthday, and I walked past your doll, which to me blew my mind that there's a Canadian Olympic medallist who has their own action figure, doll, whatever you want to call it. I mean, as far as I know, this is also the first time since maybe Barbie and Scott that a Canadian Olympian has actually had their own doll. How did that come about?
TESSA VIRTUE: Well, they recently added some of the hockey women to the roster in the Barbie family, which has been amazing to see. I'm so proud of them. But yeah, I mean, what a moment that was for me. I think everything I do, I strive to empower women and young girls, especially. And I love what Barbie has done in their mission to really help young girls find their self-esteem, their sense of self-worth. And so much of that can be done through play and using our imagination when we're kids. I mean, we know that feeling when you're four or five years old and you think you can grow up and be anything, you can do anything. And I love that. And it's so sad when we lose that, because there are these different societal pressures that are placed on us. So yeah, working with my costume designer to make sure that the likeness was accurate and really seeing the doll come to life, watching my nieces play with it is really special. It's been a really humbling and inspiring collaboration.
COLIN HILDING: And you know, it's funny because I thought about buying that for my nieces too, but then I thought to myself, you know, I've got a four-year-old boy, I've got twins that are turning to him. Like, I wouldn't have a problem with them playing with this. I mean, they'd have an Olympic hero toy to play with, and that's something that I wouldn't want them to eat it or wreck it, so maybe this is a young age for them, but got to pick it up at some point, right?
TESSA VIRTUE: I love that. And boys, girls, it doesn't matter. You know, we can all play, we can all use our imaginations. I think that's the beauty of it.
COLIN HILDING: Now that you have moved on and you're not skating with Scott anymore, do you guys still keep in touch? Is it weird for you to not be seeing each other and working with each other every single day? I mean, it's weird for me when I leave a job after five years, and this is, you know, the majority of your life.
TESSA VIRTUE: Mm-hmm. It is strange. I think it's helped, you know, on my end, that I'm not in the skating sphere as much anymore. So, you know, were I walking into an arena every day, that would feel inordinately odd and just wrong. But, you know, it's been nice to keep in touch and, you know, continue to build this friendship in a very different way. We've put in the work. We've achieved success together as business partners, and now we can just watch one another kind of thrive and pursue new passions, and it's fun to play that supporting role.
COLIN HILDING: We do run through a final series of questions here that we ask all the guests, and I actually assumed that you would have had one on here. We're still waiting for that, but Team Canada's website before every Olympics, they do this thing called My Name Is, where they get the athletes to fill out in their handwriting and everything, a series of questions. Some of them sports oriented, some of them fun. Draw pictures. We obviously can't have you draw pictures, but I would have thought that you would have had one on there, but apparently you don't. We can get your answers here based off of, who do I have as the base here? We're using Eric Radford's questionnaire here. Quickfire questions to sort of give us first thing off the top of your head. First off, my favourite Olympic moment is, I mean, you kind of already said Pyeongchang.
TESSA VIRTUE: Oh, of my own or someone else's?
COLIN HILDING: Go with your own, I think.
TESSA VIRTUE: Okay, because I was going to say there are just so many Canadian moments. I'm such an Olympic junkie, so I can probably more easily list off someone else's. Yeah, Pyeongchang, Free Dance.
COLIN HILDING: If I could have any superpower, it would be?
TESSA VIRTUE: To teleport.
COLIN HILDING: That's a little bit, Eric Radford put molecular telekinesis, which I'm trying to figure out, does that mean teleporting? But I'm teleporting. Believe it or not, teleporting comes up more than flying on this show. I think that's the most popular superpower. My favourite sports movie is?
TESSA VIRTUE: favourite sports movie.
COLIN HILDING: There was one figure skating one, The Cutting Edge. We had Jill Officer answer. That was Jill Officer's answer, too. It wasn't a curling movie. Yeah, it was the figure skating movie.
TESSA VIRTUE: Does Bend It Like Beckham count?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'd write that as a sports movie. My funniest childhood memory is? You have any really funny childhood memories you can remember? Oh.
TESSA VIRTUE: I mean, I was a bruiser, so I was always into something. I was always active. My brothers would enlist my sister and I to play backyard baseball very often, but there were also these intricate body checking plays when there was snow in the backyard, and they would map out these routes, and I'd have to run a certain path, catch a football, and then be body checked. I thought that was so fun. I'm not sure why that was just the first thing that came to my mind when you mentioned little T as a kid.
COLIN HILDING: And you survived. That's the important part. I'm interested to see if you have one for this. My favourite pump up song is, do you have anything you'll listen to, not so much when you're skating, but just before you get out there, just kind of work yourself up?
TESSA VIRTUE: Yes, in Vancouver, it was Run This Town by Jay-Z and Rihanna, and in Pyeongchang, it was Unstoppable by Sia.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, wow. I'm so happy you picked Rihanna. That's one of my favourites.
TESSA VIRTUE: I also love the Eminem To Like Collapse. I used to listen to that a lot when I was going into the room to do Double Run Thrust.
COLIN HILDING: Which Eminem?
TESSA VIRTUE: The Till I Collapse.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, okay. I thought you meant you were listening to an Eminem song Till You Collapse. It must have been a really good song. But you listened to Till I Collapse, Until You Collapse, yes.
TESSA VIRTUE: Yes, and then I went on the ice and collapsed.
COLIN HILDING: This is where I get my recommendations for when I'm on vacation like this. The most recent TV show I binge watched is?
TESSA VIRTUE: I don't watch a ton of TV, so I'm trying to think.
COLIN HILDING: It wasn't Tessa and Scott.
TESSA VIRTUE: Oh, I never watched that, actually. Line of Duty?
COLIN HILDING: Line of Duty? Oh, yeah, I've seen that on Netflix. I wanted to check that one out. And last question here, which is always an important one, to you, who is the greatest Olympian of all time? And you are allowed to answer yourself, but feel free to answer somebody else.
TESSA VIRTUE: Oh, my. Oh, I mean, Clara is an obvious answer. I mean, the fact that I just need one first names for those two is a challenge. Marnie McBean was a mentor, Olympic rower. She was a mentor of ours, and I credit a lot of our success to her really wise insights. So that's my podium of phenomenal Canadian women.
COLIN HILDING: And like you said, all you have to do is mention the first name, which you're in that category, too. I mean, is that weird for you that people don't need to know your last name? They just say Tessa and Scott, and they know who you are?
TESSA VIRTUE: That's very kind. I'm not sure anymore.
COLIN HILDING: Before we go, just let people know, what are you up to right now? Is there a way people can follow you online? Anything you want to plug?
TESSA VIRTUE: I mean, nothing in particular. I'm just kind of working away. I'm studying. I'm doing my MBA, and just started a real job at one of Canada's leading consulting firms. And yeah, I'm just trying to hustle away, learn as much as I possibly can, and continue to navigate kind of the next career path.
COLIN HILDING: And do you still skate just for fun?
TESSA VIRTUE: I don't, really, no.
COLIN HILDING: Really?
TESSA VIRTUE: I like getting on the ice, and I've been mentoring a couple of teams, and I like getting on the ice and kind of diving into skating skills and detail work with expression and things like that. I really, really love that. But it's not often, especially right now, what a weird time. It's not often that I would just pack up my skates and head to a rink.
COLIN HILDING: Well, Tessa, as we said, we've been talking for years. You're one of the top guests we have to get on the show. So pleased to have you here today. And yeah, I mean, if at any point in the future you want to come back on, do a commentary or something like that for the Beijing Olympics. You're more than welcome.
TESSA VIRTUE: Thank you so much for having me.
COLIN HILDING: And huge thanks to Tessa for being on the show here today. As I said, right at the beginning, we're getting very close to the Summer Games now, as it's been about a year since it was originally supposed to be out. We've continued to fill the time. We're gonna continue to fill the time in the next two months or so, until the Summer Games are finally here. We do have more athlete interviews that are coming your way soon. We're not gonna announce exactly who we're bringing on next, because it's still up in the air. There's a couple of interviews that they're working out right now, but we are hoping to bring you athletes from sports we've never talked to before, which has just been great to do that, to discover new sports. Some of these athletes you might actually see in the next two months, whenever we actually get to Tokyo, fingers crossed, get to Tokyo. So just so you don't miss it, make sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, wherever you can find us. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, whatever you need to do to keep up to date on all the stuff we're bringing you as we get very, very close. I'll continue to say very, very close to the Tokyo Olympics. I'm crossing my fingers very close to the Tokyo Olympics. Thank you for joining us, and we will be back soon with another interview on Off The Podium.
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